WPI, Internet2 and You

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WPI, Internet2 and You

Dr. Thomas Lynch, Vice President for IT Allan
Johannesen, Director of Internetworking
Telecommunications, CCC Vicki Lynn, Project
Manager, IT Division

• CEDTA Food For Thought
• November 6, 2001

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Outline

• Background Information
• History of the Internet
• Networking at WPI
• Network Primer
• What is Internet2?
• What can Internet2 do for you?
• I2 development funds

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History of the Internet

• Yesterdays Internet
• Started with government (DARPA), then research
  universities
• Commercialization led to thousands of users,
  remote login, FTP, interconnections to mainframe
  computers
• Todays Internet
• Standards , GUI interface (Mosiac) led to WWW,
  millions of users, e-mail, low quality audio and
  video, interconnections between PCs and servers

Applications adapt to the underlying technology
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Problem with Todays Internet

• Not capable of supporting (addressing) billions
  of users (and devices)
• Not capable of supporting the convergence of
  todays multimedia (telephony, interactive video,
  HDTV)
• Not capable of supporting the development and
  testing of new technologies and new applications

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Internet Development Cycle
Commercialization
Privatization
Todays Internet
Internet2
Research and Development
Partnerships
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Networking at WPI

• Two connections to the outside world
• 45 Mbps to the on the commodity Internet
• 155 Mbps to Internet 2
• 1Gbps fiber between between buildings
• 10/100 Mbps to the desktop across campus
• Olin, Goddard, Salisbury to be done soon
• Completes a 4.5M, 4-year campus upgrade
• Everyone at WPI is now on I2
• Automatically routed to other I2 institutions
• Higher speed needs can be met by NetOps
• EDUCAUSE 2001 Excellence in Networking Award

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What is Internet2

• A research project led by a consortium of over
  187 (as of 10/01) universities working in
  partnership with industry and government.

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Why University Leadership?

• The Internet came from the academiccommunity
• Stanford -- the Internet protocols
• NSFNet -- the scaled-up Internet
• CERN -- the WWW protocols
• University of Illinois -- the Web browser
• Universities research and education mission
  require an advanced Internet and have
  demonstrated they can develop it

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Mission of Internet2

• .. to develop and deploy advanced network
  applications and technologies, accelerating the
  creation of tomorrows internet.

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Goals of Internet2

• Re-create leading edge RE network capability
• Enable new generation of applications
• Transfer technology and experience to the global
  production Internet

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Internet2 Focus Areas

• Advanced Networking Infrastructure
• Middleware
• Engineering
• Advanced Applications
• Partnerships

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I2 Advanced Network Infrastructure Terminology
Bit Rates
Short for gigabit Point of Presence, a network
access point that supports data transfer rates of
at least 1 gigabit (Gbps). Currently, only a few
gigaPOPs exist, and they're used primarily for
accessing the I2 network. Each university that
connects to I2 must do so through a gigaPOP,
which connects the university's LANs and WANs to
the I2 network.
GigaPoP
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I2 Advanced Network Infrastructure

• Backbones operate at 2.4 Gbps (OC48)
• GigaPoPs provide regional aggregation points for
  high performance
• Participating campuses provide 100 Mbps to the
  desktop

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I2 Advanced Network Infrastructure
Internet2
WPI
GigaPoP
Regional Network
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I2 Advanced Network Infrastructure
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How Fast is Internet2? The Matrix Download
(DVD quality)
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How Fast is Internet2

• The Internet2 network has the capability of
  carrying information 1,000 times faster than the
  Internet we all know (e.g. commodity Internet).
  Internet2 only interconnects member institutions.
  The network routes messages to the appropriate
  internet.
•  
• WPIs August 30, 2000 Press Release cites NEESCom
  President C. Pini, Internet2 is about 45,000
  times faster than the average modem. To
  appreciate how fast this is, consider that one
  could transmit the entire contents of the Library
  of Congress via Internet2 in just 20 seconds.
  Pini added, But speed is only part of the
  equation. When combined with Internet2s
  incredibly high resolution and three-dimensional
  imaging capability, a host of potentially
  revolutionary applications become possible.
  Imagine a doctor being able to perform a surgical
  procedure or watch an MRI take place hundreds for
  even thousands of miles from the patient.
•  
• WPIs the Wire explained the speed of Internet2
  in its December 1999 issues, To download the
  Titanic with your 28K modem, plan on allowing
  more than 41 hours. If you have access to a T-1
  connection (1.5 megabits per second) you can
  retrieve the film in under an hour. A cable modem
  (4 megabits per second) will pull it through in
  less than 20 minutes. With Internet2, it will
  take less than a minute.

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I2 - Middleware

• Software that connects two otherwise separate
  applications. Middleware is sometimes called
  plumbing because it connects two sides of an
  application and passes data between them
• Authentication
• Identification
• Authorization
• Directories
• Security

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I2 - Engineering

• Quality of Service (QoS) - a networking term that
  specifies a guaranteed amount of data that passed
  from one place to another (i.e.throughput level).
• Scalable IP Multicast - transmitting a single
  message to a select group of recipients (vs.
  unicast which is transmitting a single message to
  a single recipient)
• IPv6 short for Internet Protocol, version 6
  (sometimes referred to as IPng where ng next
  generation)
• Network Security policies, procedures, best
  practices, security measurement techniques, event
  logging, firewalls, intrusion detection systems,
  training, etc.
• Measurement performance, utilization, trends,
  latency, etc.

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I2 - Advanced Applications

• Distributed Collaboration
• Tele-immersion
• Virtual laboratories
• Digital libraries
• Distributed learning
• Digital video
• Distributed computation

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I2 - Advanced Applications

• Distributed Collaboration

Virtual Orchestra University of Delaware,
University of Alabama, University of Oklahoma,
New World Symphony, Florida International
University, Georgia Institute of Technology,
Georgia State University, New York University,
University of Miami, University of Southern
California Virtual Halloween at the Rialto
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I2 - Advanced Applications

• Tele-immersion

Shared Virtual Reality University of Illinois at
Chicago Virtual Temporal Bone
Electronic Visualization University of Illinois
at Chicago CAVE Library (CAVELib) CALVIN
Collaborative Architectural Layout Via Immersive
Navigation
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I2 - Advanced Applications

• Virtual laboratories

Real-time Access to Remote Instruments University
of Pittsburgh 3-D Brain Mapping
Real-time Access to Remote Instruments University
of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Distributed
nanoManipulator
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I2 - Advanced Applications

• Digital Libraries

Digital Music Library System Indiana
University VARIATIONS
Multimedia Digital Libraries Carnegie-Mellon
University Informedia Project
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I2 - Advanced Applications

• Distributed Learning

Distributed Learning North Dakota State
University The Virtual Cell
Distance Learning University of California,
Berkeley Berkeley Internet Broadcasting System
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I2 Advanced Applications

• Distributed Learning

Distance Education UCLA and Kyoto
University Transpacific Interactive Distance
Education
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I2 - Advanced Applications

• Digital Video

Streaming HDTV quality vide Washington
University ResearchChannel
Video and Voice over IP CAVNER (Center for
Advanced Video Network Engineering
Research) ViDeNet
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I2 - Advanced Applications

• Distributed Computation

Computational Grids Access Grid Futures Lab,
Argonne National Laboratory
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I2 - Partnerships

• Internet2 universities are recreating the
  partnerships that fostered the Internet in its
  infancy
• Industry corporate sponsors - contributions
  gt1M together have committed over 30 million in
  support for I2!
• Government cooperation with federal agency-led
  Next Generation Internet (NGI). NGIs focus on
  research testbeds and agency research networks
• International ensure global interoperability of
  advanced networking technologies and applications

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Why is Internet2 Helpful?

• Faster exchange of large data sets with remote
  locations connected by advanced networks such as
  Internet2 and NGI.
• Real-time access/visualization of simulation
  results.
• Faster access to remote computers that perform
  data analysis and simulations.
• Access and control of remote precious devices,
  such as MRIs, telescopes, and WPIs NMR.
• Opportunity for advanced network quality video
  conferencing and distributed learning.

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I2 Research Areas at WPI

• Spacecraft electric and chemical propulsion
• Massively parallel computing
• Improved web performance through caching
• Data mining
• Surface metrology
• Non-invasive imaging for stroke research and
  Atherosclerosis
• Distributed computing, cryptography, and wireless
  LANs
• Vehicle crashworthiness research
• Fire protection engineering through distributed
  education and research
• Metal Processing Institute
• Ordinary Differential Equations (ODE) Toolkit
• Global Project Centers

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I2 Development Funds

• Compelling research or educational application of
  I2 preference to activities that benefit
  undergraduate/graduate teaching and learning
• Other selection criteria
• All full-time WPI faculty
• Up to 3 grants, 7,500 each
• Proposal Deadline
• Proposal due by November 20, 2001
• Application due by January 2, 2002
• Project must be completed by January 1, 2003

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The End Questions?