NOAA’s NWS Telecommunication Gateway RTH Washington

1. NOAA’sNWS Telecommunication GatewayRTH Washington • Office of the Chief Information Officer • NOAA’s National Weather Service

2. NWSTG Functional Overview • The NWSTG is: • the central communication facility of the NWS; • the primary acquisition and distribution center for NWS data and products; • the primary acquisition and distribution center for international data and products to meet WMO, ICAO and bi-laterally agreed US requirements; • A major data exchange hub for NOAA and other agency data and products.

3. NWSTG Functional Overview The NWSTG includes • WMO Regional Telecommunication Hub (RTH) Washington • ICAO OPMET Databank • the ASOS Operations and Monitoring Center • Operational oversight of U.S. federal automated surface observing systems • the AWIPS Network Control Facility • AWIPS is the main NWS’ system which supports the NWS forecast and warning mission requirement • The NCF is the central communications hub and technical support center for AWIPS

4. Data Input to the NWSTG • MPLS • IP / Sockets • X.25 • Asynchronous • FTP – http://weather.gov/tg/ftpingest.html • Email – http://weather.gov/tg/emailingest.html • Web - http://weather.gov/tg/bullguid.html

5. GTS ISCS EMWIN Internet GMDSS NWS Telecom. Gateway NWWS NWR LDAD Family Of Services (FOS) Interagency Connections AWIPS SBN / NOAAPORT Dissemination Systems International National

6. Dissemination and Distribution Other Agencies NESDIS Commercial Specialized Satellite GOES Satellite Legend: Imagery Customers EMWIN NOAAPORT • Commercial Weather Services EMWIN • Research Institutions NWWS • FAA, etc. FOS WMO (> 1 min) ISCS SBN/NOAAPORT Designated GOES NCEP Product Suite Local ICAO Observations Customers Telecommunications Operations Center NWWS NCEP NWSTG (10 sec) Media & Other LDAD Customers NCF WAN Data Servers Private line Internet-Based Field Dissemination Dissemination Offices WSR-88D GTS EMWIN NWR Public

8. Replacement / BackupTG Description NWS users • Nat’l Centers for Environ. Prediction • NWS Regional Offices • Domestic/int’l observation & forecast offices • AWIPS Worldwide users • ICAO / WMO • Govt. agencies • Family of services • Internet users • Foreign countries • Emergency mgrs NWS Telecom Gateway • Located in Silver Spring • New message switching system allows future upgrades • 2x upgradeability • Much improved response time • Redundancy ensures uninterrupted service • Full configuration management 120GB/46 600 GB 80GB/38 200 GB Geographically separated backup system 90GB/46 375 GB 700GB/38 2000 GB Daily Throughput/# of circuits Legacy over Replacement

9. RTH Washington • Can route more than 50 routine messages per second with reliability for all dissemination to all of its users of 99.9 percent • Latency for high priority traffic of 10 seconds or less and routinely disseminates 1.2 terabytes of information per day • On Main Trunk Network (MTN) of the WMO Global Telecommunication System (GTS) • GTS delivers tsunami data and warnings to connected MTN centers within two minutes

10. Replacement NWSTG • Full functional replacement of existing capabilities • Expanded capacity and capability • Input data growth from 200 to 800 GB/day • Output data growth from 800 to 2400 GB/day • Transition to new technology • Middleware for internal transport • Network-centric systems interconnectivity • Central switching engine with relational database • SAN and NAS storage solutions • Highly scaleable architecture • Hardware refresh

11. RTG/BTG Performance Performance Metric Threshold System Availability (averaged monthly) 99.90% Warning Message Latency (averaged monthly) 10 seconds Routine Message Latency (averaged monthly) 60 seconds Daily Traffic Volume (averaged monthly) 1.2TB NWSTG Performance Results (Feb 06, 2007) Performance Category Threshold Actual System Availability 99.90% 100% Warning Message Latency 10 seconds < 1 second Routine Message Latency 60 seconds < 1 second Daily Traffic Volume 1.2TB 1.1TB

12. Backup NWSTG

13. Government Networking Requirements - NOAANet • IP-based networking solution • Any-to-any connectivity • High degree of bandwidth scalability • Optimum redundancy and survivability • IP convergence (i.e., voice, video and data over IP) • High-end performance • Network security remains paramount, particularly in light of today’s socio-political threats • Segmentation from the public Internet • Minimizes risk of security or privacy breaches

14. Sprint Peerless IP Network Map Tacoma Chicago New York Cheyenne Stockton Pennsauken, NJ San Jose Relay, MD Kansas City DC Anaheim Atlanta FortWorth OC48 (significant portions upgrading to OC192) Internet Transport Node

15. Logical Design

16. Primary / BackupNWSTG Access

18. Major Software Components Core software components of the NWSTG replaced in 2006 • Data switching software • Core software rewritten and implemented in IBM WebSphere Message Broker • Message Broker provides an application execution environment, threading, and fourth generation language support (ESQL), integrated with middleware services • Data transport infrastructure (middleware) • Shared data stores replaced with IBM MQSeries Middleware • Applications send data to each other without concern for target location • Data delivery guaranteed even during failures • Data storage infrastructure (relational database) • All data stores moved into Sybase relational database

19. Internal Redundancy Internal redundancy implemented for critical processes • Active – Warm Standby • Standby system running at all times, system disks moved to standby system during failover • EXAMPLES: Individual front-end processors, application servers • Active – Hot Standby • Data replicated to Hot Standby system in realtime, automatic failover • EXAMPLE: Sybase relational database servers • Active - Active • Multiple systems active in parallel, data shared/routed between systems groups • EXAMPLES – Switching system, HTTP/FTP server groups

20. Architecture Overview

21. Architecture Overview

22. System Extensibility Virtualized server hardware platform selected for extensibility • Virtualization • System resources (CPUs, Memory, Internal Storage, Network Interfaces, etc.) available within hardware frame • Individual resources selected to create virtual servers • Major storage implemented in Storage Area Network • Virtual disks allocated to virtual servers • Extensibility • Unused resources can be allocated to virtual servers, as needed • Underused resources can be removed from a virtual server • Virtual disks can be extended or reduced as storage requirements change

23. System Extensibility Virtualized server hardware platform selected for extensibility • Advanced Virtualization • Network and SAN I/O interfaces can be shared through virtual I/O • CPUs can be carved into fractional components down to 1/10th of a CPU • Advanced Extensibility • Resources (CPU, Memory) included within system that were not purchased • If additional resources are needed, resources are “turned on” via software key after purchase and are immediately available

24. System Extensibility

25. RTH Washington WIS approach RTG/BTG upgrades made with knowledge of coming WIS/GISC requirements • Production and Replicated core systems • All functions not essential to mission critical operations (i.e. switching) execute against replicant • SOA Approach to design • Integral file, message and application switching • RDBS core design • ~ 2000 destinations defined • ~ 400K defined products • ~ 10M entries (rows) in switching table • Many tables used for managing bulletin, file and report storage including dissemination and services metadata.

26. RTH Washington WIS approach View Data Access & Retrieval DAR service as the only truly new service provision • Plan to lay this service on to existed architecture • Will break up DAR functions • DAR catalog creation & update • discovery & access servicing • DAR will not execute on primary production system (at least in early stages of implementation

27. RTH Washington WIS approach Develop metadata catalog first in conjunction with national & regional partners • Regional WIGOS Development Project • RA-IV Integrated Atmosphere Observing System • With initial emphasis on upper-air observations • Will leverage knowledge of partner expertise • Will expand to all RTH (GISC) data holdings and holdings of appropriate Centers (RSMC/DCPC/NC) and willing partners. • Work will be made available to all Members • Will collaborate with WIS Project Team, WMO ETs and developers in other Regions

28. SFC-LAND Information Bases (QCed Datasets) SFC-MARINE U/A-IN SITU MADIS Collection, QC, and Distribution U/A-REMOTE SENSING Quality Control Information (Data QC Flags) And Metadata SATELLITE GRIDS METADATA Meteorological Assimilation Data Ingest System (MADIS) Transition to Operations PM 12/12/05

29. Meteorological Surface METAR Airways Maritime Modernized NWS Cooperative Observer UrbaNet Integrated Mesonet State DOT Mesonets AWS RSAS Surface Grids NOAA Profiler Network Hydrological Surface Automated Aircraft Multi-Agency Profiler Cooperative Agency Profiler Radiosonde Radiometer Satellite Wind NOAA GOES Products Satellite Radiances and Soundings NOAA POES Snow MADIS Ingests and Performs QC on Meteorological Observational Data

30. Gateway Customers (NCDC, NCF, GTS etc) NOAA Customers TOC Environment ? Storage (SAN) FTP LDM Non-NOAA Observations Gateway ? Individual Data Products Integrated Datasets External ISP Web Server ? MADIS-T Data Processing LDM Web Server LDM Internet FTP Automated QC processing Tunnel

31. RTH Washington Other Issues • Transition of GTS-MTN • Two existing clouds to ??? • Cloud 1 - frame relay • RMDCN – satellite MPLS • Addition of Guam/Hono to AP-RARS • WMO Commission restructuring • To reflect Strategic Plan • Future operations locations • Backup first then Primary