Advanced Optical Networks

With its research partners, iCAIR is designing and developing new architecture, services and technologies related to next generation networks based on optical technologies, including those that are based on dynamic lightpath provisioning. In addition, iCAIR has established multiple initiatives with these partners to implement these innovations on prototype networks and even early production networks. The primary facilities and networks that are advancing the innovations in next generation optical networking are described here, along with other networks that are planning to migrate to these new network architectures and technologies. Key issues include the architecture and design for an optimized large-scale, reliable networking infrastructure based on advanced optical networking technology. New types of architectures envision powerful network cores with complexity and network intelligence pushed to the edge. Also, these directions include moving from networks based on multiple hierarchical levels to simpler, more flexible designs that allow for faster service provisioning, optimized transit, enhanced reliability, and customization opportunities. In part, these designs will incorporate new types of control planes, and dynamic, intelligent optical core components.

   StarLight

   CANARIE/CA*net4

   NetherLight/SURFnet

   UKLight

   GLORIAD

   Taiwan Advanced Research and Education Network

   Global Lambda Integrated Facility (GLIF)

   National Lambda Rail (NLR)

   UltraScience Network

   TeraGrid

   I-WIRE

   UltraLight Network

   Optical MREN

   Asia Pacific Advanced Network APAN

StarLight
StarLightSM, the "optical STAR TAP" (Science, Technology and Research Transit Access Point), is a National Science Foundation-funded project that interconnects advanced networks world-wide. STAR TAPSM, was the Chicago-based international, interconnection point that had facilitated the long-term interconnection and interoperability of advanced international networking since 1997. StarLight, its successor has been designed and developed "researchers, for researchers," specifically by the Electronic Visualization Laboratory of UIC (EVL), the International Center for Advanced Internet Research (iCAIR) at Northwestern University, and the Mathematics and Computer Science Division at Argonne National Laboratory, in partnership with Canada's CANARIE and Holland's SURFnet. The global scientist community has been among the first users of this facility because of the requirements of their high bandwidth applications as well as their distributed computing and storage needs. This facility is also being used as an experimental proving ground for next generation emerging national and international optical networks, that are laying the groundwork for future optical networks and network services optimized for high-performance applications. StarLight is now being used by EVL researchers to conduct Chicago-to-Amsterdam optical testing. (
www.startap.net/starlight/)

StarLight and STAR TAP are registered trademarks of the University of Illinois Board of Trustees.

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CANARIE/CA*net4
Increasingly, next-generation optical metro networks are being recognized as key enablers for all sectors of digital economies. The Optical Metro Established in 1993 with support from Industry Canada, CANARIE is a not-for-profit industry-led corporation with over 120 fee-paying members and a 24 member board representing private and public sectors. CANARIE's mission is to facilitate the development of critical aspects of the communications infrastructure in Canada and to contribute to the nation's economy and quality of life. CANARIE was the first international network to connect to the STAR TAP and StarLight. CANARIE has created a Canadian National Optical Network, Ca*net4 - the world's first national optical Internet - by building on existing efforts undertaken to develop CA*net3. CANARIE has been innovative in developing new architecture for advanced optical networks and exchange points. CA*net4 has a major node at the StarLight facility and CANARIE is working with the StarLight community is advance many areas on next generation optical networking. (
www.canarie.ca)

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NetherLight/SURFnet
NetherLight, which connects StarLight to SURFnet in the Netherlands, is being funded by the government of the Netherlands through the GigaPort project. NetherLight created the world's first trans-Atlantic wavelength (2.5 Gbps) devoted to research, and later upgraded circuit to 10 Gbps. Within the Netherlands, it terminates at the SURFnet facility within the SARA science center and interconnects with the national SURFnet6 optical network. GigaPort is a joint project of the Dutch government, trade and industry, educational institutions and research institutes. The aim of GigaPort is to provide the Netherlands with advanced, innovative technology. The GigaPort project is implemented under the authority of the GigaPort Steering Committee. GigaPort Network is realized by SURFnet; GigaPort Applications by the Telematica Instituut. (
www.gigaport.nl, carol.wins.uva.nl/~delaat/optical/)

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UKLight
iCAIR participates in experiments using UKlight, another important international research facility, which is part of the United Kingdom's e-science infrastructure. This facility consists of international 10 Gbps connections from London to StarLight in Chicago and NetherLight in Amsterdam and a national infrastructure that integrates UK's major university research institutions at 10 G among primary points of presence and international peering points. This facility support multiple large scale science projects. (
www.uklight.ac.uk)

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Global Ring Network for Advanced Application Development (GLORIAD)
Another iCAIR partner is the Global Ring Network for Advanced Application Development (GLORIAD) initiative, which has implemented an international facility to support scientists world-wide with advanced networking services and technologies for enhanced communications and data exchange, active collaboration, and integrated processes. GLORIAD supports large scale applications support, communication services, large scale data transport, access to unique scientific facilities, including Grid environments, and specialized network based tools and technologies for diverse communities of scientists, engineers, and other researcher domains. GLORIAD is a partnership among the US, China, Russia, Canada, the Netherlands, and Korea. GLORIAD is currently planning to implement capabilities for providing optical paths within its environment for specialized functions, such as experimental rsearch and demonstrations. (
www.gloriad.org)

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Taiwan Advanced Research and Education Network (TWAREN)
TWAREN (TaiWan Advanced Research & Education Network) was established under the "Challenge 2008" Program, as part of the comprehensive multi-year National Development Plan formulated in 2002. The National Center for High Performance Computing (NCHC) design and implemented TWAREN as a next generation research and education network, as a national and international fabric based on 10G and DWDM technologies. TWAREN has multiple circuits at StarLight, including at 10 Gbps (
211.79.61.6/english/)

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Global Lambda Integrated Facility (GLIF)
iCAIR is a founding member of the Global Lambda Integrated Facility (GLIF), which is an international organization that is developing and promoting new methods and concepts related to lightpath (lambda) networking. This organization was established as a collaborative initiative among worldwide National Research and Education Networks (NRENs), consortia, corporations, and other institutions. Many of these entities operate facilities that support communication services based on flexible lightpath provisioning. The GLIF participants provide lightpaths internationally to support multiple research and development activities directed at creating new international communication services. As a global integrated facility, the GLIF supports data-intensive scientific research, optical middleware development, new types of management methods, and many testbed projects. iCAIR is participating with other members of the GLIF in the design and development of international facilities that support new services based on lightpaths, including autonomous peerings. This type of facility is a Global Open Lambda Exchange (GOLE). A prototype of such an exchange has been implemented at the StarLight facility. (
www.glif.is)

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National Lambda Rail (NLR)
Multiple iCAIR research experiments are being conducted on the National Lambda Rail (NLR), a US national distributed facility, which has a foundation consisting of leased optical fiber. This facility was deliberately designed and implemented as a facility not as a network. Consequently, it can support many different types of networks, including advanced experimental research networks. The NLR can support all of these networks using a common core infrastructure. Have of the capacity of the NLR is devoted to advanced research, related to fundamental technology research but also to such topics as new methods for supporting science applications. The NLR has a presence at the StarLight facility. (
www.nlr.net)

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UltraScience Network
The UltraScience Network is an experimental research wide-area testbed that was designed to enabling the next generation of Department of Energy (DOE) large-scale, highly distributed science projects, which have high performance and flexibility requirements that cannot be supported by traditional networking. These applications require a wide range of advanced capabilities. UltraScience Network provides on-demand dedicated bandwidth channels at multi, single and sub lambda resolutions (SONET and GigE) between its edges. Various types of protocol, middleware and application research projects can make use of the dedicated channels provisioned by UltraScience Network. The network has a core hub at the StarLight facility (
www.csm.ornl.gov/ultranet/)

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TeraGrid
The TeraGrid is a large scale, distributed computationally intensive infrastructure, with sites at several facilities in the US including the National Center for Supercomputing, the San Diego Supercomputing Center at the University of California in San Diego, and Argonne National Lab. These sites are connected with special dedicated optical paths that are used as a distribute backplane. This Grid was designed to rival the most powerful computers in the world. It is many times more powerful than other computational Grids. It is being funded by a major National Science Foundation grant, the largest grant ever presented by that organization for computer hardware. The TeraGrid core node is at the StarLight facility. StarLight provides the international community with access to the TeraGrid. (
www.teragrid.org)

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I-WIRE
The Illinois Wired/Wireless Infrastructure for Research and Education (I-WIRE), which has a core hub at the StarLight facility, is a State of Illinois funded optical network, based on dark fiber, connecting through a layer 1 service multiple organizations, including Argonne National Laboratory, National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois Institute of Technology, Illinois Century Network, Northwestern University, University of Chicago and University of Illinois at Chicago. I-WIRE fiber is being extended to several site in downstate Illinois, and it is interconnected to other dedicated-fiber based advanced network fabrics. (
www.iwire.org)

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Ultralight
The UltraLight research project, which has a core hub at the StarLight facility, consists of an initiative established by a partnership of network engineers and experimental physicists who are developing new methods for providing the advanced network services required to support the next generation of high energy physics. The physics research community is designing and implementing new experimental facilities and instrumentation that will be the foundation for the next frontier of fundamental physics research. These facilities and instruments will generate multiple petabytes of particle physics data that will be analyzed by physicists world-wide. A key focus of the UltraLight project is the development of capabilities required for this petabyte-scale global analysis. The project is also developing novel monitoring tools for distributed high performance networks based on the MonALISA project. These efforts are being undertaken in partnership with CERN, Europe's particle physics lab (located in Switzerland), which is one of the world's largest generator of scientific data. (
www.ultralight.org, www.cern.ch)

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MREN/Optical MREN -- Advanced Networking for Advanced Applications
Currently, MREN is designing a next generation network based on optical technology that will have a nexus at the StarLight facility. MREN's mission is to create advanced, innovative networking architecture and digital communication services in support of leading-edge research and educational applications. Planned in 1993, and first implemented in 1994, MREN's primary focus has been providing advanced digital communications for leading-edge research and educational applications. MREN is a collaborative effort undertaken as an interdisciplinary, interorganizational, cooperative partnership. MREN is based on the premise that, in the future, the core foundation and enabling technology for most research and education activities will be high-performance, broadband digital networks. The MREN consortium believes that its research community will continue to drive advanced networking technologies for the foreseeable future, and therefore is dedicated to maintaining MREN's lead in advanced networking by developing and deploying new network designs, techniques and technologies. (
www.mren.org)

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Asia Pacific Advanced Network APAN
In June 1997, the Asia Pacific Advanced Network (APAN) was established as a non-profit international consortium to design, develop and implement an advanced network that would assist in the creation of advanced technologies and applications for leading edge communications. The mission of APAN is to conduct research and development for advanced applications and services and to provide an advanced network environment for local research communities and for international collaboration. Although currently providing packet routed network, APAN is planning to implement optical channel based services. (
www.apan.net)

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