Overview

From the time MREN was first established, many members of its community have been engaged in research projects that address the challenges of designing and implementing high performance networks. The MREN consortium has always worked to ensure that particular quality of service guarantees are available for the advanced applications of its constituent community. However, MREN was established to be particularly attuned and responsive to the requirements of the advanced scientific community. Meeting this goal requires an end-to-end architectural approach, which requires a fairly complete knowledge of the complete architecture and of all management parameters. It also requires guidelines for the design, implementation and management of numerous provisioning options, including addressing schemes, standards (especially for interoperability and routing), switching, performance benchmarks, monitoring, analysis, and adjustment, security, and DWDM-based wavelength switching.

Applications

The majority of MREN research projects are formulated to meet the networking requirements of advanced extremely data-intensive applications, which support leading edge scientific research. Some of these large-scale e-Science applications require the high performance transport of many terabytes, and even petabytes of data among multiple sites, regional, national and global. In addition to high performance, many such applications require sophisticated processes, for example, fine-grained control of remote specialized remote instrumentation. Supporting large scale e-science applications also requires support for cross-cutting technologies dependent on networking, such as remote access to large scale scientific instruments, streaming high-definition media, specialized visualization displays, data mining, high-performance distributed supercomputing, Grid, and other high performance computing facilities, and real-time collaboration with distant colleagues.

Grids

Many of these applications are being developed on distributed computational Grids. The MREN research community is participating in various initiatives that are creating fundamentally new type of information technology infrastructure. For example, they are part of the Grid community that is developing new standards, through the Global Grid Forum, for infrastructure that "virtualizes" organizations, communities and services. Grid services provide for innovative capabilities that allow for the dynamic discovery, integration and utilization of such resources as infrastructure, information, data and other resources. The Grid concept was first demonstrated during the Supercomputing '95 I-WAY project, for which MREN provided network support with many other organizations throughout the US. Subsequent to I-WAY, research communities world-wide established Grid research projects.

One of the results of the I-WAY project was the development of the Globus Toolkit, which supports Grid service processes. Globus is now being developed within the context of the OGF standards group's Open Grid Services Architecture. The Globus development project is being led by Ian Foster, the Mathematics and Computer Science Division of Argonne National Laboratory, and Carl Kesselman, at the University of California, Information Sciences Institute. (ref: www.globus.org) MREN researcher project members are using Globus in various projects for dynamic network resource provisioning.

Grid processes require access to network resources that can be utilized flexibility. For example, these processes must be able to differentiate among multiple classes of network services, with different requirements, and utilize them under changing conditions - while optimizing overall network resource utilization. Much currently implemented data networking technology attempts to supporting a highly defined set of applications on a common infrastructure. Some deployments attempt to support many different types of applications with a wide range of requirements on a single common infrastructure, for example, packet networks offering best effort service. New types of services are based on flexible, common core infrastructure that dynamically changes to meet the precise variable needs of specific applications.

In order to provide end-to-end services for Grid based applications, application-directed processes must be able request services and have those requests translated into the appropriate network resources, for example, data flows with specific types of traffic shaping, determinate allocated paths, performance guarantees linked to comprehensive measurement and analysis, and dynamic adjustments as requirements and network conditions change. MREN has undertaken a variety of research projects that are investigating a wide range of next generation research areas.

Deterministic Programmable Networks

Many of these advanced networking initiatives are striving to move beyond today’s “best-effort” networks, to those that are more deterministic, in other words, data attributes are knowable. This goal is one that has been endorsed by a various communities of researchers.

<www.acm.org/cacm>

Basic Research Projects

 Various MREN research projects involve the following areas:

• Defining high performance network requirements of data intensive scientific applications
• Defining methods for applications to request resources from network infrastructure
• Researching new access methods for resources at the network edge
• Researching and developing new types of network “middleware” that accept application resource requests and translate them such that they are understood by low-level network processes.
• Experimenting with various types of scheduling and resource reservation protocols and methods
• Experimenting with new methods for dynamic lightpath provisioning over switched wavelength optical networks.
• Experimenting with new types of DWDM components
• Developing new methods for optical network measurement and analysis
• Creating and deploying new infrastructure and methods on optical networking testbeds.

These types of project generate valuable information on performance optimization for a variety of scientific research applications utilizing next generation IP-over-optical networks. The information is assisting application developers as well as network designers in configuration, management, and tuning for the types of data flows generated by varied applications. This information is particularly useful in developing optimal network configuration processes for the specific types of data flow attributes required by such applications. 

Several projects are related to new types of signaling from Grid-based application requests for data-flow fulfillments with specific performance requirements related directly to network resources. Other projects are integrating Grid middleware with optical provisioning.  These projects include those developing dynamic wavelength (“lambda”) based network services based on Dense Wave Division Multiplexing (DWDM).  These capabilities are related to those that govern resources through policy controls, such as those based on the IETF AAA standard. Such capabilities are not being develop to replace packet-based routed networks, but to provide supplemental capabilities. These projects are investigating new methods of optical switching, such as those employing MEMS components, and experiments with fiber qualified for wavelength based services.

OMNInet

Several members of the MREN community are participating in the OMNInet research project. Increasingly, next-generation optical metro networks are being recognized as key enablers for all sectors of digital economies. The Optical Metro Network Initiative OMNI project was established to create a reference model for a wide-range of next generation metro communication services, based on advanced photonic technologies. OMNI is an inter-organizational cooperative research partnership. As part of this program, the research partners, including SBC, Nortel, iCAIR at Northwestern, EVL at UIC, MCS at Argonne National Laboratory, and CANARIE have created the world’s most advanced metro network testbed (OMNInet), based on leading-edge photonic technology, including lambda switching. On this large-scale optical metro testbed, the partnership is conducting trials of photonic-based GE and 10GE services (providing speeds of 10 Gigabits per second). The testbed interlinks photonic nodes at Northwestern, UIC, StarLight and a large telco hotel in Chicago.

These photonic nodes are interlinked with dedicated fiber. The wavelength based services being are high-performance, highly scalable, and manageable at all levels. These services are based on new types of photonic-based components, architecture and techniques that support multiple interconnected lightwave (lambda) paths within fiber strands. OMNInet employs Dense Wave Division Multiplexing (DWDM), which allows transmitting multiple light frequencies through a single fiber. Each frequency can simultaneously communicate data - substantially increasing the capacity of the fiber. Traditionally, these techniques have been used for long-haul services. However, newer, related technologies are now being designed specifically to optimize local digital communication services, such as those within metro areas. Key components are adjustable lasers and minute mirrors that control light wavelengths to route traffic. Within these types of optical networks, the data plane is segmented from the control plane. The control plane for OMNInet has been provisioned on MREN. (For summary information see OMNInet Overview, for more detailed information see OMNInet.)

StarLight

MREN participated in the development of a next generation advanced networking exchange - StarLight, the “optical STAR TAP” (Science Technology and Research Transit Access Point), an advanced networking interchange facility and proving ground for experimental networking. Experimental capabilities at StarLight enable experimentation with innovative methods for providing network services to Global e-Science (www.startap.net/starlight) The StarLight project enables the MREN community to experiment with models of multiple next generation advanced network services. StarLight is a major exchange for the Global Lambda Integrated Facility (GLIF), and provides services as a GLIF Open Lambda Exchange (GOLE), enabling data exchange at all layers

Next Generation NAP

In 1993, the MREN community assisted in designing and developing the Network Access Point (NAP) in Chicago, which was created as a common aggregation point and peering point among WAN ISPs, including commercial providers such as Sprint, MCI, specialized networks, such as the vBNS, and federal agency networks such as ESnet, DREN and NREN. However, the MREN community developed that concept further, incorporating notions of regional sharing of infrastructure, by defining a network peering point where multiple local entities and institutions could connect and peer with each other. MREN was established as the prototypical Gigapop and next generation NAP.  For over ten years, this Gigapop concept has supported a communal sharing of infrastructure among local peer institutions, national and international networks and among selected ISPs. Now, the MREN community is designing the new: next generation advanced network exchange – based on advanced optical technology.

High Performance Campus Networks

MREN has always participated in projects that have developed methods for integrating regional networking facilities with campus research network infrastructures. Many of these infrastructures are currently being migrated to newer technologies. These new developments tend to be focused on GE and 10 GE backbones, and most new links are to such backbones. Another issue that is being addressed is the development of guidelines for integrating specific research facilities and sites with regional infrastructure, including suggestions on application tuning and requirements signaling, feedback, and adjustment.

MREN Support for Network Research Testbeds

MREN provides support for multiple experimental network research testbeds, locally, in the metro area, state-wide, regional, national, and international. Currently, MREN is supporting multiple advanced network testbeds including the National Science Foundation's Global Environment for Network Innovation (GENI). Among these activities, is support for the International GENI (iGENI) initiative, with the International Center for Advanced Innovations (iCAIR) at Northwestern University, the Electronic Visualization Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Chicago, the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology, and multiple international partners.

© 2003 MREN

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