Internet2 Overview

1
Internet2 Overview

• Michael H Lambert, PhD
• lambert_at_psc.edu
• Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center
• Three Rivers Optical Exchange
• 15 May 2007

2
Agenda

• Internet2--some definitions
• Brief history and overview of research and
  education networks
• Meaning for undergraduate research and education

3
Internet2

• Very narrowly specific project of UCAID
  (University Corporation for Advanced Internet
  Development)
• A little more broadly the network run by that
  organization
• Even more colloquially any RE network
  primarily focusing on the K-20 community
• Well use more-or-less the latter definition

4
Brief History of RE Networking

• ARPANET
• NSFnet
• vBNS
• Abilene
• National Lambda Rail

5
ARPANET

• Late 1960s
• Nodes on both coasts
• Precursor of todays Internet
• Packet-based network
• First work in protocol development

6
NSFnet

• In mid 1980s National Science Foundation funded
  five supercomputing centers to help US keep edge
  in computational science
• Pittsburgh
• Princeton
• Cornell
• Urbana/Champaign
• San Diego

7
NSFnet

• Many remote supercomputer users
• Users distributed across country (not necessarily
  using closest center)
• How to get decent access for users in 1986?
  (Short of mailing tapes!)

8
NSFnet

• Regional networks
• PREPnet (Pennsylvania)
• MIDnet (Midwest)
• SURAnet (Southeast)
• And others
• National backbone (NSFnet) connecting regionals
• Run by Merit (evolved into Michigan network)
• 56 kb/s -gt 1.5 Mb/s -gt 45 Mb/s

9
NSFnet

• Target audience of supercomputer users
• Used more and more by general research and
  education community (with nice subsidy)
• Commercial Internet beginning to grow
• NSFnet past original mission
• Turned down in April 1995
• Universities, others had to pay full bill for own
  Internet connections

10
vBNS

• New network to interconnect supercomputing
  centers
• Very strict AUP (only center-to-center traffic)
• 155 Mb/s (very high-performance Backbone
  Networking Service)
• ATM network run by MCI

11
vBNS

• Research universities allowed to connect
  (connections program)
• Peer-reviewed applications
• NSF funding to offset part of costs
• Still with strict AUP
• Aggregation not strongly encouraged by pricing
  model

12
Abilene/Internet2

• Universities not happy with commercial Internet
  costs, vBNS restrictions (and costs)
• Meeting of CIOs and such in Chicago, October 1996
• Create new organization for research and
  education networking
• Commit to upgrade campus infrastructure to
  support high-performance networks
• Develop new backbone network

13
Abilene/Internet2

• Internet2 backbone network
• Recognized along with vBNS by NSF connections
  program
• 2.4 Gb/s Qwest fiber Cisco 12008 routers
• 10 Gb/s Qwest fiber Juniper T640 routers
• 10 Gb/s Level3 fiber Juniper T640 routers

14
Abilene/Internet2

• Membership in Internet2
• Full university members (mostly R1s)
• Corporate partners
• Affiliate members (such as some national labs)
• Membership-driven organization (modulo politics)

15
Abilene/Internet2

• Network participation for members
• Most through RONs (regional optical networks)
• Some connect directly (geography or politics)
• Network participation by others
• Sponsored participants (by full member)
• SEGP
• Sponsored Educational Group Participant
• Basically state K20 networks

16
Internet2

• Current network
• 10 Gb/s IP network, currently being deployed
• Separate logical network for point-to-point (or
  multipoint) circuits (light paths)
• Can be long or short term
• Can provide layer-one and -two connections

17
Internet2

• Many projects
• Middleware
• Applications
• Health care networking
• K20
• Network engineering (IPv6, multicast, etc)

18
National Lambda Rail

• Belief by many (not most) that Internet2 wasnt
  doing enough for high-performance users or
  networking research
• Group founded new network infrastructure to
  address these issues
• Name comes from Greek ?, common symbol for
  wavelength, refer to one of many colors of
  light on a single optical fiber

19
National Lambda Rail

• Operates 10 Gb/s IP backbone
• Can provision nationwide Ethernets (up to 10
  Gb/s, point-to-point or multipoint, committed
  bandwidth or best effort)
• Can provide lambdas on national basis
• Not as strong as Internet2 for things not dealing
  directly with the network

20
RONs

• Regional Optical Networks
• Also known as GigaPoPs in many cases
• Commonest connectors to Internet2 or NLR
• K12s will generally deal only with local RON
• Some RONs peer with each other--traffic doesnt
  go to national backbone

21
Internet2/NLR

• Probably dont need two similar networks
• Have talked about merging on and off over past
  couple of years
• Discussions again underway
• Well see what happens

22
Internet2 and 13-16 Education

• Hard to find (for me, at least) specific
  resources for undergraduate education
• Educational resources for K12 classrooms
• Assumed existing collaborations for R1
  researchers
• Resources in middle must exist

23
Potentially Relevant Things

• Distributed learning
• Joint classes at multiple institutions
• Immersive experience requires high bandwidth
• Not feasible over commerical Internet
• Obviously requires collaboration

24
More Relevant Things

• Shared resources (libraries, etc)
• Different collections at different schools
• Can make arrangements to allow remote access
• How to control this access?
• Authentication technology getting close
• Resources needed

25
More Relevant Things

• Resources on FedNets
• Smithsonian
• Library of Congress
• Various NIH sites
• PubMed
• CDC
• NASA

26
Humanities?

• Recent plenary talk by head of NEH at Internet2
  members meeting--art historian by trade
• Various music programs
• Dance
• Instrumental master classes

27
Conclusion

• Resources are there or can be developed to make
  high-performance networking ubiquitous in
  undergraduate education, but few canned solutions
  currently exist.

28
Contacts

• lambert_at_psc.edu
• www.3rox.net
• www.nlr.net
• k20.internet2.edu
• www.internet2.edu
• http//www.magpi.net/initiatives.html