Columbus Joint Techs (JT14) Summary

Columbus Joint Techs (JT14) Summary

The 14th Joint Techs Workshop (JT14), organized by ESCC and Internet2, took place July 18-21 at Ohio State University. Some major themes were:

Switched optical networking. Wave-division multiplexing now makes it possible to have hundreds of 10 Gbps channels on a single fiber. At the same time, user needs for paths with not only huge bandwidth, but also deterministic properties and dynamic provisioning capabilities, are fueling great interest in making these channels available via circuit switching -- one or more entire channels allocated to a specific user -- rather than via traditional IP packet switching. The dominant driver here is bulk data transfer in support of science (high-energy physics in particular) and medicine (high-resolution images in particular). Other projected uses for switched optical networking include: remote manipulation (e.g., shared visual environments, telesurgery), which requires low delay and extremely low jitter; mission-critical applications in general (e.g., emergency services); and giving IP networks the capacity to re-provision in response to changing network weather. JT14 opened with tutorials on Choosing an Optical Infrastructure and the National LambdaRail switched-optical testbed, and closed with an in-depth session on Optical Control Plane Initiatives. The sessions in between addressed both optical networking itself, as in the DRAGON (Dynamic Resource Allocation via GMPLS Optical Networks) session, and its wider implications, as are being explored by DOE UltraScience Net.
Implications of switched optical networking for network architectures in general. For the foreseeable future, switched-optical networking will be hybridized with IP networking, often in the context of customer-owned dark fiber and regional optical networks (RONs). The Tuesday morning sessions focused on how to do this. Rick Summerhill's introductory presentation included a list of the key questions that need to be addressed -- for example, What is the timescale for dynamic provisioning? What will be the effect of hybrid networks on the traditional backbone / gigaPoP-RON / campus architecture? Summerhill's overview was followed by updates on various ongoing projects, as well as a panel discussion of the issues involved. Dan Magorian reported on experiments demonstrating just how hard it is to tie all the pieces together. Magorian estimated that optical switching will be in production in about three years, and stressed the importance of starting experiments with it now. Many of the advanced networking projects in which Internet2 is currently involved have to do with integrating switched optical into larger networks.
Measurement infrastructure deployments. Measurement infrastructures are starting to bear fruit, as in the work of piPEs with e-VLBI discussed by Eric Boyd in his piPEs update. (Summaries of JT14 piPEs sessions are available here.) A profusion of tools are being deployed (Ohio's Third Frontier Network is using ten of them) -- OC192mon, AMP, OWAMP, BWCTL, and NDT (which Boyd described as "piPEs for the first mile") are a few of the more prominent ones. Knitting these pieces together is a challenge; Prasad Calyam stressed the importance of having common definitions of the things we are trying to measure, such as jitter and loss. There is also an increasing amount of work on visualization using tools like traceanal and SmokePing.
Security implications of new network technologies. UKLight Technical Manager John Graham noted the importance of making sure that security is built into hybrid networking from the beginning, and Matt Davy presented on securing multicast. A security in-depth session discussed an assortment of tools; here again, visualization and integrating multiple tools were prominent themes. More generally, there was much discussion of the issue of disappearing network boundaries brought on by ubiquitous networking, especially wireless. As John Wylder noted, "there ain't no perimeter anymore." The disappearing perimeter has an extremely broad potential for exacerbating security problems, as illustrated in Joe St. Sauver's presentation on security for Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (PDF). SCADA consists of systems that control physical infrastructure like dams and pipelines; the general neglect of security for these systems is becoming a major public-safety concern. St. Sauver also offered an extensive tutorial on email security (PDF). JT14 included overviews of IPSec and Internet2 security efforts in general, and was immediately followed by a meeting of SALSA, the Internet2 Security at Line Speed group.
Working with commercial partners. The division of labor and approaches to cooperation between R&E and commercial partners are continually evolving, especially in the areas of security and switched optical networking. Vendor-affiliated presenters at JT14 included John Wylder, who summarized the security-related requests Microsoft has received from its customers and outlined Microsoft's planned response, and Loki Jorgenson of Apparent Networks, who presented a piPEs-inspired jumbo-MTU measurement project. Rick Summerhill announced the formation of the HOPI Corporate Advisory Team (HOPI-CAT) to provide commercial expertise in support of hybrid networking. JT14 was also the first Joint Techs to include vendor-specific sessions, under the heading of "Vendor Soup". The idea behind Vendor Soup is not to turn Joint Techs into a marketing opportunity, but rather to let vendors give technical talks about new or soon-to-be-available products. Level 3 outlined its architecture for voice services, Movaz (a key partner in the DRAGON project) presented its compact optical switching gear, and Metanetworks presented its security-at-line-speed hardware (now available at 1 Gbps, coming soon at 10 Gbps).

JT14 attendees were also treated to a demonstration of OARnet's Internet-To-Go trailer. Internet-to-Go builds on the Tachyon satellite service to provide Internet access anywhere; the setup process has been refined to be extremely fast, simple, and reliable. Internet-to-Go trailers are being made commercially available; currently six exist and are being used for a variety of purposes. More information is at the OARnet Satellite Project site.

Presentations from JT14 are available at http://events.internet2.edu/2004/JointTechs/Columbus/agenda.cfm?event=218. OARnet's writeup of the workshop is at http://www.oar.net/the_connection/joint_techs.shtml.