Suite 3200 – SFU Harbour Centre 515 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6B 5K3 Phone: or (in BC) Fax:

May 3, 2005 Internet2 Slide 2 BCNET – small regional, big province in a big country

May 3, 2005 Internet2 Slide 3 BCNET in 2010 Sustain and enhance the Next Generation Research and Education Network for the Province of BC Improve and expand world class networking facilities connecting researchers from the BC interior to the coast to the world fully in place by Emphasis on Technology Excellence

May 3, 2005 Internet2 Slide 4 BCNET 2010 Why R&E networks? What is BCNET 2010? Why is BCNET 2010 necessary? What is the BCNET ORAN? What is a transit exchange? What is the goal of BCNET 2010? What will BCNET 2010 look like? Who are BCNET 2010’s partners? What are the next steps?

May 3, 2005 Internet2 Slide 5 What is BCNET 2010? BCNET 2010 is a next generation network for research and education within the province. Expands/upgrades the existing Optical Regional Advanced Network (ORAN) within the province. Consists of a set of high speed links (“lightpaths”) connecting universities and institutes in Vancouver, Victoria, Prince George, Kelowna, Surrey and Kamloops. In place and fully operational by 2010

May 3, 2005 Internet2 Slide 6 Why regional R&E networks? Research  High bandwidth for big science – move data  Enhance collaboration  New network technology – network research Teaching  Distributed education, remote course delivery, etc.  Library services Community Service  Connecting students, faculty, staff - importance of eyeball networks in local communities  Getting to the local library, local schools, homes are of MAJOR importance (but maybe not to techies)  Providing assistance to the local community to move technology forward, enhance economic development

May 3, 2005 Internet2 Slide 7 XRNET BCNET is giving 2 strands (spares) to ECE depts at member campuses to be used by network researchers exclusively Engineering trace capture boxes (argus) at TXs. Anderson, Peterson, Shenker, and Turner (2005)  Most current Internet research involves either empirical measurement studies or incremental modifications that can be deployed without major architectural changes. Easy access to virtual testbeds could foster a renaissance in applied architectural research that extends beyond these incrementally deployable designs.  Instead of being satisfied with paper designs that have no future, the design community should return to its roots of applied architectural research with the intention of once again changing the world.  Before they can even consider deployment of a proposed architecture, researchers must adequately evaluate it. Although simulation and emulation are valuable tools for understanding new designs, they cannot substitute for experimentation with live traffic.  We dare not simply complain about our current impasse we must directly confront and overcome it.

May 3, 2005 Internet2 Slide 8 BCNET ORAN principles Building blocks  Use of community dark fibre in local metro networks  Creation of transit exchanges in local communities – EVERY local community  Connecting exchanges with lightpaths Features  Allows ANYTHING – L1, L2, L3  Emphasis on easy local peering and multihoming  Exchanges are open to ALL  R&E networks are simply private networks using community fibre infrastructure and interexchange wavelengths.  Creates a marketplace per metro area, driving down costs, making interconnects easy

May 3, 2005 Internet2 Slide 9 What is the BCNET ORAN? The BCNET ORAN interconnects the campuses of UBC, UVIC, SFU, UNBC, and BCIT to CA*net4 and the world-wide higher education community.  Royal Roads, NRC Herzberg Institute, Emily Carr Institute, and the provincial government’s SPAN-BC network were also connected.  Academic health centres in Vancouver, Victoria, and Prince George have also been connected to support the expanded medical program.  The inter-institutional Great Northern Way Campus has also been linked to the network, helping BCIT, SFU, UBC, and ECI create new programs at the facility. The ORAN (completed in 2002) has been a success. It has delivered what was promised, stayed within budget, and delivered best-in-class connectivity to the north, as well as to the rest of the world for our research institutions in the province. Federal funding (CANARIE) helped to defray the cost of metropolitan fibre networks in Vancouver, Prince George, and Victoria.  Dedicated fibre cable runs from each campus to downtown locations in Vancouver, Victoria, and Prince George.  The fibre cable was obtained from Urban Networks and the City of Prince George, and BCNET its member institutions have the rights to use the cable for over 25 years. This ensured long term, low cost, high quality network connectivity in support of research and teaching to campuses in these cities. The provincial government funded connecting three metro centres together with high speed links.  2 gigabit per second link from Vancouver to Prince George  10 gigabit per second link from Vancouver to Victoria.

May 3, 2005 Internet2 Slide 10 The BCNET ORAN

May 3, 2005 Internet2 Slide 11 Connecting communities: The Transit Exchange Transit exchanges allow munis to provide FACILITIES without providing SERVICES. Gets around the Philly problem. A community network consists of providers + fibre facilities. Transit links (not a bus ) connect this network to the outside world. An exchange allows the local community easily and economically to support many transit links. The transit exchange is the new central office, without the telephone system hierarchy. Can be thought of as an open central office. Supplier networks interconnect exchanges. These suppliers have variability in their connection fabrics. The equivalent to free local calling (peering) occurs within exchanges. Transit exchanges are the building blocks of new networks.  Paul Vixie: there should be an exchange in every community size 50k, maybe in the basement of a bank building.

May 3, 2005 Internet2 Slide 12 VANTX – Universities/Institutes

May 3, 2005 Internet2 Slide 13 VANTX – R&E Affiliates

May 3, 2005 Internet2 Slide 14 VANTX – Providers

May 3, 2005 Internet2 Slide 15 PGTX Prince George is a town of 50k in northern BC. UNBC is a university of 3k students outside of town. Partnership  City, UNBC, BCNET Located at City Hall  Next to the library  Really close to the school district, high school, … Fibre from UNBC to the TX ORAN OC48 link connects to the TX at City Hall  Instead of directly to UNBC  Provides for community benefit – the library, health authority, and others have easy access to the ORAN link. Community involvement key  University, City, Library, Health Authority  Next step: possible community ownership with BCNET providing operational support.

May 3, 2005 Internet2 Slide 16 PGTX

May 3, 2005 Internet2 Slide 17 Benefits of TXs TXs in communities  Encourages competition, driving down prices  Builds technological centre  Can provide a hub to attrach hi-tech business  Allows a platform for application service providers TXs as regional hubs  Remote facilities could backhaul to regional TX (eg, Kelowna)  Keep local traffic as regional as possible Houston and Quesnel to PG rather than Vancouver  Allow remote community ISP (and maybe end users) larger choice of providers at TX, rather than only the ones who can get to the community.  TX location and number can be a function of regional demand. TXs are independent  could be privately owned and operated  Equinix, Exodus in the US  InvisibleHand Networks  Bandwidth Exchange in Europe  NetworkBC, BCNET as a user of TXs rather than operator Provide incentive for muni fibre networks  Allows city to provide cabling only and staying out of the service business

May 3, 2005 Internet2 Slide 18 What is the goal of BCNET 2010? BCNET 2010 will support research and teaching at our universities and institutes by connecting all major campuses (including academic health centres) with gigabit lightpaths. A lightpath is a dedicated gigabit per second network link to interconnect scientific equipment, instruments, sensors, computing devices, cameras, and databases, to name a few uses. Lightpaths are constructed using advanced network facilities and equipment, and provide researchers and educators with dedicated services.

May 3, 2005 Internet2 Slide 19 What will BCNET 2010 look like?

May 3, 2005 Internet2 Slide 20 BCNET 2010 Partnerships Partnerships are key to building and sustaining the advanced network over the longer term.  NetworkBC and the provincial government  Research and Education Organizations  Telecommunications Suppliers Local communities  BCNET 2010 has the support of local communities, and especially those in the heartlands of the province: Kelowna, Kamloops, and Prince George. Important piece of local infrastructure Encourage economic development Help growth of the information technology sector.  Kelowna TX will connect the local library, hospital, and other municipal facilities to UBCO. These sites will also be able to take advantage of BCNET 2010 lightpaths as a result of the existing infrastructure.  Kelowna and Kamloops will benefit directly from BCNET 2010 The university, hospital, city and library will all stand to benefit directly Other high tech companies can connect to the exchange as well. Knits local groups together to share/create content and conduct business efficiently.

May 3, 2005 Internet2 Slide 21 BCNET 2010 Network Plans BCNET 2010 is planning the following:  High speed links connecting Prince George, Victoria, Kelowna, Kamloops, Surrey and Vancouver.  New metro network connections for institutions in Kelowna, Surrey, and Kamloops.  New transit exchanges in Kelowna, Surrey, and Kamloops.  New connection from BCIT aerospace campus to the VANTX. The lightpath network will be provided by a major intra- province supplier, such as Telus, Bell, Shaw, MTS/AllStream, Sprint, etc.  Four or more lightpaths to Victoria.  One or more lightpaths to Kelowna.  One or more lightpaths to Prince George.  One or more lightpaths to Kamloops.

May 3, 2005 Internet2 Slide 22 BCNET 2010 Next Steps Funding has been announced from the Ministry of Advanced Education  $3M for fibre builds  Some yearly funding for intercity lightpaths, with most committed in Project manager hired New sites listed in CANARIE RFP to close in May  Hope to obtain fibre from existing supplier TX sites in Kelowna and Kamloops have been tentatively chosen  Kelowna – Landmark Centre  Kamloops – City Hall UBCO and TRU connectivity needed for late fall