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 / Mid-Atlantic Crossroads

Scope

This objective of this project is to develop and deploy GENI enabled Software Defined Exchanges (SDXs). This includes developing an operational SDX Aggregate Manager (AM) that can be deployed at existing and new exchange points. This activity includes deployment of a GRAM based MAX Aggregate Manager (GRAM/MAX-AM) on the Washington International Exchange (WIX). The larger vision for the GENI Enabled SDX is one that includes integrated network, storage, and compute resources.

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.

Presentations and Demonsrations

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

This demonstration showed a very early prototype for a GENI enabled Software Defined Exchange (SDX) which utilizes Network Service Interface (NSI) for network element control, and includes public cloud resources from Amazon Web Services (AWS) as part of GENI Stitched topologies. 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. This MAX/GRAM AM utilizes the Open Grid Forum (OGF) NSI protocol to provision services across the network elements within the Washington International Exchange (WIX) located in McLean, Virginia and the MAX Regional Network.

The demonstration poster is located here:
GEC24 Poster - GENI Enabled WIX SDX ​2016-03-8-geni-sdx-poster-v3.pdf

• 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 15-15, 2016
  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

Milestones

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

Reports

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