Project Number

2003

Project Title

GENI Enabled Software Defined Exchange (GENI-SDX)

Technical Contacts

PI: Tom Lehman, tlehman at umd.edu

Xi Yang, maxyang at umd.edu

Participating Organizations

University of Maryland (UMD) / Mid-Atlantic Crossroads (MAX)

Scope

This objective of this project was to develop and deploy GENI enabled Software Defined Exchanges (SDXs). A key objective was to transition existing Research and Education Exchange Points into facilities where providers can attach services in order to make them available for wider use thru dynamic provisioning. The GENI infrastructure and Aggregate Manager (AM) capabilities were leveraged for this work. Extending this technology to Science DMZs allowed for similar capabilities to be added to the regional network and the campus enterprise edge.

Current Capabilities

A GENI Enabled Software Defined Exchange (SDX) is currently deployed at the Washington International Exchange (WIX). This includes a GRAM based MAX Aggregate manager which leverages the UMD/MAX developed StackV (github.com/MAX-UMD/stackV.community) open source model driven orchestration system. This system allows for the GENI based dynamic provision of WIX cross-connects with integrated connections to Amazon Web Services (AWS) resources. The connections to AWS resources leverage a MAX provided DirectConnect service and can be attached to user defined Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) or other AWS resources.

The diagram below shows the architecture of the WIX SDX.

The work demonstrated here is driven by a vision for future R&E cyberinfrastructure that consists of an ecosystem of ad hoc and dynamically federated Software Defined Exchanges (SDXs) and Software Defined ScienceDMZs services. GENI technologies are leveraged in the form of the MAX Aggregate Manager which utilizes the GENI Rack Aggregate Manager (GRAM) software for GENI Federation functions.

Another instance of the MAX Aggregate Manager is also deployed covering the MAX Software Define Science DMZ (SD-SDMZ). The MAX SD-SDMZ also includes local compute and storage resources. The MAX InstaGENI Rack is also directly connected to the MAX SD-SDMZ. A diagram of the topology for the MAX Science DMZ and WIX based SDX is shown below.

Presentations and Demonstrations

• GENI Engineering Conference (GEC) 24
  March 8-9, 2016
  Arizona State University
  Phoenix, Arizona
  

• Global Experimentation for Future Internet (GEFI) Workshop
  April 18-21 2016
  Brussels, Belgium
  • Organized and acted as co-chair for a session on "Federation, software defined infrastructure, testbeds and connectivity".
    Presented on "Washington International Exchange (WIX) as a Software Defined Exchange (SDX)". This presentation provided an overview of the WIX SDX, the MAX GENI AM, and AWS integration. The presented slides are available here: ​MAX-GENI-SDX/2016-04-18-gefi-session2-tlehman-v3.pdf
  • Presented during the session "Cloud and big data" on "Hybrid Cloud Services Software Defined ScienceDMZ". This presentation provided an overview and a vision for Software Define ScienceDMZ architecture and services with GENI AM access. The presented slides are available here: ​MAX-GENI-SDX/2016-04-19-gefi-session3-tlehman.pdf
  • Presented at the co-located NetFutures 2016 Conference on "Software Defined Exchange (SDX): Vision, Development, Collaboration". This presentation discussed a vision for an ecosystem of distributed SDXs and Software Define ScienceDMZs to provide a service innovation marketplace. The presented slides are available here: ​MAX-GENI-SDX/2016-04-20-netfutures-gefi-tlehman.pdf

• GENI Network Innovators Community Event (NICE) Conference
  December 12, 2016
  Irvine California
  • Presented a demonstration on the GENI Enabled "Software Defined Exchange (SDX)" and a "Software Defined ScienceDMZ (SD-SDMZ)" deployed at the Washington International Exchange (WIX) and the University of Maryland / Mid-Atlantic Crossroads (UMD/MAX), respectively. The demonstration poster is available here: ​2016-12-12-geni-sdx-sd-sdmz-poster-v3.pdf
  • Presented and participated in a panel “What's next for SDX research?”. The presented slides are available here:​20161212-lehman-sdx-panel.pdf

• GENI Engineering Conference (GEC) 25
  March 14-15, 2017
  Florida International University
  Miami, Florida.
  • Participated in a demonstration of a distributed SDX environment which included the WIX, Starlight, SOX, and Ampath SDXs. Paths across Internet2 AL2S and DOE ESnet were utilized to connect the SDXs. The WIX SDX slides presented as part of this demonstration are available here: ​MAX-GENI-SDX/20170314-wix-sdx-max-v1.pdf
  • Presented at the GENI Transition session regarding plans for operational support and future SDX development. The slides presented at this session are available here: ​MAX-GENI-SDX/20170314-geni-transition-max-v1.pdf

• GEFI (Global Experimentation for Future Internet) Workshop
  October 26-27, 2017
  Rio de Janeiro, Brazil[[BR]
  • Co-chaired a session on “Software-defined exchanges and infrastructure (SDX & SDI)”. Presented on Software Defined Exchange (SDX) Distributed Infrastructure. Provided inputs for the workshop report. The slides presented are available here: ​MAX-GENI-SDX/2017-10-27-gefi-sdx-sdi-session-tlehman.pdf

Milestones

The project milestones and status are described in the reports listed in the below "Reports" section.

Reports

Annual Report for period March 1, 2016 thru February 28, 2017
The annual report for MAX GENI Project 2003, GENI Enabled Software Defined Exchange (GENI-SDX) is available here: ​MAX-GENI-SDX-Annual-Report-project2003-2017-02-28.pdf

Final Report for period March 1, 2016 thru February 28, 2017 and September 1, 2017 thru August 31, 2018
The final report for MAX GENI Project 2003, GENI Enabled Software Defined Exchange (GENI-SDX) is available here: ​MAX-GENI-SDX-Final-Report-project2003-2018-07-31.pdf