National LambdaRail/ Florida LambdaRail/ Tallahassee Fiber Loop

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National LambdaRail/Florida LambdaRail/Tallahass
ee Fiber Loop

• TalTech Alliance Presentation
• Larry Conrad
• Associate VP and CIO, FSU
• Chair, Florida LambdaRail, LLC

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Background

• Became aware of the NLR initiative the fall of
  2002
• Goal was to leverage depressed telecom market to
  pick-up distressed assets
• Initiative came out of CA and WA
• They were looking at San Diego to Seattle to
  Denver to Chicago to Pittsburg to D.C.
• Others got involved to nationalize the
  initiative to include D.C. to Atlanta to Dallas
  to San Diego
• Network footprint was being finalized, but still
  pliable

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Background

• In just 3 working days we garnered a commitment
  from 6 FL universities to invest 5M over 5 years
• That commitment secured extension of the NLR to
  Jacksonville...
• ...and a seat at the table to define the NLR
• Realizing none of the 6 universities were IN JAX,
  so we would have to build comparable FL network
• A tribute to the strategic insight of the leaders
  at those 6 FL institutions to make this kind of
  commitment in these difficult fiscal times!

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Network Drivers Motivations

• Improve networking costsdisruptive pricing!
• Control of our networking destiny
• Flexibility in responding to future needs
• Responsiveness to the needs of higher ed
• Innovation and support for corporate research
  partners
• End-to-End networking
• Eliminate place as an issue for collaboration

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Science Drivers Motivations

• Growing demand for application empowered
  networks
• Support for high performance e-science projects
• High-energy physics, astronomy, earth science,
  bioinformatics, environmental
• Study very complex micro to macro-scale problems
  over time and space
• Remote access to instruments, streaming
  high-definition video, specialized visualization
  displays, data mining, high-performance
  distributed supercomputing systems and real-time
  collaboration
• To optimally make use of these technologies,
  scientists want high-bandwidth connectivity with
  known and knowable characteristics

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Science Drivers Examples

• New CERN facility in Switzerland comes on line in
  2005will distribute petabyte (PB) files to
  multiple institutions
• Jefferson Lab to distribute PB files by 2006
• FSU is a managing partner for the Oakridge
  National LaboratoryORNL wants 10 Gb connectivity
  
• SURA Coastal Oceanographic Observing Platform
  (SCOOP) program to distribute PB files by 2006
• NSF sponsored supercomputing centers in San
  Diego, CA Champaign, IL and Pittsburg, PA
  presently have 10 Gb connectivity and are moving
  to 40 Gb to support GRID computing applications
• Oakridge has recently been awarded an NSF GRID
  computing grant to establish a new science
  ultranet with 10-40 Gb connectivity

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Why Fiber?

• Capacity needed is not otherwise affordable
• Capabilities needed are not otherwise available
• Flatten out the expense growth curve...
• ...cheaper in the long range
• Provides leverage with the telco carriers
• Insurance against monopoly behavior
• Stable and predictable anchor points
• Higher Ed cant be held hostage to what industry
  thinks the market wants

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National Lambda Rail

• Sparse dark fiber National footprint
• Serves very high-end Experimental and Research
  Applications
• 4 - 10Gb Wavelengths (or networks) initially
• Capable of 40 10Gb wavelengths at build out
• Leverage industry shakeout distressed vendors
  are very interested in selling a National
  footprint
• Disruptive pricing
• Partnership model

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NLR Participants

• Equity owners
• CENIC (CA)
• PNWGP (U of WA)
• Internet2
• Virginia Tech
• Duke
• Georgia Tech
• Florida LambdaRail
• CIC GroupBig 10 (IU lead)

• Other
• Carnegie Mellon/PSC(purchase services)
• NCAR/UCARCO(potential)
• Texas Group (potential, UT Austin lead)
• New Mexico(potential, UNM lead)

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NLR Goals and Uses

• Research! (including Network Research)
• Experimentation in networking and in education
• Education
• Support of GRID computing
• Academic Medical Center driven Clinical
  activities
• Development implementation of network
  computing technologies not otherwise likely to be
  generally available commercially as early as
  needed in RE

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NLR footprint and physical layer topology
SEA
POR
BOI
BOS
NYC
CHI
OGD
CLE
DEN
SVL
PIT
WDC
KAN
RAL
NAS
STR
LAX
PHO
MEM
ATL
SAN
OLG
DAL
JAC
Note California (SAN-LAX-SVL) routes shown are
part of CalREN NLR is adding waves to CalREN
systems. Also the CENIC SVL- Sacramento (SAC) ELH
route will become part of NLR SVL-SEA in exchange
for a SVL-SAC LH route NLR is building (not shown
here).
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NLR footprint and physical layer topology Phase
1
SEA
POR
BOI
CHI
OGD
CLE
DEN
SVL
PIT
WDC
KAN
RAL
LAX
ATL
SAN
JAC
Note California (SAN-LAX-SVL) routes shown are
part of CalREN NLR is adding waves to CalREN
systems. Also the CENIC SVL- Sacramento (SAC) ELH
route will become part of NLR SVL-SEA in exchange
for a SVL-SAC LH route NLR is building (not shown
here).
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NLR Partners and Costs

• NLR technology partners
• Cisco Systems (electronics/optronics)
• Level 3 (fiber)
• 80 M over 5 Years

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NLR Status

• 1st link from Pittsburg to Chicago brought up
  mid- November
• Phase 1 build-out to be completed by July 2004
• NLR has recently been designated the largest,
  fastest scientific network in the world
• NLR is negotiating with SURA on a partnership for
  Phase 2 to complete the southern route back to
  Atlanta
• ...that could come right through Tallahassee!

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FLR The NLR Build Out In Florida

• FLR, Florida LambdaRail
• FLR equity participants are all public
  corporation or 501(c)(3) entities
• Current membersFAU, FIT, FIU, FSU, Nova SE,
  UF, U of Miami, UCF, UWF
• Expect FLR build out to be in the 20M range over
  the next 5 years
• FLR is a LLC with plans to seek 501(c)(3) status

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FLR Goals and Uses

• NLR connectivity
• Build a high-speed FL network for education and
  research
• Put FL universities on an equal footing with the
  best research institutions in the nation
• Initial services 10 Gb shared IP fabric with
• Commodity ISP aggregation
• Internet2 aggregation
• Potential for corporate partnerships and economic
  development

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FLR Goals and Uses

• For the first time, Florida has a node on the
  leading edge Research and Education networking
  infrastructure
• Was not true with Internet2, NSFNet, or SURANet
• Supports nominally 1B in research funding at
  Floridas research universities

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One FLR Build Out Option
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FLR Status

• Still in start-up mode
• Company formed
• Initial equity participant solicitation closed
• Will submit 501(c)(3) application shortly
• Negotiating with fiber and optronics vendors
• Establishing initial contracts for support
  services

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FLR Timeline

• Dec. 2003 Order finalized for FLR backbone
  fiber
• Jan. 2004 Order finalized for FLR optronics
• March 2004 Build and lab test Layer 2/3
  transport equipment
• April 2004 Order commodity Internet and
  Internet2 aggregation services
• July 2004 NLR Phase 1 build-out of completed
• Aug. 2004 Begin testing Layer 2/3
  infrastructure
• Sept. 2004 Begin connecting participants to the
  FLR infrastructure
• Nov. 2004 Production operation

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Tallahassee Fiber Loop

• Tie together local education entities
• Provide FLR/NLR connectivity
• Potential participants DOE, CCLA, FAMU, FSU,
  NWRDC, TCC
• Managed by NWRDC
• Status negotiating with potential providers

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In Summary

• Many details yet to be worked out, e.g.,
  inter-city fiber, optronics, and metro fiber
  solutions
• Expect members will provide connection to other
  entities
• For FSU, will provide a nominal 100-fold
  improvement in network speed!
• which will fundamentally redefine our ability to
  collaborate and compete!

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Questions?

• www.flrnet.org
• www.nationallambdarail.org