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3. Goal 2
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Goal 2: Next Generation Network Testbed (continued)
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3.1
Goal 2.1
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Goal 2.1: High Performance Connectivity
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3.1.3
Agency Specifics
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Agency Specifics
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3.1.3.1
NSF
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National Science Foundation
Introduction
NSF projects make a central contribution to NGI goals by leveraging extensive
campus and industry partnerships to connect about 100 leading universities with a
high performance network fabric, interconnecting this fabric with that of other
Federal and foreign research networks, implementing and testing advanced
technologies, and supporting hundreds of advanced applications.
The present goals of the NSF programs for high performance connections reflect
all aspects of the NGI: high performance connections to about 100 universities
and their research partners, with QoS technology, supporting hundreds of
meritorious applications.
Tasks
NSF has a two-phase strategy to build fabric for the Goal 2.1 advanced network.
The first task will be to significantly expand and enhance NSF's existing program
for high performance connections to the vBNS network to serve about 100 leading
universities and to link them to their research partners by improving the
interconnections among the vBNS and other Federal research networks. NSF will
leverage contributions from Internet2 organization and member universities toward
campus and regional infrastructure, as well as national coordination. The second
task will be to begin to test and deploy Goal 1 technologies and Goal 3
applications. At the same time, NSF will begin the formation of a formal,
national organization of universities to plan and coordinate their role in the
NGI and related efforts on an ongoing basis. In Phase 2, NSF will build on
lessons learned from Phase I and work with other agencies to design and implement
a more unified Federal research network that can better serve the entire research
community of interest.
Metrics will focus first on the number and capability of interconnected
institutions and later on the extent of successful deployment of Goal 1
technologies and Goal 3 applications.
In Phase I, NSF will connect about 100 leading research universities and their
research partners with a high performance fabric by performing the following.
Interconnect the vBNS to Federal research nets
-
Work with NASA, DARPA, and DoD and other agencies in the Joint Engineering Team
to establish optimal interconnection points for the Federal research networks.
Build or expand interconnects at SDSC and Ames in California, at Perryman in
Maryland, at the Chicago AADS NAP, and at other sites to establish a robust
system that also supports efficient routing. Focus on the NSF supported STAR-TAP
in Chicago as an interconnection point where Federal networks can exchange
research traffic with similar networks from other countries.
-
Support high performance GigaPOPs and other interconnects at about 20 locations
designated by connected universities and the Internet2 organization in addition
to the Federal interconnects. Coordinate Internet2 and Federal interconnects for
interoperability and shared experimentation with NGI technologies and
applications.
Interconnect the fabric to foreign high performance research nets
-
Model future interconnections on the NSF agreement with Canada's Research and
Engineering Network CA*net II that identifies specific institutions participating
in the research partnership for high performance networking. (Test the use of
Border Gateway Protocol ( BGP) communities, tag switching, or other technologies
to identify and route the high performance traffic of the designated sites.)
-
Use the new NSF High performance International Internet Services grant program
(NSF 97-106) to leverage the interests of other nations. Request consortium
proposals for partial NSF funding from foreign networks and institutions working
with U.S. institutions. Suggest interconnection for research partnerships at the
STAR-TAP, that is, the "Science, Technology and Research Transit Access
Point" (http://www.startap.net/), at
the Ameritech Advanced Data Services Network Access Point in Chicago.
-
Expand the NSF supported STAR-TAP to support additional high performance
interconnections of Federal and foreign research networks. Use this "common
point of contact" approach to resolve problems of support for transit
traffic and of issues surrounding multiple AUPs (acceptable use policies).
Complete campus connections to the vBNS
-
Five supercomputer centers and 59 campuses were awarded partial funding for
connections in FY 1997. Each raised at least 50 percent matching funds locally,
and pledged to support the resulting high performance connections for an
indefinite period after the 2-year funding of the award. Most are connecting to
the NSF vBNS national backbone at DS3 and OC-3 rates.
-
Award about 35 new connections in FY 1998, using NGI funding to increase awards
to achieve the more aggressive performance goals of the NGI. NGI funds will
enable the connection of the targeted institutions at higher speeds and earlier
than would be possible with existing NSF funding alone. This improvement is a key
requirement for the overall NGI program Goals 1 through 3.
-
Upgrade the vBNS fabric as often as is feasible (now operating at OC-12). The
vBNS cooperative agreement fits NGI Goal 2.1 very well. It calls for a "leading
edge but stable" network that is always at a level of performance beyond what can
be purchased on the market. It will be upgraded, accordingly, as newer
technologies become available, and must be upgraded initially to support the
larger number of institutions and interconnects called for in the NGI.
-
Upgrade existing campus connections as required to meet NGI goals. Institutions
now connecting at DS3 rates must be upgraded to OC-3 to meet the NGI performance
objectives. This will require additional funding of NGI, in some cases, and the
continued development of regional and campus infrastructure in many locations.
Supporting access from rural or remote sites
-
Use the EPSCoR program (Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research)
to increment NSF awards for university connections in certain states in which
network access is more difficult or expensive. (The EPSCoR states are: Alabama,
Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Montana,
Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont,
West Virginia, and Wyoming, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.)
-
This program can provide an additional $200,000 supplement to EPSCoR institutions
that have otherwise met all the criteria for a high performance connections.
Work with the Internet2 organization (the University Corporation for Advanced
Internet Development) and others to help coordinate the future development of the
advanced networking fabric:
-
NSF supported workshops over the past 3 years have led to the definition of
university requirements for advanced networking and have facilitated the
organization of over 100 leading universities as "Internet2."
-
Internet2 now represents essentially the same constituency as that of the NSF
high performance connections program.
-
Internet2, which has now incorporated as the University Corporation of Advanced
Internet Development, will represent the research and development needs of the
universities involved. The new organization will play an essential role in the
national coordination of advanced networking projects and activities such as:
 |
Design and manage compatible GigaPOPs to test and support network
interoperability
|
|
|
Coordinate national scale development and testing of advanced network
technologies for QoS, security, measurements, etc.
|
|
|
Facilitate national scale applications among the universities and their research
partners
|
In Phase 2, NSF will work with partner universities and with other Federal
agencies to implement a more unified, high performance network fabric:
-
Build on lessons of previous tasks
-
Coordinate system of GigaPOPs and other interconnects
-
Implement managed, interoperable QoS and other services across connection fabric
Milestones
|
FY1998 (1Q)
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Interconnect the vBNS with Federal research nets
|
|
FY1998 (1Q)
|
Facilitate initial national scale applications
|
|
FY1998 (2Q)
|
Complete about 100 campus connections to the vBNS
(building on 29 in 2Q 1997, 35 more 4Q 1997, 35 more apply 3Q 1997)
|
|
FY1998 (2Q)
|
Form a national organization of leading universities to coordinate
the development of the QoS fabric
|
|
FY1998 (3Q)
|
Interconnect the vBNS to foreign research nets
|
|
FY1998 (4Q)
|
Coordinate national scale testing of advanced network technologies
|
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FY1999 (1Q)
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Coordinate compatible gigaPOPs for QoS, etc.
|
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FY1999 (2Q)
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Upgrade remaining campus connections to OC-3 and above
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FY1999 (2Q)
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Facilitate national scale QoS applications
|
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FY1999 (4Q)
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Implement unified network structure with partner universities and agencies
|
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3.1.3.2
NASA
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National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Strategy
NASA will leverage the NASA Research and Education Network (NREN) in meeting its
NGI goals. NASA will provide both a high performance network application testbed
and a network research testbed for the NASA community and its partners. These
testbeds exist at the various NASA centers now and can be interconnected via NREN
thus providing virtual testbeds and harnessing the expertise distributed
throughout NASA. In NGI Goal 2.1, NASA will focus on delivering a leading edge
application environment. Therefore, NASA will (1) enable next generation
application demonstrations across the network; internetwork with other Federal
agencies and academic and industry partners at both the IP and ATM service level;
and deploy advanced networking services such as IPv6, multicast, QoS, security
and network management tools.
Enabling Applications
The NASA community and its Federal partners have many applications that will
require the facilities of the NGI to be fully successful. Specifically, they will
require access to a high performance network that is compatible with the current
Internet. NASA plans to leverage the NREN ATM infrastructure to provide a high
performance network to NGI application partners.
Internetworking (NGI Exchange "NGIX" and GigaPOPs)
Coordination among the Federal networks and the university-initiated GigaPOPs is
a crucial element to NGI success. This will involve developing and implementing
an internetworking architecture among the network and their WAN service
providers, namely, Sprint, MCI, and AT&T.
Three facilities for interexchange will be established initially to support
internetworking: one on the East Coast (Washington, DC), one on the West Coast
(Silicon Valley, Ames Research center) and one in the Midwest (Chicago). These
exchanges will support both IP and ATM bearer services. NASA will lead the
development and support of the West Coast Exchange, while NSF will lead the
development and support of the Midwest exchange.
Additionally, NASA will peer with universities through the proposed Internet2
GigaPOP architecture. Initial interconnections are planned at the Midwest
Exchange and the West Coast Exchange with others to be added as application
requirements dictate.
NASA will leverage its experience in high speed satellite data communications
from the Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS) program and attempt
to make use of existing NASA satellite resources, as well as seek out satellite
services from commercial sources. These high speed links could provide a means of
connecting international testbeds to the NGI (for example, GIBN -- Global
Interoperability Broadband Network) (see Figure 4).
Figure 4. Proposed NGI Architecture.
Advanced Network Services
Several advanced network services will require extensive research as they are
carried out under NGI Goal 1. Goal 2.1 will rapidly adopt these technologies as
they are proven in order to bring them to the NGI application community.
Interoperability testing will be paramount to roll out these new services.
Initially, NASA's network will be IPv4, native multicast, best effort network
over ATM to the end user application community. The network will rapidly evolve
to offer additional addressing, priority, and management services.
Milestones and Schedule
|
Enabling Applications |
|
FY1998 (3Q)
|
Implement experimental OC-12 service at three sites
|
|
FY1998 (4Q)
|
Upgrade select NGI users to end-to-end 10+ Mbps LAN access
|
|
FY1998 (4Q)
|
Ensure minimum of three NASA sites at production OC-12
|
|
FY1998 (4Q)
|
Test and implement Available Bit Rate Service
|
|
FY1999 (1Q)
|
Test and implement Constant Bit Rate Service
|
|
FY1999 (2Q)
|
Test and implement Switched Virtual Circuits for bandwidth on demand
|
|
FY1998 (1Q) - FY1999 (4Q)
|
Establish international high performance connections supporting application
partnerships
|
|
FY2000 (2Q)
|
Implement 100+ Mbps LAN access to three NREN users
|
|
FY1998 (1Q) - FY2000 (4Q)
|
Support testing for efficient, low bit error rate interfaces among terrestrial
nodes, satellites, and mobile wireless networks
|
|
FY1998 (1Q) - FY2000 (1Q)
|
Support the development and validation of hybrid communications architecture
models; leverage activities performed under NREN and program
|
|
FY2000 (4Q)
|
Demonstrate with 100+ Mbps end-to-end communications over wireless and wireline
networks
|
|
FY2002 (4Q)
|
Provide at least 100+ Mbps to end users' desktops in a wide area environment by
providing OC-48 (2.5 Gbps) service to support collaborative multimedia
applications
|
|
Internetworking (NGIX and GigaPoPs) |
|
FY1998 (3Q)
|
Interconnect NASA testbeds with at least two NGI Partners
|
|
FY1998 (3Q)
|
Scope and design network of networks architecture and network management and
control with Federal partners; leverage partner investments to provide target
OC-3 connection to sites using an interagency OC-12 backbone
|
|
FY1998 (4Q)
|
Upgrade NGIX to OC-12 capability
|
|
FY1999 (1Q)
|
Interconnect NASA to two other NGI networks at OC-12
|
|
FY1999 (4Q)
|
Test network-to-network links at OC-12
|
|
FY1999 (4Q)
|
Establish will-carry and peering arrangements with Federal research networking
partners
|
|
FY1999 (4Q)
|
Establish peering arrangements at NGI Exchange Points
|
|
FY1999 (4Q)
|
Establish peering arrangements at GigaPOPs
|
|
FY1999 (4Q)
|
Establish cross-agencies collaboration strategy and cost sharing agreements
|
|
FY1998 (1Q) - FY1999 (4Q)
|
Interconnect at least one NASA site and at least one university facility
to ACTS
|
|
FY1998 (1Q) - FY2000 (4Q)
|
Cooperate with international networks as appropriate to meet the needs of
NASA partners and address NASA international connectivity requirements
|
|
FY1998 (2Q) - FY2000 (4Q)
|
Interconnect international WANs to NGI Exchange Points
|
|
FY2000 (4Q)
|
Internetwork NASA testbeds with other Federal agency networks to create an
interoperable interagency network of networks
|
|
FY1998 (1Q) - FY2000 (4Q)
|
Pursue private sector satellite service partners to further technical
achievements of ACTS program (esp. High Data Rate program -- HDR).
|
|
Advanced Network Services |
|
FY1998 (3Q)
|
Implement next generation network management and monitoring for the NASA
testbed
|
|
FY1998 (4Q)
|
Interconnect NASA networks with select broadband links to identify and
evaluate network management and control, security, interoperability, and
other technology issues
|
|
FY1998 (4Q)
|
Interconnect NASA testbed to five NASA scientific and research LANs
|
|
FY2000 (2Q)
|
Implement secure network technology across NASA testbed(s)
|
|
FY1998 (1Q) - FY2000 (4Q)
|
Build a virtual NASA testbed through collaborative efforts of existing
NASA centers
|
|
FY2000 (2Q)
|
Implement Layer-2 security technology at five NASA sites
|
|
FY2000 (4Q)
|
Implement IPv6 security technology at five NASA sites
|
|
FY2001 (4Q)
|
Implement network security technologies and policies across NASA testbeds
|
|
FY2001 (4Q)
|
Implement IPv6 security technology on NGI Exchanges
|
|
FY2002 (4Q)
|
Develop and implement interagency security policies
|
|
|
3.1.3.3
DoD
|
Department of Defense
The following paragraphs describe participation of the DoD High Performance
Computing Modernization Program (HPCMP) and its constituent Defense Research and
Engineering Network (DREN) in the NGI. The degree of participation will be
commensurate with NGI funding arrangements: The Level I cooperation proposal
assumes no NGI funds; the proposed Level 2 and 3 activities, participation and
collaboration, will require NGI funds for any new NGI-specific sites that are
established. Distinctions between Level 2 and Level 3 efforts include (1) Level 2
contributes the DREN Intersite Service Contract (DREN/ DISC) production fabric as
a transit medium of convenience, and (2) Level 3 expands the scope of the
Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS) ATM Internetwork to include
NGI collaborators.
Level I: Cooperation with NGI Collaborators
Establish gateway connectivity among DREN and select aggregation points, such as
the STAR-TAP node in Chicago through the DREN/DISC. Support access among
NGI-connected sites and DREN sites is through this gateway connection. DREN sites
are typically DoD laboratories, DoD-sponsored high performance computing centers,
and affiliate universities. DISC may provide additional gateway connections at
locations of natural affinity, such as DoD HPCMP's Programming Environment and
Training (PET) affiliates. To maximally leverage NGI outreach, particularly to
the Internet2 community, these connections may be attached to the nearest
GigaPOP.
Level 2: Participation Through Provisioning Selected New NGI Nodes
With NGI funding, HPCMP will support IP or ATM delivery services to university or
agency sites through the DREN/DISC contract. It is anticipated that these will
typically be sites near DREN nodes, thereby benefiting from shorter access
distances and reduced access carrier costs. To meet Goal 2.1 objectives, these
would initially have OC-3 services. For NGI client sites, DREN/DISC would provide
service delivery points and transit carrier fabric for subscriber network traffic
to reach other service delivery points, as well as possible further routing
across collaborator networks to other target destinations.
Level 3: Collaboration via the DREN Testbed/ACTS ATM Internetwork (AAI)
HPCMP will support subscription of new NGI-sponsored sites to the ACTS ATM
Internetwork (AAI). These NGI sites will be encouraged to collaborate with HPCMP
participant sites or AAI research partner sites (that is, DARPA-funded nodes).
Principal objectives of this arrangement include advancing the AAI high
performance network research agenda, as well as supporting applications or
experiments requiring high performance network resources.
Principal near-term network research objectives include establishing Peer
Network-to-Network Interface (P-NNI) hierarchy across ATM domains, network
performance measurement, congestion management, IP and ATM address resolution
mechanisms, and ATM signaling behavior across multiple providers. Another way to
add new AAI nodes is to establish gateway agreements with other providers, such
as through NSF for select vBNS attached collaborator organizations.
Milestones
|
FY1998 - FY2001
|
Establish and support gateway connection to STAR-TAP
|
|
FY1998 - FY2001
|
Establish additional gateway connections as appropriate
|
|
FY1998 - FY2001
|
Add selected sites to DREN/DISC
|
|
FY1998 - FY2001
|
Add selected collaboratory sites to ACTS ATM Internetwork
|
|
|
|
 
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