The UltraLight Program UltraLight: An Overview and Update Shawn McKee University of Michigan

UltraLight Topics Introduction: What is the UltraLight Program? History Program Goals and Details Current Status and Summary

What is UltraLight? UltraLight is a program to explore the integration of cutting-edge network technology with the grid computing and data infrastructure of HEP/Astronomy The program intends to explore network configurations from common shared infrastructure (current IP networks) thru dedicated optical paths point-to-point. A critical aspect of UltraLight is its integration with two driving application domains in support of their national and international eScience collaborations: LHC-HEP and eVLBI-Astronomy The Collaboration includes: Caltech Florida Int. Univ. MIT Univ. of Florida Univ. of Michigan UC Riverside BNL FNAL SLAC UCAID/Internet2

Some History… The UltraLight Collaboration was originally formed in Spring 2003 in response to an NSF Experimental Infrastructure in Networking (EIN) RFP in ANIR After not being selected, the program was refocused on LHC/HEP and eVLBI/Astronomy and submitted to “Physics at the Information Frontier” (PIF) in MPS at NSF Collaboration was notified at the end of 2003 that the PIF program was being postponed 1 year. Suggested that proposals be redirected to the NSF ITR program. ITR Deadline is February 25th, 2004.

HENP Network Roadmap LHC Physics will require large bandwidth capability over a globally distributed network. The HENP Bandwidth Roadmap is shown in the table below:

eVLBI and UltraLight e-VLBI is a major thrust of UltraLight and can directly complement LHC-HEPs mode of using the network, allowing us to explore new strategies for network conditioning and bandwidth management. The e-VLBI work under this proposal will be multi-pronged in an effort to leverage the many new capabilities provided by UltraLight network and to provide the national and international VLBI community with advanced tools and services that are tailored to the e-VLBI application. e-VLBI stands to benefit from an UltraLight infrastructure in numerous ways: Higher sensitivity Faster turnaround Lower costs Quick diagnostics and tests New correlation methods e-VLBI will provide a different eScience perspective and validate the operation and efficiency of network bandwidth sharing between disparate scientific groups

UltraLight Architecture UltraLight envisions extending and augmenting the existing grid computing infrastructure (currently focused on CPU/storage) to include the network as an integral component. A second aspect is strengthening and extending “end-to-end” monitoring and planning

UltraLight Proposal Outline

Workplan and Phased Deployment UltraLight envisions a 4 year program to deliver a new, high-performance, network-integrated infrastructure: Phase I will last 12 months and focus on deploying the initial network infrastructure and bringing up first services Phase II will last 18 months and concentrate on implementing all the needed services and extending the infrastructure to additional sites Phase III will complete UltraLight and last 18 months. The focus will be on a transition to production in support of LHC Physics and eVLBI Astronomy

UltraLight Network: PHASE I Implementation via “sharing” with HOPI/NLR MIT not yet “optically” coupled

UltraLight Network: PHASE II Move toward multiple “lambdas” Bring in BNL and MIT

UltraLight Network: PHASE III Move into production Optical switching fully enabled amongst primary sites Integrated international infrastructure

Equipment and Interconnects The UltraLight optical switching topology is shown UltraLight plans to integrate data caches and CPU resources to provide integration testing and optimization

UltraLight Network UltraLight is a hybrid packet- and circuit-switched network infrastructure employing ultrascale protocols and dynamic building of optical paths to provide efficient fair-sharing on long range networks up to the 10 Gbps range, while protecting the performance of real-time streams and enabling them to coexist with massive data transfers. Circuit switched: “Intelligent photonics” (using wavelengths dynamically to construct and tear down wavelength paths rapidly and on demand through cost-effective wavelength routing) are a natural match to the peer-to-peer interactions required to meet the needs of leading-edge, data-intensive science. Packet switched: Many applications can effectively utilize the existing, cost effective networks provided by shared packet switched infrastructure. A subset of applications require more stringent guarantees than a best-effort network can provide, and so we are planning to utilize MPLS as an itermediate option

MPLS Topology Current network engineering knowledge is insufficient to predict what combination of “best-effort” packet switching, QoS-enabled packet switching, MPLS and dedicated circuits will be most effective in supporting these applications. We will use MPLS and other modes of bandwidth management, along with dynamic adjustments of optical paths and their provisioning, in order to develop the means to optimize end-to-end performance among a set of virtualized disk servers, a variety of real-time processes, and other traffic flows.

Logical Diagram of UltraLight Grid Enabled Analysis An “UltraLight” user’s perspective of the system: Important to note that the system helps interpret and optimize itself while “summarizing” the details for ease of use

Summary and Status UltraLight promises to deliver the critical missing component for future eScience: the integrated, managed network We have a strong team in place, as well as a detailed plan, to provide the needed infrastructure and services for production use by LHC turn-on at the end of 2007 Currently we are preparing the proposal for ITR submission by February 25, 2004 We will need to augment the proposal with additional grants to enable us to reach our goal of having UltraLight be a pervasive and effective infrastructure for LHC physics and eVLBI Astronomy

Questions? (or Answers)?