1. Internet2 Network of the Future
Steve Corbató
Director, Backbone Network Infrastructure
CANARIE Advanced Networking Workshop
Toronto
27 November 2001
This is a general overview presentation about Internet2. Internet2 is a consortium, led by US universities, which is recreating the partnership among academia, industry and government that fostered today’s Internet in its infancy.

2. Internet2 Network of the Future
Current state of Abilene
Evolution of optical networking
Next phase of Abilene
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3. Abilene background & milestones
Abilene is a UCAID project in partnership with
Qwest Communications (SONET service)
Nortel Networks (SONET kit)
Cisco Systems (routers)
Indiana University (network operations)
ITECs in North Carolina and Ohio (test and evaluation)
Timeline
Apr 1998: Project announced at White House
Jan 1999: Production status for network
Oct 1999: IP version of HDTV (215 Mbps) over Abilene
Apr 2001: First state education network added
Jun 2001: Participation reaches all 50 states & D.C.
Nov 2001: Raw HDTV/IP (1.5 Gbps) over Abilene
Partnerships are the foundation of how the Internet developed and they are also a part of the foundation of Internet2.
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4. Abilene focus
Enabling innovative applications and services not possible over the commercial Internet
Advanced service efforts
Multicast
IPv6
QoS
Measurement
Security
DDoS detection efforts (Arbor Networks & Asta Networks)
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5. Abilene status – November, 2001
IP-over-SONET (OC-48c) backbone
54 direct connections
3 OC-48c (2.5 Gbps) connections
22 will connect via at least OC-12c (622 Mbps) by year end
200+ primary participants
All 50 states, District of Columbia, & now Puerto Rico
15 regional GigaPoPs support ~70% of participants
37 sponsored participants
15 state education networks (SEGPs)
Collaboration of sponsoring member universities and Abilene connectors
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7. International connectivity
Transoceanic R&E bandwidths growing!
Key international exchange points facilitated by Internet2 membership and the U.S. scientific community
STARTAP & STAR LIGHT – Chicago
Pacific Wave – Seattle
Abilene now has GigE connectivity to both SL and P/WAVE
AMPATH – Miami
New York City – GigE/10GigE EP under development
CA*NET3: Seattle, Chicago, and New York
CUDI: CENIC and Univ. of Texas at El Paso
International transit service
Collaboration with CA*NET3 and STARTAP
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8. Measurement and DDoS Traffic characterization (Ohio ITEC)
Network utilization by state education networks and AITN
Abilene Scavenger Service policing
GigaPoP pair hotspot identification
Passive measurement
Planned for Indianapolis router backbone links
Collaboration with SDSC/MOAT group
Distributed Denial of Service detection
Strong IU Global NOC interest
Asta Networks (UCSD/U of Washington roots)
Arbor Networks (U of Michigan/Merit roots)
Data privacy and anonymity policy
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9. Abilene & SCxy Emblematic of ongoing support for HPC
Annually escalating bandwidth
SC Portland: OC-12c SONET (622 Mbps)
SC2000 Dallas: OC-48c SONET (2.5 Gbps)
SC2001 Denver: xOC-48c SONET (5 Gbps)
SC2002 Baltimore: 10-Gbps  (planned)
SCxy transit connectivity offered to domestic & international R&E nets
Backbone MTU raised to 9K bytes
Traffic engineering for SC2001
End-to-End Performance: GigaTCP testing
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10. Abilene traffic engineering – SC2002
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11. Network of the Future: Context for the next backbone
Computational science as an emerging interdisciplinary field
Bandwidth and distributed sensing capability as the next critical parameters
Complement CPU, memory & storage
Increasingly distributed data collection and storage
NSF Distributed Terascale Facility solicitation
Emergence of optical technologies
Dense Wave Division Multiplexing (DWDM)
Important distinction: optical transport vs. switching
Much new transcontinental conduit and fiber in place; a lot of business plans abandoned…
Glut of fiber & conduit – but not bandwidth
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12. Current state of optical networking
Dense Wave Division Multiplexing (DWDM)
Current systems can support > Gbps ’s (1.6 Tbps!)
Optical growth can overwhelm Moore’s Law (routers)
Costs scale dramatically with distance
Three possible scenarios for the future
Enhanced IP transport (higher BW and circuit multiplicity)
Fine-grained traffic engineering
p2p links between campuses, HPC centers, & Gigapops
Physical manifestation of switched circuits (a la ATM SVCs)
Evolution of optical switching will be critical
Leading international efforts in R&E exploration
The Netherlands, Canada, STAR LIGHT (Chicago)
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13. National optical networking options
1 - Incremental wavelengths
Provision 10-Gbps ’s from provider(s) in the same way that SONET circuits are done for Abilene now
Exploit smaller incremental cost of additional ’s
2 - Dim Fiber
Partnership with a facilities-based provider
Acquisition of fiber IRU and subsequent O&M agreement for inter-PoP services (amplifiers, regenerators, DWD MUXes?)
BSA’s metro condominium fiber concept on the national scale
National footprint of 1-2 fiber pairs
IRU for the fiber alone could cost $10-20M
Most likely awaits the availability of lower-cost optical transmission equipment
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14. Future of Abilene Original UCAID/Qwest MoU amended on October 1, 2001
Extension of Qwest’s original commitment to Abilene for another 5 years – 10/01/2006
Originally expired March, 2003
Upgrade of Abilene backbone to optical transport capability - ’s
x4 increase in the core backbone bandwidth
OC-48c SONET (2.5 Gbps) to 10-Gbps DWDM
Capability for flexible provisioning of ’s to support future point-to-point experimentation & other projects
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15. Key aspects of next backbone - I
Native IPv6
Motivations
Resolving IPv4 address exhaustion issues
Preservation of the original End-to-End Architecture model
p2p collaboration tools, reverse trend to CO-centrism
International collaboration
Router and host OS capabilities
Run natively - concurrent with IPv4
Replicate multicast deployment strategy
Close collaboration with Internet2 IPv6 Working Group on regional and campus v6 rollout
Addressing architecture
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16. Key aspects of the backbone - II
Network resiliency
Abilene ’s will not be protected a la SONET
Increasing use of videoconferencing/VoIP impose tighter restoration requirements (<100 ms)
Options:
Currently: MPLS/TE fast reroute
Would prefer IP-based IGP fast convergence
Addition of new measurement capabilities
Enhance active probing
Latency & jitter, loss, TCP throughput
Add passive measurement taps
Support of Internet2 End-to-End Performance Initiative
Intermediate performance beacons
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17. Next generation network deployment
October, 2001: Detailed technical design starts
Spring 2002: PoP upgrades start
deployment in three phases
April, 2002 – Phase 1
October, 2002 – Phase 2
April, 2003 – Phase 3
October Completion of 10-Gbps upgrade
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18. Network design overview
Overall next generation topology is expected to be very similar to current design
Previous iterations to router locations
Washington DC, Chicago, Sunnyvale, Houston
A few differences expected due to Qwest DWDM topology
Expect same number of backbone routers (12)
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19. Regional optical fanout
Next generation architecture: Regional & state based optical networking projects are critical
three-level hierarchy: Backbone, GigaPoPs/ARNs, campuses
Leading examples
CENIC ONI (California), I-WIRE (Illinois),
SURA Crossroads (Southeastern U.S), Indiana, Ohio
Collaboration with the Quilt
Regional Optical Networking project
U.S. carrier DWDM access is now not nearly as widespread as with SONET circa 1998
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20. The Quilt
A UCAID project support regional advanced networking initiatives
15 charter GigaPoPs (2 more have joined since)
Connections typically support 4 or more research universities
EDUCAUSE and SURA
Quilt GigaPoPs support over 70% of Abilene participants
Initial projects
Commodity Internet Services
Regional Optical Networking (ties into Internet2 NoF)
Measurement (ties into Internet2 E2E Performance)
Led by Wendy Huntoon (Pittsburgh SC/CMU)
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21. Conclusions Abilene future
UCAID’s partnership with Qwest extended through 2006
Backbone to be upgraded to 10-Gbps in three phases starting spring 2002
Capability for flexible  provisioning in support of future experimentation in optical networking
Overall approach to the new technical design and business plan is for an incremental, non-disruptive transition
Follow-on network most likely will be developed around a national dark fiber facility and will utilize next generation optical transport technology
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22. For more information
Web:
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