National Networking Update Basil Irwin Senior Network Engineer National Center for Atmospheric Research SCD Network Engineering and Technology Section (NETS) January 27, 1999

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National Networking UpdateBasil IrwinSenior
Network EngineerNational Center for Atmospheric
ResearchSCD Network Engineering and Technology
Section (NETS) January 27, 1999
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Summary of Topics

• Review status of Next Generation Internet (NGI)
  Initiative
• Review status of NSFs vBNS Network
• Review status of UCAIDs Abilene Network
  (Internet2)
• Review the Gigapop concept
• Review Front Range GigaPop (FRGP) status

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NGI Initiative Review
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What Is the NGI Initiative?

• The NGI Initiative is a plan to implement the
  President's Oct 10, 1996 statement in Knoxville,
  TN of his "commitment to a new 100 million
  initiative, for the first year, to improve and
  expand the Internet . . .
• The Next Generation Internet (NGI) IS NOT a
  network
• Its a Presidential funding initiative
• The next step in Federal funding for seeding the
  evolving US networking infrastructure
• Goal was to provide 100 million annual
  initiative of money for 3 years
• Plan is at www.ccic.gov/ngi/concept-Jul97

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How Will The NGI Initiative Work

• Federal research agencies with existing
  mission-oriented networks to take the lead
• Built on Federal/private partnerships
• Between advanced technology researchers and
  advanced application researchers
• Between federally-funded network testbeds and
  commercial network service and equipment
  providers
• Requires substantial private-sector matching
  funds.
• Two to one ratio of private to Federal funds

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FY1998 Funding

• 85 million
• 42 DARPA
• 23 NSF
• 10 NASA
• 5 NIST
• 5 National Library of Medicine/National
  Institute of Health
• DOE to be added in FY1999
• 109 million proposed for FY1999

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Three NGI Initiative Goals

• Main NGI goal is to advance three networking
  areas
• Goal 1 Advanced network technologies (e.g.,
  protocols to transfer data that is being browsed)
• Goal 2 Advanced network infrastructure (e.g.,
  wires and boxes that transmit the browsed data)
• Goal 3 Revolutionary applications (e.g., Web
  browsers)

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Goal 1 Advanced Network Technologies

• Advanced technologies
• Quality of service (QOS)
• Security and robustness
• Net management, including bandwidth allocation
  and sharing
• System engineering tools, metrics, statistics,
  and analysis
• New or modified protocols routing, switching,
  multicast, security, etc.
• Collaborative and distributed application
  environment support
• Operating system improvements to support advanced
  services
• Achieved by funding university, Federal, and
  industry RD to develop and deploy advanced
  services
• Done in open environment, utilizing IETF, ATM
  Forum, etc.

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Goal 2 Network Infrastructure

• Subgoal 1 Develop demo net fabric that delivers
  100 Mbps end-to-end to 100 interconnected sites
• Accomplished by collaboration of Federal research
  institutions, telecommunications providers, and
  Internet providers
• Interconnect and expand vBNS (NFS), ESnet (DOE),
  NREN (NASA), DREN (DOD), and others (such as the
  Internet2/Abiliene)
• Funds universities, industry RD, and Federal
  research institutions
• Subgoal 1 fabric generally expected to be highly
  reliable

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Goal 2 Network Infrastructure

• Subgoal 2 Develop demo net fabric that delivers
  1000 Mbps end-to-end to about 10 interconnected
  sites
• May be separate fabric with links to the Subgoal
  1 fabric, and/or may include upgraded parts of
  the Subgoal 1 fabric
• Would involve very early technology
  implementations and wouldn't likely be as
  reliable as Subgoal 1 fabric
• Federal agencies would take the lead
• Commercialize advances ASAP
• Utilize IETF, ATM Forum et. al. to foster freely
  available commercial standards

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Goal 3 Revolutionary Applications

• (Note Real revolutionary applications are never
  found in a government-generated list)
• Some possible "revolutionary" applications
• Health care telemedicine
• Education distance ed digital libraries
• Scientific research energy, earth systems,
  climate, biomed research
• National Security high-performance global data
  comm
• Environment monitoring, prediction, warning,
  response
• Government better delivery of services
• Emergencies disaster response, crisis management
• Design and Manufacture manufacturing engineering
• "NGI will not provide funding support for
  applications per se" will fund addition of
  networking to existing apps.

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NGI Initiative Expectations

• Fund 100 high-performance connections to
  research universities and Federal research
  institutions
• 100 science applications will use the new
  connections
• 10 improved Federal information services
• 30 government-industry-academia RD partnerships
• NGI program funding leveraged by two-to-one by
  these partnerships

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NGI Initiative Proposed Mangement

• NGI Implementation Team
• Under LSN Working Group
• One member from each directly funded agency
• (Not clear to me what say-so this Team has over
  expenditures)

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JET Joint Engineering Team
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JET

• Affinity group of
• NSF (vBNS)
• NASA (NREN/NISN)
• DARPA (DREN)
• DOE (ESnet)
• UCAID/Internet2 (Abilene)
• Group that is engineering the NGIXes

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NGIXes Next Generation Internet Exchanges
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NGIXes

• NAPs for Federal lab neworks to interconnect
• Layer 2
• ATM-based
• Minimum connection-speed is OC-3
• Replace FIXes (really FIX-W, FIX-E already gone)
• Three of em
• West coast NASA-Ames
• East coast NASA-Goddard
• Mid contintent Chicago (at MREN/STARTAP)

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Final Thoughts

• The NGI isn't a network it's the improved
  network infrastructure that presumably results
  from the NGI Initiative
• The NSFs vBNS does benefit from NGI funding.
• The Internet2/Abilene is an activity independent
  from the NGI Initiative, and does not really
  benefit from NGI funding

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vBNS Review
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vBNS History

• vBNS goals
• jumpstart use of high-performance networking for
  advanced research while advancing research itself
  with high-performance networking
• supplement Commodity Internet which has been
  inadequate for universities since NSFnet was
  decommissioned
• vBNS started about 3 years ago with the NSF
  supercomputing centers
• vBNS started adding universities about 2 years
  ago
• Currently 77 institutions connected to vBNS
• 21 more in progress
• 131 institutions approved for connection to vBNS
• NSF funding for vBNS ends March 2000

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vBNS The Network

• Operated by MCI
• ATM based network using mainly IP
• OC-12 (622-Mbps) backbone
• OC-3 (155-Mbps) DS-3 (45-Mbps) to institutions
• 77 institutions currently connected
• 21 more in progress

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STAR TAP
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STAR TAP

• Science, Technology And Research Transit Access
  Point
• NSF-designated NAP for attachment of
  international networks to the vBNS
• Colocated with MREN, NSF/Ameritech NAP, and mid
  continent NGIX
• Is really just a single large ATM switch

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vBNS and NCAR

• NCAR was an original vBNS node
• 40 of 63 UCAR member-universities are approved
  for vBNS (at last check on 8/1998)
• Major benefit for UCAR and its members
• greatly superior to the Commodity Internet
• example more UNIDATA data possible
• example terabyte data transfers possible

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Abilene Review
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Abilene History

• First called the Internet2 Project
• Then non-profit UCAID (University Corporation for
  Advanced Internet Development) was founded
• UCAID is patterned after the UCAR model
• UCAID currently has 130 members (mostly
  universities)
• Abilene is the name of UCAIDs first network
• Note Internet2 used to refer to
• the Internet organization, which is now called
  UCAID
• the actual network, which is now named Abilene
• the concept for a future network, soon to be
  reality in the form of Abilene

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Abilene Goals

• Goals jumpstart use of high-performance
  networking for advanced research while advancing
  research itself with high-performance networking
  (same as vBNS)
• But to be operated and managed by the members
  themselves, like the UCAR model
• Provide an alternative when NSF support of the
  vBNS terminates on March 2000

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Abilene The Basic Network

• Uses Qwest OC48 (2.4Gbps) fiber optic backbone
• grow to OC192 (9.6Gbps) fiber optic backbone
• Qwest to donate .5 billion worth of fiber leases
  over 5 years
• Hardware provided by Cisco Systems and Nortel
  (Northern Telecom)
• Internet Protocol (IP) over SONET
• no ATM layer
• Uses 10 core router nodes at Qwest POPs
• Denver is one of these

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Abilene Status

• Abilene soon to be designated by NSF as an
  NSF-approved High-Performance Network (HPN)
• puts Abilene on an equal basis with vBNS
• Abilene reached peering agreement with vBNS so
  NSF HPC (High Performance Connection) schools
  have equal access to each other regardless of
  vBNS or Abilene connection
• UCAID expects Abilene to come online 2/1999
• UCAID expects 50 universities online on 2/1999
• UCAID expects 13 gigapops online on 2/1999
• Abilene beta network now includes a half-dozen
  universities
• plus exchanging routes with vBNS

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Abilene and NCAR

• 48 of 63 UCAR member-universities are UCAID
  members (at last check on 8/1998)
• NSF funding of vBNS terminates March 2000
• Same benefit for UCAR and its members as vBNS
• greatly superior to the Commodity Internet
• example more UNIDATA data possible
• example terabyte data transfers possible

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The GigaPop Concept
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GigaPops What Good Are They?

• Share costs through sharing infrastructure
• Aggregate to a central location and share
  high-speed access from there
• Share Commodity Internet expenses
• Essentially statistical multiplexing of expensive
  high-speed resources
• at any given time much more bandwidth is
  available to each institution than each could
  afford without sharing
• Share engineering and management expertise
• More clout with vendors

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Front Range GigaPop (FRGP)
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FRGP Current NCAR GigaPop Services

• vBNS access
• Shared Commodity Internet access
• Intra-Gigapop access
• Web cache hosting
• 24 x 365 NOC (Network Operation Center)
• Engineering and management

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FRGPAbilene What Should NCAR Do?

• Why should NCAR connect to Abilene?
• Abilene gives NCAR additional connectivity to
  most of its member institutions
• fate of vBNS is unknown after March 2000
• 48 of 63 UCAR members are also Internet2 members
• Why should NCAR join a joint FRGP/Abilene effort?
• combined FRGP/Abilene effort saves NCAR money

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FRGP Why NCAR as GP Operator?

• NCAR already has considerable gigapop operational
  experience
• NCAR is already serving the FRGP members
• Abilene connection is an incremental addition to
  existing gigapop
• doesnt require a completely new effort from
  scratch
• NCAR already has a 24 x 365 NOC
• at no extra charge
• NCAR has an existing networking staff to team
  with the new FRGP engineer
• at no extra cost
• NCAR is university-neutral

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FRGP Membership Types

• Full members
• both Commodity Internet Abilene access
• Commodity-only members
• just Commodity Internet access

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FRGP Full Members

• University of Colorado - Boulder
• Colorado State University
• University of Colorado - Denver
• University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
• University of Wyoming

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FRGP Commodity-only Members

• Colorado School of Mines
• Denver University
• University of Northern Colorado

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FRGP Possible Future Members

• U of C System
• NOAA/Boulder
• NIST/Boulder
• NASA/Boulder

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FRGP But!!!

• This is far from a done deal at this time!
• Members still have funding issues
• No agreements have yet been decided
• Etc.

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FRGP Why a Denver Gigapoint?

• Much cheaper for most members to backhaul to
  Denver instead of to existing NCAR gigapoint
• U of Wyoming, Colorado State, UofC Denver
• UofC Denver has computer room space thats two
  blocks from Denvers telco hotel.
• But also dont want to re-engineer NCAR
  gigapoint
• wanted to preserve vBNS backhaul to NCAR
• wanted to preserve MCI Commodity Internet
  backhaul to NCAR
• wanted to minimize changes to the existing
  gigapoint
• Incremental addition of Denver gigapoint is most
  cost-effective engineering option

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FRGP Routing Engineering

• Must deal with so-called policy-based routing
• that is, IP forwarding based on packet
  source-IP-address
• example some schools can use Abilene and some
  cant
• Without high-speed source-IP-address routing,
  requires one forwarding-table (router) per policy
• FRGP has three identified policies at this time,
  for
• Commodity Internet only institutions
• Commodity Internet Abilene institutions
• Commodity Internet Abilene vBNS institutions
• Use ATM and PVCs to construct the router topology
  to implement these policies
• Note distributed gigapoints require care to site
  routers optimally

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FRGP AbileneCommodity Budget

• 851,000 total annual recurring costs
• 133,000 per Full Member (5)
• 62,000 per Commodity-only Member (3)
• 150,000 one-time Abilene equipment costs
• This includes the following costs
• existing FRGP costs
• existing Commodity Internet access costs
• new Abilene costs
• Does not include vBNS costs, campus-backhaul
  costs, or other local campus costs
• (Reduced per-member costs if more join)

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FRGP Annual Expenses

• Abilene Commodity expenses
• Generic UCAID/Abilene costs
• 25,000 UCAID annual dues (per full FRGP member
  5)
• 20,000 per-institution Abilene fee (per full
  FRGP member 5)
• 110,000 per-gigapop Abilene fee (shared by 5)
• 12,000 per-gigapop Qwest/Abilene port fee
  (shared by 5)
• Costs specific to FRGP
• 56,000 shared Boulder-Denver OC-3 link (shared
  by 5)
• 27,000 shared Denver-Qwest OC-3 link (shared by
  5)
• 281,000 shared Commodity access fees (shared by
  8)
• 140,000 other operational costs (shared by 8)
• engineers salary
• hardware Maintenance
• travel

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FRGP Abilene Implications for NCAR

• New annual expenses of about 110,000 for NCAR
• Plus NCARs 50,00 share of startup costs
• NCAR employs manages new FRGP engineer
• NCAR manages additional network equipment
• including new off-site equipment in Denver
• Increased engineering responsibilities for NCAR
• Increased administrative/accounting
  responsibilities for NCAR

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Summary of URLs

• www.ngi.gov
• www.ccic.gov/ngi/concept-Jul97
• www.vbns.net
• www.vbns.net/presentations/workshop/vbns_tutorial/
  index.htm
• www.startap.net
• www.internet2.edu
• www.ccic.gov/jet
• pointer to NAPs, major Federal networks, etc.