Advanced Research and Education Networking in the United States: The Internet2 Experience

1. Advanced research and education networking in the United States:  the Internet2 experience Heather Boyles Director, Member and Partner Relations Internet2 heather@internet2.edu CERNET Annual Conference Dalian, China 4 November 2005

2. The US context • Top research universities are mix of private and publicly (state government)-funded • No US national government direct operational funding to universities • Significant US national government research funding to universities • No US national government-funded university network • Specific agencies run networks to support science – Dept. of Energy’s ESnet, NASA networks

3. Internet2 history • Formed in 1996 by 34 universities • Not-for-profit, membership organization • Universities self-selected • No requirement that all US universities join

4. Internet2 Mission Develop and deploy advanced network applications and technologies, accelerating the creation of tomorrow’s Internet Internet2 Goals • Enable new generation of applications • Re-create leading edge R&E network capability • Transfer technology and experience to the global production Internet

5. Internet2 today • US-based membership organization: • 207 regular University members • 66 Corporate members • 42 Affiliate members • US National Research and Education Network • Internet2 Abilene Backbone Network • State, regional, metropolitan networks connecting campuses • International partnerships: • 46 partnerships representing over 75 countries

6. How does Internet2 work? • Partnerships and collaborations • Universities, research centers, industry, government • Bringing a variety of resources (money, human, facilities) • Volunteer work of individuals in those organizations • Working groups; workshop instructors/leaders; speakers at technical meetings • Pooled resources (member dues, grants) fund individuals • NSF Middleware Initiative example • Staff funded by member dues • Facilitate, coordinate, support

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9. Internet2 Abilene backbone network

10. Next generation of US research and education network infrastructure: hybrid of packet and circuit capabilities

11. Community-owned network infrastructure • Move from buying telecom services to owning/leasing fiber, optical equipment • Happening at campus, metropolitan, state, regional and national levels in the US • Example on national level: National LambdaRail initiative • Nationwide, dark fiber-based facility • Build multiple networks • Internet2 and several state/regional networks are owners

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13. Internet2 middleware work • Focus: enabling inter-institutional collaboration • Build on campus identity management and authentication mechanisms • Put in place inter-institutional or national infrastructure for those campuses to talk to each other • Example: Shibboleth architecture and software tool

14. Middleware infrastructure and services • InCommon federation: • National authentication and authorization infrastructure • US universities (Internet2 members) join the federation, agree to trust each others’ own campus authentication mechanisms • Much like network infrastructure, how does this interconnect with other countries’ AAIs

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16. Security • Focus: • Securing network infrastructure • Security tools for advanced networking community • Security at “line speed” – do no harm to high-performance networking applications • Rethinking the problem • New network technologies, authentication and authorization infrastructure to address fundamental security problems of the network

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18. End-to-end Performance • Performance Measurement and Monitoring Infrastructure • Focus: help users identify where the performance problem is and who can help them fix it • PerfSONAR • Workshops • Provide hands-on experience with installing and using perfSONAR infrastructure • International Collaboration • End-to-end means global scale: interoperable, interconnecting performance measurement and monitoring infrastructure

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20. Applications: collaboration infrastructure • High-performance video/audio collaboration • Ubiquitous H.323-based multipoint video-conferencing • SIP-based solutions • High definition video streaming • DV over IP – DVTS • HD video over IP – Research Channel WG

21. Applications: working with user communities • Arts and Humanities • Performing arts: demand high-quality audio and video over the network • Health Sciences • Security and privacy issues demand middleware infrastructure • Science and Engineering • High-end users demand new networking architectures: bandwidth, latency

22. Supporting leading-edge research and education Photo: CERN Photo: OptIPuter Photo: Jason Project

23. Questions? http://www.internet2.edu heather@internet2.edu