Rick Summerhill

1

• Rick Summerhill
• Executive Director, Great Plains Network
• Chairman, Technology Advisory Group, Abilene
• http//www.greatplains.net

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Overview

• I. Background
• II. The Great Plains Network
• III. Great Plains Network Services
• IV. The Future of Advanced Networking

Please stop me if I use terms or acronyms you do
not understand!
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I. Background

• Why Should I Be Interested in Networking?
• The Commodity Internet
• Problems with the Internet
• What is Advanced Networking/Internet2?
• Who Provides Advanced Networking?

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Why should I be interested in Networking?

• If you use a computer to communicate with another
  computer or device
• Internet
• Share Data
• Share Printing
• e-mail
• ...

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The Commodity Internet

• What we now know as the Internet
• Started as a research tool
• NSFnet
• Darpanet
• Al Gore
• Went public

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Problems with the Commodity Internet

• Slow
• LAN (local area network in your office) runs at
  10mbs or 100mbs
• Best you can do on the Internet is 1mbs
• No Rules
• If you are doing storm prediction, you get the
  same service as someone downloading a music file
• Decision criteria for who gets priority?

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What is Advanced Networking?

• It is for research and education that the
  commodity Internet cant handle
• It connects researchers at universities and
  research institutions
• It is for BIG projects (more later)
• 100 or 1000mbs instead of 1mbs
• Massive amounts of data
• Highest quality video and audio

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Who Provides Advanced Networking?

• Great Plains Network
• A community of researchers and educators
  connected by a high-speed network
• 7 states
• 14 universities state networks

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Who Provides Advanced Networking?

• Internet2
• Abilene Network (handout)
• A project of the University Corporation for
  Advanced Internet Development (UCAID)
• Great Plains connects to Abilene (see handout)

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The Great Plains Network
II. The Great Plains Network

• How We Started
• Who and What We Are
• Participants
• Organization
• Connection to Others
• Recent Developments
• Application Examples

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How We Started

• Initial meeting in June, 1996
• The vision of a group of far-sighted scholars
• Predates Internet2
• NSF Grant Awarded, 1997
• In support of Earth Systems Science
• To implement an advanced services network
• With support for advanced networking
• Which would facilitate collaboration
• Installation of Network, 1998
• Connected to Abilene

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Who We Are

• A community of researchers and educators
• 7 states
• 14 universities state networks
• AKA A Gigapop
• Connecting to Abilene (Internet2)
• Making possible the highest quality research

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Participants

• North Dakota
• NDSU, UND, NDHECN
• South Dakota
• EDC, SDSU, USD,
• SDSMT, SD state network
• Nebraska
• UNL
• Kansas
• KU, KSU, KANREN
• Oklahoma
• OSU, OU, ONEnet
• Arkansas
• UARK, UALR, UAMS, ARKnet
• Missouri
• UMC, UMSL, UMKC, MOREnet
• Minnesota (Partner)
• UMN, MN state network

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GPN Abilene Networks
Please stop me if I talk about weather or traffic!
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GPN Organization

• Board of Directors
• North Dakota Bonnie Neas, NDSU, Chair
• South Dakota Royce Engstrom
• Nebraska Kent Hendrickson, UNL
• Kansas Beth Unger, KSU
• Oklahoma Lee Williams, OU
• Arkansas Bob Zimmerman, UArk
• Missouri Bill Mitchell, MORENet

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GPN Organization (continued)

• Staff
• Executive Director, Rick Summerhill
• Research Collaboration Coordinator, Greg Monaco
• Network Engineers, KU, Gordon Rogier
• Network Engineers, EDC, David Hartzell Mike
  Rechtenbaugh
• Focus Groups
• Research Collaboration
• Geo-Spation Information Systems

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Advanced Networking Examples

• A simple example
• Distributed data across the network
• Send to high performance computer
• Display on local system
• All services should appear local

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Advanced Networking Examples (continued)

• A more complex example
• Control of real-time data collection from
  distributed sources
• Differentiated services used to send data to high
  performance computer
• Display on multiple systems of research team
  using multicast
• Nexrad radar site in Goodland

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Advanced Networking Examples (continued)

• Other Examples
• Virtual Pelvic Floor for educating medical
  students
• Plant Pathology Course (Team Taught by Experts)
• Remote Instrumentation (e.g., Digital
  Stethescope, Digital MRI, Diagnosing Diabetic
  Retinopathy)
• Remote Consultation (during surgery, psychiatry,
  Sky Lab)
• 3-D Simulation of a Cell for primary education
• Virtual Laboratories

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Recent GPN Developments

• 2000 - January - Expanded to Include Minneapolis
• 2000 - May - Akamai Servers installed at
  University of Minnesota (so what?)
• 2000 - July - Research Collaboration Coordinator
  Hired
• 2000 - September - Nexrad Radar Site Connection
  (so what?)
• 2000 - September - GPN Research Web Site
• 2000 - October - GPN Focus Groups

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III. GPN Services

• Technical Services
• Less Technical Services

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Technical Services

• High Speed Networking
• Database Development
• Network consultation and ongoing support
• Multicast networking
• Technical expertise on routing issues
• Technical expertise on video-conferencing
• Technical expertise in Access Grid Node
  development
• Last-mile connectivity (e.g., to NCSA
  supercomputer)

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Less Technical Services

• Assistance in project planning, development, and
  implementation
• Assistance in reaching the greater GPN community
  of scientists and researchers
• Consultation in the grant proposal and grant
  submission process

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Less Technical Services (continued)

• Opportunities for collaboration via meetings,
  ezine, web site
• Central repository of information on projects
• Assistance in researching and developing
  multi-institution grant proposals
• Information on the latest applications being
  developed in the Internet2 community
• Research and Funding Discussion Forums

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The network is the easy part!

• GPN is much more than equipment
• It is a community of scientists, researchers, and
  educators
• GPN will take an active role in providing greater
  support network, applications, and collaboration

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IV. Future of Advanced Networking

• Shared Databases
• Digital Libraries
• Digital Earth Project
• Wireless
• Satelite
• Dark Fiber
• More Information Moving Faster and Faster all the
  time so fast its making my head swim I cant
  stop somebody turn me off I cant stop
  hellllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
  llllllllllpI
• Impact on research and education

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The End

• Rick Summerhill
• Executive Director, Great Plains Network
• Chairman, Technology Advisory Group, Abilene
• http//www.greatplains.net