TransLight/Pacific Wave NSF-Award #

Transcription

1 TransLight/Pacific Wave NSF-Award # Annual Report (revised) 03/01/ /28/2006 Program Manager: Kevin L. Thompson NSF/OCI Office of Cyber-Infrastructure Principal Investigator John Silvester Professor of Electrical Engineering University of Southern California Los Angeles, CA (mobile) (fax) Co-Principal Investigator Ron Johnson Vice-President for Information Technology Vice Provost Associate Professor University of Washington 1

2 1. Introduction The primary objective of the Translight/PacificWave project (TLPW) is to build out the Pacific Wave international R&E exchange capability on the West Coast and to provide support for the international R&E links landing there. The project enables connectivity between US research and education networks and international links landing on the West Coast and provides technical and engineering support to configure the exchange connections to enable scientific collaborations that rely on advanced networking capabilities. In addition to building out the exchange infrastructure, the project provides funding to help defray equipment and landing costs for several international R&E links landing on the West Coast. With the budget available we are supporting the landing of two 10G circuits from Australia through Hawaii to Seattle and Los Angeles and providing engineering and technical support for other links (including enabling use of the IEEAF donated links from Tokyo to Seattle, Gloriad partners, and the TRANSPAC2 IRNC project). Later in the project, and as the budget allows, we will support additional international R&E links coming into the Pacific Wave exchange and also work with other IRNC awardees to rationalize R&E network connectivity between the US and the Western Rim of the Pacific. This project will greatly enhances the ability of US scientists to collaborate with researchers in East Asia and Australia (and beyond through other connected networks) and provides access to a diverse set of significant scientific resources throughout the region. 2. Project Structure The project is based at the University of Southern California where it provides partial support for the Principal Investigator, a part-time project support person, and part time of a technical specialist. There are several sub-awards. In year 1 of the project there are two sub-awards: the Corporation for Educational Network Initiatives in California (CENIC) and the Pacific Northwest Gigapop (PNWG). These two non-profit organizations provide network capability to the Research and Education communities in the Western part of the United States and they jointly operate the exchange facility called Pacific Wave. The project provides funding to CENIC and PNWG to operate the exchange in support of the National and International Research and Education Networks (RENs) that interconnect through its facilities. Pacific Wave operates a distributed exchange through which any two participating networks can peer directly, no matter which of the PW points of presence (POP) that they connect to. This provides great flexibility and economy to the participating networks and greatly facilitates network interconnect. 2

3 The other key partners at this stage of the project are: the Australian Academic Research Network (AARNet) and the University of Hawaii. AARNet operates a National REN (NREN) for Australia and has contracted with Southern Cross for two trans-pacific 10 Gigabit links. TLPW is partnering with AARNet to land these links in the US and backhaul them to Pacific Wave exchange facilities in Seattle and Los Angeles. In addition, TLPW is acquiring end-end grooming and routing equipment for the US side of the links. CENIC and PNWG provide engineering, operations and management of the US side of these links and provide for peering through the Pacific Wave distributed exchange. Figure 1: Overview of the AARNet SX-Transport Transpacific Links The links pass through Hawaii (see Fig. 1), the Northern route passing through Oahu, and the Southern link passing through the Big Island (Hawaii). The TLPW project, in conjunction with the University of Hawaii, is also acquiring equipment to allow connection of these links to the University of Hawaii and also to the important Big Island Observatory Network that provides connectivity to the various observatories located on Mauna Kea on the Big Island. In year 2 of the project, the University of Hawaii will take on some responsibility for managing equipment to support this connectivity in Hawaii and will be added as a sub-contractor to the project. The University of Hawaii is also exploring ways to enhance the observatory access and trying to acquire a means to crossconnect the links in Hawaii to enhance flexibility and robustness of the design. The project provides a fixed amount of funding to CENIC and PNWG for engineering, support, and maintenance of the facilities that they provide and operate. Equipment to support the connections is acquired by CENIC and PNWG (and later by the University of Hawaii) to support these links. These equipment purchases are explicitly approved by the USC P.I. and are reimbursed by an add-on to the sub-contracts. Thus the equipment 3

4 money resides in the USC account until spent, providing greater flexibility and oversight in allocation of project resources. PNWG and CENIC are responsible for providing NOC (Network Operations Center) services for the links and for working with other NOCs in problem resolution. In addition, PNWG and CENIC provide a measurement infrastructure that can be utilized by the IRNC measurement projects. 3. Accomplishments in Year 1 In year one of the project, the following was accomplished. 1) The Pacific Wave distributed Exchange facility was put into full-scale operation. Many National and International R&E networks were connected into the Pacific Wave Exchange and peerings established between those networks. (see Fig. 2) NRENS and other International R&E networks that are supported by Pacific Wave and that connect to the PacificWave exchange include: AARNet, GEMNET, KREONet, MIMOS (Malaysia), Qatar Foundation, SINET, SINGAREN, TWAREN, WIDE (Japan) (over the IEEAF link). US Networks that connect to the Pacific Wave Exchange include: Abilene, CalREN- HPR, DREN, ESNET, NASA, NLR-PacketNet, PacificNorthwestGigapop (PNWG) Figure 2: REN s connecting to Pacific Wave (as of March 2006) As of March 2006, there were three points of presence for Pacific Wave: Los Angeles, Seattle, and Sunnyvale, with Los Angeles having three locations (at different carrier facilities), where a network can connect (see Figure 3.). In Sunnyvale, the exchange also provides a connection to PAIX. 4

5 Figure 3: Pacific Wave Exchange (as of March 2006) Connectivity between the sites is provided over 10Gbs links provided by CENIC s CalREN and the National LambdaRail (NLR). Traffic is carried to the appropriate POP by the use of VLANS over the shared layer 2 fabric. (see Fig. 4). Figure 4. Pacific Wave VLAN mappings (as of March 2006). 5

6 2) The northern AARNet-HI-US link was put into operation (see Fig. 5). This link is terminated on a router in Seattle and then links into the Seattle POP of Pacific Wave where it peers with several other networks including Abilene. Figure 5: Details of West Coast Backhaul to Pacific Wave Exchange points. This link was put into operation in experimental mode (utilizing Procket equipment) in late April 2005 and put into production mode in May 2005 utilizing a Juniper router in Seattle. 3) Detailed design of the Southern AARNet-HI-US was completed and the necessary backhaul from Los Osos (the landing point) to LA over the CENIC CalREN backbone was completed (see Fig. 5). This was accomplished by acquiring fiber (IRU) from the landing point in Los Osos to the nearest CENIC POP in San Luis Obispo (SLO) and lighting an additional wave on the CENIC backbone form SLO to Los Angeles (via Santa Barbara). This Southern link will be operated as 8x1Ge channels and will be supported by Cisco equipment located in Hawaii and Los Angeles. This Los Angeles can also provide cross-connect with links to the Seattle POP for continuation of a lightpath. Matching equipment is being installed in Sydney by AARNet to complete the end-end configuration. There are significant delays in delivery of this equipment partially due to the fact that it is a donation from CISCO. By this time AARNnet will have completed most of its fiber network and will be able to deliver dedicated 1G connections to its key customers, allowing for dedicated end-end GigE lightpaths when needed. 6

7 4) Details of the Hawaii Big Island connectivity were developed (see Fig. 6). Figure 6. Details of Hawaii interconnect. Local interconnect from the landing point on the big island to the Observatory network is planned through the local cable network provider. The details were not finalized as of March 1, 2006 but it is anticipated that connectivity will be completed by August The University of Hawaii partners are developing this part of the project. It is taking fairly extensive negotiations with local providers. Similar challenges exist in getting more bandwidth to the volcano summit since there is a monopoly provider on this route. 5) Assistance to other IRNC projects. TLPW assisted other IRNC projects to make use of Pacific Wave exchange facilities: Transpac2 connects in Los Angeles; KREONet2 connects in Seattle (Gloriad Partner). Abilene connects to Pacific Wave in both LA and Seattle and it is anticipated that connection to NLR Packetnet will be implemented in Seattle in the first quarter of year 2. Plans for providing connectivity to other NLR services for International Networks (at layer 2 and 1) are in development. 6) igrid 05 Pacific Wave provided major assistance to the igrid conference which was held in San Diego in September Measurement of the traffic through the exchange during the conference is shown in Fig. 7. (Note that this does not include traffic that was carried over dedicated links (lightpaths.) Many international science collaborations were highlighted at this meeting. (see 7

8 Figure 7. PW Exchange Traffic during igrid 05. 7) Supercomputing 05. Pacific Wave provided major assistance to the Supercomputing 05 (SC 05) conference held in Seattle. Approximately 0.5 Tbps of bandwidth were brought to the show floor with most of the international traffic coming through PacificWave. Measurement of the traffic carried over the exchange during the conference (layer 3 connections only) is shown in Fig. 8a and b. Figure 8a: PW Exchange traffic during SC 05 (LA-SNY) Figure 8b: PW Exchange Traffic during SC 05 (SNY-SEA) 8

9 8) Bi-weekly Teleconferences. Regular (biweekly) teleconferences were held with all TLPW participants, allowing for problem resolution and network planning. One problem we had was that there was no convenient opportunity to get an all-hands face to face meeting. Rather the various participants could only get together in sub-groups at Internet2 or APAN meetings. This was definitely sub-optimal in that some issues which could have been readily resolved in an all-hands face-to-face meeting took significantly longer to finalize. 9) Project Website A rudimentary project website was developed. This was not a priority in the first year of the project as we were putting more focus on getting things operational. More focus will be put on it in year 2 and beyond, now that the exchange and the trans-pacific links are (almost completely) operational. In particular, more information on projects utilizing the facilities and summary statistics of link and exchange usage will be included. We are planning staffing changes in year two of the project to facilitate this. 4. Activities against Milestones Listed below are the original milestones taken from the Statement of Work (as modified to reflect the final budget allocation). Next to each milestone we present commentary on the status of this component of the project. In addition, we list other activities that have been accomplished during the first year of the project. Year 1 milestones from SOW: [1] Develop detailed subcontract statements of work with CENIC and PNWG for engineering and technical support for the project. Completed. [2] Develop a memorandum of understanding with AARNet for use, support and operation of the links. There has been significant discussion on this topic. The resulting agreement is for shared management of the equipment and links. We still need to fully document these agreements and we are working with Chris Hancock, CEO of AARNet to complete these agreements. There was much complexity involved here since the detailed design of the Southern Link was not finalized until late in the year, and there is ongoing discussion regarding what facilities it will connect to in Los Angeles [3] Develop agreement with the University of Hawaii for acquisition, location and use of the equipment to be located in Hawaii. Partially completed. There is continued evolution of the project requirements with associated potential for change in equipment requirements. In addition, local conditions may require that some of the equipment be relocated in year 2. [4] Procure and put into service equipment to enable the Australia-Hawaii-Seattle link. 9

10 Completed. The Northern Link (Sydney-Oahu-Seattle) went into production operation utilizing a Juniper router in May [5] Procure and put into service equipment to enable the Australia-Hawaii-Los Osos (California) link. Partially completed. There was extensive discussion on the equipment needed for this part of the design. Also delays in the implementation of the AARNet optical network made urgent completion of this sub-task less critical. By the end of the first year of the project, there was agreement on the equipment configuration. Equipment for the landing point to Los Angeles backhaul had been installed (see next item). ETE grooming equipment for Los Angeles and Hawaii was configured and will be ordered in the first quarter of the year 2. Equivalent equipment for the Australian end of the link (being procured by AARNet and not covered under the project) is not expected until the 2 nd quarter of year 2. [6] Procure and put into service equipment and waves from Los Osos to the Pacific Wave exchange point in Los Angeles. Completed (but not in the first quarter as originally planned due to technical difficulties). [7] Work with AARNet and University of Hawaii to enable desired peerings in Seattle including peering with Abilene Completed. [8] Work with AARNet and the University of Hawaii to enable desired peerings in Los Angeles, including peering with Abilene. Reengineer these peerings as needed. Not finalized, pending completion of the Southern Link. Several discussions on what peerings are necessary in Los Angeles have been held. [9] Provide NOC service and interaction with other NOC entities (including AARNet NOC and Abilene NOC). Completed and ongoing. [10] Pursue cooperation with TRANSPAC. Initial discussions have identified the following opportunities for collaboration and further exploration. Some discussions have taken place. As of the end of the first year no specific opportunities have been acted on. [11] Explore collaboration with Gloriad and work with that project to help them secure appropriate links and Pacific Wave landing and interconnection with Gloriad project and Gloriad partner resources. Discussions have taken place and Pacific Wave is utilized by the Gloriad project. Discussions will continue in later stages of the project. [12] Both AARNet and Pacific Wave have extensive measurement capabilities in place. We will work with the NSF-designated measurement project to provide these measurement as part of the overall IRNC measurement effort Discussions with IRNC measurement team have taken place and Pacific Wave works with measurement efforts as is relevant for the project. Since Pacific Wave is an exchange rather than a link the measurement efforts have different significance. Normally, measurements need to be made in collaboration with the link owners that utilize Pacific Wave exchange facilities. Pacific Wave has developed some aggregate statistics collection tools that give an overall picture of the utilization of the exchange. 10

11 [13] Attend and contribute to IRNC meetings; attend Internet2 and APAN meetings (international). Completed. TLPW participated in IRNC meetings and calls. TLPW staff attended and participated in Internet2 meetings (May 2005 in Washington, DC, and September 2005 in Philadelphia)and APAN 20 (Taipei, August 2005) and APAN 21 (Tokyo, January 2006). Presentations on the status of the Pacific Wave exchange and the TLPW project were given at these meetings and are available at the project website. [14] Request REU support for students to be used to assist in the project. Not done in year 1. [15] Construct Year 2 program plan in consultation with the IRNC Awardees and NSF. Mostly completed. This was complicated by delays in planning for the Southern link and complexities in developing detailed plans for the ground segments in Hawaii. [16] Develop more detailed year 3-5 plans as more information on network developments in Asia emerge. There have been preliminary discussions with New Zealand on their plans for international connectivity. Continued discussion with REANNZ and other Asian Networks continues. In addition, TLPW assisted other IRNC project to make use of PacificWave exchange facilities: Transpac2 connects in Los Angeles; KREONet2 connects in Seattle (Gloriad Partner). Abilene also connects to PacificWave in both LA and Seattle. NRENS and other International R&E networks that are supported by PacificWave and that connect to the PacificWave exchange include AARNet, GEMNET, KREONet, MIMOS (Malaysia), Qatar Foundation, SINET, SINGAREN, TWAREN, WIDE (Japan). Other major activities that have consumed a large amount of time and resources from PacificWave have been the support provided for major International Conferences held on the West Coast: igrid 05 in San Diego and Supercomputing SC 05 in Seattle. Both of these conferences created a very large demand for connectivity both national and international. Much of this connectivity, and especially international connectivity, was provisioned through Pacific Wave facilities and required significant design, engineering, and NOC resources. Conferences such as these are extremely important for US Science since they demonstrate what is possible at the leading edge of Science and Cyberinfrastructure (Computing, Storage, and Networking). 11

12 5. Plan and Proposed Budget for Year Planned Activities in Year 2 In the second year of the project, we propose to accomplish the following: 1. Continue the operational support for the Pacific Wave exchange. 2. Complete the build-out of the Southern Link. 3. Focus on providing support to the Science and Engineering Applications community to enable and facilitate effective use of the advanced networks capabilities provided through IRNC projects in general and TLPW in particular. 4. Increase focus on measurement activities and opportunities. 5. Explore opportunities to directly connect key exchange points in the US, such as direct connection between Translight/PacificWave and Translight/Starlight over dedicated waves as we have done on the West coast between Seattle and Los Angeles (utilizing NLR waves). 6. Build Pacific Wave extension(s) to San Diego to allow CUDI and CLARA (supported through WHREN/LILA) to directly participate in the Pacific Wave exchange. 7. Investigate opportunities to enhance the connectivity in Hawaii, both to the observatories and between the islands thereby increasing flexibility and robustness. 8. Enhance the website to include more measurement statistics and description of projects utilizing the facilities. 9. Continue discussion with other Pacific-Rim-focused R&E networking activities to identify future synergies and opportunities. 5.2 Proposed Budget for Year 2 Not included in this version of the report. 5.3 Detailed Milestones for Year 2 In year 2, we will: [1] Order and install ETE grooming equipment for the Southern Link. Estimated completion of installation in 2 nd quarter of year 2. Note that the estimated time for installation of the Sydney equipment by AARNet is the 2 nd quarter of year 2. [2] Test and put into operation the Southern link. Estimated completion by end of 2 nd quarter of year 2. 12

13 [3] Finalize a memorandum of understanding with AARNet for use, support and operation of the links. Finalize the expected use for the Southern link(s). (The southern link is expected to be configured as 8x1GE lightpaths or separate channels) [4] Finalize the Los Angeles connections to be put in place. We anticipate connections to Pacific Wave exchange (as a backup for AARNet to the Northern Link); a link for the HI observatory network; a lightpath over Pacific Wave to Canarie; and several project specific links through NLR. (see Fig. 9). [5] Further discussions with the University of Hawaii for acquisition, location and use of the equipment to be located in Hawaii. In particular, acquisition of a router to increase the flexibility of the configuration is anticipated. Explore opportunities to interlink the Northern and Southern links to increase flexibility and robustness of the design. This will require acquisition of an inter-island link. Discussions with key carriers are underway but it is premature to speculate on how this can be accomplished and what the cost might be. In addition, using leftover year 1 funds, we will explore and implement where feasible ways to enhance connectivity to the observatories on Mauna Kea. [6] Develop a sub-contract with the University of Hawaii to acquire, install, and operate necessary equipment in support of the project. [7] Continue to work with AARNet and University of Hawaii to enable desired peerings in Seattle. Reengineer these peerings as needed. [8] Work with AARNet and the University of Hawaii to enable desired peerings and connections in Los Angeles. Reengineer these peerings as needed. [9] Continue to provide NOC service and interaction with other NOC entities (including AARNet NOC and Abilene NOC). [10] Pursue cooperation with other IRNC projects including Transpac2 and Gloriad. [11] Provide support to other R&E networks wishing to connect to Pacific Wave. In particular, pursue discussion with REANNZ in their plans to deploy a link from New Zealand to the US through Pacific Wave. Identify opportunities for collaboration especially in support of applications. [12] Work towards providing direct connectivity between Translight/PacificWave and Translight/Starlight to enhance flexibility in supporting connections between US researchers and international collaborators. [13] Extend Pacific Wave to facilitate the connection of the South American networks that participate in the WHREN/LILA IRNC project. In particular, configure and light Ge connection from Los Angeles Exchange to San Diego to connect up with the LILA links from CLARA and CUDI. [14] Work with CLARA and WHREN/LILA to enable desired peerings and connections in Los Angeles. Reengineer these peerings as needed. [15] Work with CUDI and WHREN/LILA to enable desired peerings and connections in Los Angeles. Reengineer these peerings as needed. [16] Develop a series of meetings and workshops as add-ons to existing discipline specific meetings to assist in the deployment of applications that can make effective use of the advanced networking facilities. a. Hold a meeting with observatory directors in Hawaii to identify opportunities presented by the network for the observatories located there. b. Work with Ocean observatory and Coral Reef projects. c. Work with High Energy Physics Community. d. Identify opportunities in tele-health and tele-medicine. 13

14 [17] Both AARNet and Pacific Wave have extensive measurement capabilities in place. Continue to work with the NSF-designated measurement project to provide these measurements as part of the overall IRNC measurement effort. [18] Attend and contribute to IRNC meetings; attend Internet2 and APAN meetings (international). [19] Request REU support for students to be used to assist in the project. [20] Construct Year 3 program plan in consultation with the IRNC Awardees and NSF. [21] Develop more detailed year 4-5 plans as more information on network developments in Asia emerge. Figure 9: Plan for LA Termination of AARNet Southern Link 14