GENI Global Environment for Network Innovation James Williams Director – International Networking Director – Operational Assurance TransPAC2 Principal Investigator Indiana University williams@indiana.edu

The Most Important Things!!! The GENI web site: www.geni.net This contains the most current information about GENI. This is also a GENI discussion list you can join. The NSF GENI web site: http://www.nsf.gov/cise/geni/

Some general information An important person in the GENI effort is Larry Peterson of Princeton. Peterson is the PlanetLab PI See: http://www.planet-lab.org/ Many of the ideas from PlanetLab have influenced GENI

From the NSF GENI page http://www.nsf.gov/cise/geni/ The GENI Initiative envisions the creation of new networking and distributed system architectures that, for example: Build in security and robustness; Enable the vision of pervasive computing and bridge the gap between the physical and virtual worlds by including mobile, wireless and sensor networks; Enable control and management of other critical infrastructures; Include ease of operation and usability; Enable new classes of societal-level services and applications.

Why is such an initiative needed? The character of the internet has fundamentally changed from its creation as a tool for network researchers. As an example, in the early days, the character of traffic on the internet was “friendly”. That is no longer the case. Another example, the internet was initially designed as a mechanism for people to “log in” remotely to timeshare systems. That is no longer the case… A final example, the early internet was a many-to-one system, today the internet is a one-to-one system and moving toward a one-to-many system. But, the architecture of the internet remains relatively the same.

Why is such an initiative needed? (2) The current evolution of the internet is incremental, as it must be… GENI will attempt to encourage development of technologies that make fundamental changes in the internet.

Two Aspects to GENI From the NSF GENI page… The GENI Initiative includes: A research program A global experimental facility designed to explore new architectures at scale.

What are the GENI research areas? Must distinguish between the research activity and the facility that supports that research. The GENI facility is currently being defined. This presentation and the web sites mentioned before all refer to the GENI facility, not the research that will be done on the facility.

What do we mean by facility? The GENI facility will play the same role for network researchers that a telescope plays for astronomers. It will be much more fundamental and multi-purpose than a testbed (not purpose built). It will exist and be controllable at multiple levels/layers (optical and up).

From the GENI FAQ …GENI will be a general-purpose facility that places essentially no limits on the network architectures, services, and applications that can be evaluated. … GENI will be designed to allow both clean-slate designs and experimentation with real users under real-world conditions. … GENI will represent a model in which incremental adoption of new services drives wide-spread deployment.

What??? At the physical level, GENI will consist of a collection of physical networking components, including links, forwarders, storage and processor clusters, and wireless subnets. These resources are collectively called the GENI substrate. On top of this substrate, the GENI management framework will overlay network experiments on the substrate, where each experiment is said to run in a slice of the substrate. Again see: www.planet-lab.org

So… One might think of the GENI facility as a global environment for network innovations… This would include widely diverse experiments in areas such as with wireless technology, protocol research, optical switching technology and security policy. By virtue of the “sliceable nature” of GENI, these experiments could be running simultaneously. They may agree to interact with each other. Or, they may operate totally separately.

How will GENI be funded? A series of preliminary discussions regarding GENI are being funded by the NSF. It is expected that the research done on the GENI facility will be funded in the standard manner The facility itself will require significant new funding from a variety of sources including the NSF, university partners and commercial partners.

When will GENI “be real”? The GENI facility is a very large, long-term, ambitious project. Cost estimates for the facility alone are $300M+ over a 5-10 year period. These are certainly low. Funding such a project is always a challenge. That said, there is significant momentum for the project. I do not have (I am not certain anyone has) access to accurate information about funding timelines for GENI. This is the difficult area where technology and politics meet.

How can I participate in GENI? As an individual, monitor the GENI website and participate in the GENI discussions. As an official entity, make appropriate contact with the US NSF.

More from the NSF GENI website CISE has supported numerous community workshops and is supporting on-going planning efforts, including needs assessment and requirements for the GENI Facility. CISE will hold town meetings and continue to support future workshops to broaden community participation. CISE will work with industry, other US agencies, and international groups to broaden participation in GENI beyond NSF and the US government.

And remember…. www.geni.net Questions If I can be of any assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me. Jim Williams williams@indiana.edu 812-327-6839 And remember…. www.geni.net