National LambdaRail President Explains Research Focus

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

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From: NLR News <editor () nlr net>
Date: October 13, 2006 6:34:59 PM EDT
To: news () nlr net
Subject: [NLR-News] National LambdaRail President Explains Research  
Focus

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National LambdaRail President Explains Research Focus
By Tom West, President
National LambdaRail



  I have been asked: Why is National LamdbaRail (NLR) focusing so much
  on facilitating network research and "big" science applications as  
its
  core mission? Is it not as important to give equal or greater
  attention to the networking needs of the broader research and
  education (R&E) community?

  In answering these questions, permit me to draw a comparison to the
  historical development and evolution of the great cities around the
  world.

  When investing in real estate today, you are told that the principle
  focus should be on Location! Location! Location! The root of this
  principle is evident in the development and evolution of the major
  cities and regions around the globe. In most instances, the selection
  of the location for each of these cities was based on such strategic
  factors as: safety and security; access to basic necessities and
  resources; transportation; and, the potential to develop commerce. As
  each city's core developed and prospered, the community grew and
  expanded geographically. Over time, each great city not only evolves,
  but also periodically reinvents its core in order to stay vibrant and
  respond to the changing needs of the society. The cycle, never  
ending,
  continues to repeat itself as new needs drive evolutions.

  From my perspective, the development and evolution of networking in
  our R&E community has followed a similar cyclic path over the past
  four decades with the start of each cycle focused on Research!
  Research! Research!

  In the late 60s, the revolutionary developments in packet networks  
and
  related technologies came from university researchers. Combined with
  DARPA's funding and deployment of the ARPAnet, these innovations
  created the initial core technologies and seminal implementation for
  the Internet. From that era forward, both research inventions and the
  specific needs of the researchers have been the core drivers for the
  major advances in networking for the general R&E community as well as
  for society at large.

  Inspired by the pioneering researcher-driven development of APRAnet,
  the beginning network needs of the broader university and lab
  community were addressed by a major expansion and evolution of the
  ARPAnet and by the implementations of BITNET and CSnet. Together  
these
  efforts were able to bring much larger numbers of institutions online
  enabling broad use by researchers, educators, students and even
  administrators. By leveraging additional platforms (in BITNET's case
  via what were often institutional IBM mainframes reconfigured by
  computer center folks to enable a few forms of network capabilities)
  and funding sources, these much larger numbers established fertile
  ground for creating and deriving the benefits of what Metcalf came to
  call "network effects."

  In the late-1980s, the cycle renewed itself with the research
  community-driven convergence on the increasingly evolved core  
Internet
  protocols of the ARPAnet. Our research community created related
  usable network capabilities and applications like broadly usable
  email, ftp and listserv. And, to meet the growing needs of
  researchers, the use of networks in R&E became a key driver in the
  creation and rapid expansion, evolution and extension of the Internet
  protocol-based networks such as NSFnet, ESnet and DREN. As a  
companion
  to and major enabler of the NSFnet, regional research and education
  networks (the NSF Regionals) were developed as the most powerful  
means
  for extending the reach of, democratizing access to, and sustaining
  R&E networks by explicitly recognizing and addressing the diverse
  geographical and demographic realties of networks.

  Advanced networking for the researchers and our larger R&E community
  suffered a serious setback in the early 1990's when NSFnet became a
  victim of its own success and was 'privatized' and the program
  discontinued. This came during a cycle in which many of the regional
  R&E networks and research community-based Internet providers were  
spun
  off, and either became or were sold off to the emerging commercial
  ISP's. While this helped enable the worldwide Internet revolution, it
  unfortunately left most of the R&E community without either a  
voice in
  (let alone control over) network capabilities and services, or direct
  access to innovating with (or configuring around) underlying network
  technology. The good news was that "our" Internet had become
  pervasive. The bad news was that we had lost nearly all control and
  were reduced to buying one-size-fits-all capabilities that were being
  evolved for mass market rather than research, education and clinical
  needs. And our network researchers had lost the ability to do network
  and network-based research and to innovate in those areas in big  
ways.

  With the discontinuation of the NSFnet, the NSF sought to address the
  high-end advanced networking infrastructure needs and  
opportunities of
  the researchers with support for the vBNS program. This initiative,
  combined with the CoREN and other activities of the surviving
  Regionals, sustained the continuing regionals and stimulated their  
and
  other regional group's evolution into GigaPops. The GigaPops, in  
turn,
  worked for the creation of UCAID (the corporate entity underlying
  Internet2) and the development of the Abilene Network in a  
partnership
  with Qwest and Nortel. With this new cycle, our community enabled the
  formation of a state-of-the-commercial-art, packet-over-SONET shared
  layer 3 service and the ability to control bandwidth and topology.
  During this period, state/regional networks and GigaPops grew and
  developed rapidly to meet the burgeoning educational needs throughout
  the community.

  Shortly after the beginning of this century, three new drivers  
emerged
  that called for a major leap forward in advanced networking to meet
  the needs of the researchers in the community and the community at
  large. These included:

  Need One: More and more manageable bandwidth for "big" or specialized
  applications' research


  * High-end science needs terabits and petabytes


  * Predictable quality interconnect


  * Immersive (i.e. often high-resolution and low latency) presence


  * Deterministic control loops


  * Bit rate of reality-10 gigabits soon to be 40 gigabits, but more
  importantly given the realities of the instruments and cluster
  computers and storage systems many parallel 10 gigabits

  Need Two: Breakable and researcher-controlled networks including  
waves
  for network research


  * New protocols


  * New devices


  * New architectures

  Need Three: Underlying owned fiber


  * Ensuring that the limitations on what our communities can pursue  
are
  based on what we can imagine and afford, rather than what services
  telecommunications companies are willing to sell us and the  
conditions
  under which they are willing to sell them


  * Enabling partnering in truly new optical domains


  * Keeping prices from providers low

  The result, National LambdaRail (NLR), has been the implementation of
  a fully operational national networking physical infrastructure based
  upon owned and lit fiber. This fiber is linked with multiple Regional
  Optical Network (RON) physical infrastructures that are RON-owned. By
  enabling the implementation of multiple networks, both experimental
  and production, to facilitate technology innovation, discovery and
  sharing of new knowledge, this new networking collaboratory is
  providing for the concurrent advancement of:


  * Network research;


  * Next generation network-based research applications in science,
  engineering, medicine and other disciplines; and,


  * Education program delivery at all levels -- K through 20.

  By focusing on facilitating Research! Research! Research!, NLR, in
  partnership with the RONs, continues the network innovation cycle and
  ensures that all the participants in the research and education
  community reap the benefits of big, fast, customizable networks. The
  reality is that researchers are the innovators -- the folks who think
  big and drive myriad ways to create the networks of the future today.
  We in the R&E community can effectively learn from them and extend  
and
  recreate these innovative networks for universities, labs, the  
greater
  educational community as well as our society at large.

  The cycle continues. What are the next drivers? Let's all learn
  together by serving and studying Research! Research! Research!

  -----

  Tom West is President and Chief Executive Officer of National
  LambdaRail, a major initiative of U.S. research universities and
  private sector technology companies to provide a national scale
  infrastructure for research and experimentation in networking
  technologies and applications. Over the years, West has served as an
  advisor and consultant to a number of higher education institutions
  and systems, private corporations and state governments. West has  
been
  actively involved in national research and education networking in  
the
  United States for nearly two decades.

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