= LEARN Project Status Report =

Period: December 2011 - April 2012[[BR]]


== I. Major Accomplishments ==

LEARN project has accomplished and demonstrated VLAN setup between RENCI and University of Houston during GEC12. [[BR]]
In addition, as part of its mission to raise awareness on GENI in the community, LEARN project has been working with an industry partner to test an emerging technology of metadata exchange: IF-MAP ([http://www.trustedcomputinggroup.org/resources/tnc_ifmap_binding_for_soap_specification Interface for Metadata Access Points]). A demonstration of how this technology can help alleviate the discussions on setting a global schema for measurement metadata exchange in GENI platforms has been presented to the community during GEC12.[[BR]]

Since then, we have been working on creating an experiment that would highlight the capabilities of our ORCA-based infrastructure with end compute resources at the UH Research Computing Center. A use case on distributed metadata exchange using the prototype from GEC12 has been presented in GEC13 as a poster. We outlined how metadata exchange mechanisms for each actors in the GENI community can make use of the IF-MAP technology in measurement data object descriptor (MDOD) exchanges ([http://groups.geni.net/geni/wiki/GECDemoSession/GEC12/DemoInfo#IMMDODexperimenterusecasedemo GEC12 MDOD exchange demo]). The experiment will be demonstrated during GEC14.

Also, LEARN project will equip Dr. Gurkan's senior computer networking course with OpenFlow capable switches to convert all instruction in the lab environment into programmable networking and protocol testing. Price and capability quotes have been gathered from all new vendors of OpenFlow switches. We expect to purchase switches by GEC14 and have the laboratory practices prototyped for the Fall 2012 semester.

=== A. Milestones achieved ===

A plan for an experiment to run on the infrastructure has been presented with all actors and resources involved.  

=== B. Deliverables made ===

Experimentation plan has been delivered.

== II. Description of work performed during last quarter ==

Experimentation on ORCA infrastructure has been planned and a poster on the use case has been presented at GEC13. [[BR]]
OpenFlow-based laboratory experiments are being prepared. In addition, the lab will be connected to the overall GENI platform for better connectivity of the students to a large experimentation network. The connections are being planned with the university IT group. [[BR]]
UH hosted a GENI mentoring group towards better utilization of the infrastructure and share experiences. [[BR]]

=== A. Activities and findings ===

University IT has been instrumental in keeping the existing connections active through regional and metro resources around Houston area. ORCA team has been extremely helpful in setting up the site authority and managing end compute resources that will enable us conducting an experiment on this setup. [[BR]]

=== B. Project participants ===

Charles Chambers, UH IT [[BR]]
Tesfaye Kumbi, UH IT [[BR]]
Harsha Natarajan, MS student [[BR]]
Anand Arun Daga, MS student [[BR]]

=== C. Publications (individual and organizational) ===

None.

=== D. Outreach activities ===

None.

=== E. Collaborations ===

Ilia Baldine, RENCI [[BR]]
Akbar Kara, LEARN [[BR]]

=== F. Other Contributions ===