Keeping up with the RONses Mark Johnson Internet2 Member Meeting May 3, 2005

Facilities-based networks Regional networks can afford the first lambda Evolution from point solutions (gigapops) to network solutions (RONs) Return to circuit-based systems –Telco hierarchy -> ATM PVCs -> Light Paths

Why do we want to do this? Underlying assumption that big science needs big performance Ever increasing importance of collaboration, particularly international Cost control/avoidance for commodity services Lambda envy Scaling

BW requirements #users#users C A B ADSL GigE A.Lightweight users, browsing, mailing, home use Need full Internet routing, one to many B.Business applications, multicast, streaming, VPN’s, mostly LAN Need VPN services and full Internet routing, several to several + uplink C.Special scientific applications, computing, data grids, virtual-presence Need very fat pipes, limited multiple Virtual Organizations, few to few Σ A ≈ 20 Gb/s Σ B ≈ 40 Gb/s  Σ C >> 100 Gb/s

Impact of e-Science and Grids on Networks* Several lambda networks being deployed to support growing demand from eScience –SURFnet 6, UKlight, NorduLight, Geant 2, NLR, Ultralight, etc E-science and grid application have bandwidth needs far exceed that of production IP networks Most entail global collaboration and linkages Canadian astronomy – 100 Terabytes per month TRIUMF High energy physics – 5 Gbps continuous to CERN Canada Light Source synchrotron – 1 to 2 Gbps per beam line Ultra video conferencing McGill – 3.5 Gbps Hyugens-Cassini eVLBI – 1Gbps Merlin UK eVLBI – 320 GBps *from Bill St Arnaud

The World Is Flat Typical competitors for RON members are not –Boston, Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, … The competition is global –Bangalore, Mumbai, Shanghai, Seoul, … Costs of information flow –are approaching zero Global economic winners will –have a better trained workforce –have the ability to participate globally –be horizontally, not vertically integrated nobody is best at everything

So What’s Happening? At least 26 RON projects in 40+ states Nearly 30,000 miles of fiber collectively Providing: –Internet / Internet2 access Peering for R&E and commodity –Circuits (often gigabit Ethernet) Overlay networks Lots of learning the stuff the telcos know –FIT values, TL-1, etc

NLR Infrastructure Not a single network but a set of facilities, capabilities and services to build both experimental and production networks at various layers, allowing members to acquire dedicated (project specific) facilities or shared (community specific) facilities as appropriate.

Facilities-Based Regional Optical Networks

ORNL Cogent Abilene SoX ESNET ATDNET MAX MAE-East COGENT ESNET