Project Number

1658

Project Title

​Mid-Atlantic Crossroads (MAX) GENI Infrastructure and Services)
a.k.a. MAX

Technical Contacts

PI: Abdella Battoul ​abattou@maxgigapop.net
Tom Lehman Tom Lehman

Participating Organizations

Mid-Atlantic Crossroads GigaPOP
University of Maryland, College Park
University of Southern California - Information Sciences Institute-Arlington (Virginia) (USC/ISI-ARL)

Scope

This project is enabling the MAX Regional Network capabilities and services to be made available as a GENI Aggregate. The key software component being developed is the MAX GENI Aggregate Manager. An objective of this project is to provide an example of how regional networks can play a critical role in the GENI infrastructure as an important bridge between campus/site resources and the wide area connectivity. The MAX regional network capabilities, services, and GENI integration features are as follows:

1. The MAX Regional Network provides Washington D.C. area universities, Federal agencies, and other organizations with advanced network services. These services include high performance routed IP service to the national and international research and education network infrastructure. In addition, MAX operates a research network which allows the participants to develop and utilize next generation high performance network capabilities.

2. The MAX Research Network utilizes an open-source GMPLS-based control plane (DRAGON software) and an open-source web-service based controller (OSCARS) which enables the realtime dynamic provision of dedicated network paths to support application specific workflows. This service includes peering with the Internet2 ION service which extends this capability reach to the globally interconnected Dynamic Circuit Network (DCN) footprint.

3. As part of the GENI MAX project, we are making these dynamic network services available via the GENI Control Framework. This includes development of an MAX GENI Aggregate Manager which allows user to access these resources via the standard GENI Slice-based Federation Architecture (SFA) interfaces and user tools.

4. The MAX Regional Network services have been extended with PlanetLab nodes. The PlanetLab nodes have been integrated with the MAX dynamic network services and users can use the SFA infrastructure to instantiate slivers which include both host (PlanetLab) and network (dedicate VLAN path) resources as part of a single sliver.

5. The MAX GENI Aggregate Manager will also allow a user to "stitch" to external resources across the Internet2 ION and ProtoGENI infrastructures.

The diagram below depicts the Washington DC Metro Area DRAGON network footprint:

Each core DRAGON node can be further expanded as shown in the logical & physical diagrams below:

Current Capabilities

DRAGON/MAX is integrated with PlanetLab through the use of the MAX aggregate manager.

See also: ​http://geni.maxgigapop.net.

Milestones

MilestoneDate(MAX: S2.a NetFPGA Integration into DRAGON)? Complete the placement and configuration of the NetFPGA systems into the DRAGON network.
MilestoneDate(MAX: S2.b NetFPGA as a GENI Resource Plan -)? Plan to enable NetFPGA systems to be available as part of a GENI slice and topology provisioning.
MilestoneDate(MAX: S2.c DRAGON Aggregate Manager Enhancement Design)? Design for the enhancements to the DRAGON Aggregate Manager.
MilestoneDate(MAX: S2.d Common Control Framework Design)? Approach for a common control framework and/or other mechanisms to allow interoperation.
MilestoneDate(MAX: S2.e User Support)? Support interested users of the DRAGON GENI Facility.
MilestoneDate(MAX: S2.f DRAGON Aggregate Manager Documentation)? Update the design and installation documents for the DRAGON Aggregate Manager.

MilestoneDate(MAX: S2.g NetFPGA as a GENI Resource Implementation)? NetFPGA systems to be available as MANFRED GENI slice/sliver resource.
MilestoneDate(MAX: S2.h DRAGON Aggregate Manager Enhancement Initial Implementation)? Initial implementation of enhanced DRAGON Aggregate Manager.
MilestoneDate(MAX: S2.i Common Control Framework Design Update)? Approach for a common control framework and/or other mechanisms to allow interoperation.
MilestoneDate(MAX: S2.j Common Control Framework Implementation)? Initial common framework implementation sufficient for interoperability testing.
MilestoneDate(MAX: S2.k Common Control Framework Documentation)? Results of interoperability testing and general capabilities for GENI Facilities to interoperate.
MilestoneDate(MAX: S2.l User Tool Evaluation and Development Plan)? Review available tools and identify candidates for integration into DRAGON.
MilestoneDate(MAX: S2.m User Support)? Support interested users of the DRAGON GENI Facility.
MilestoneDate(MAX: S2.n DRAGON Aggregate Manager Documentation)? Update the design and installation documents for the DRAGON Aggregate Manager.

MilestoneDate(MAX: S2.o Aggregate Manager Implementation Update)? Updated implementation based on design in S2.c.
MilestoneDate(MAX: S2.p Aggregate Manager Common Control Framework Integration Plan)?
MilestoneDate(MAX: S2.q Aggregate Manager Common Control Framework Integration Implementation)?
MilestoneDate(MAX: S2.r Aggregate Manager Common Control Framework Integration Testing)?
MilestoneDate(MAX: S2.s User Tool DRAGON Framework Implementation)?
MilestoneDate(MAX: S2.t User Support)?
MilestoneDate(MAX: S2.u DRAGON Aggregate Manager Documentation)?

MilestoneDate(MAX: S2.v DRAGON Aggregate Manager Testing and Evaluation)?DRAGON Aggregate Manager Testing and Evaluation
MilestoneDate(MAX: S2.w DRAGON Aggregate Manager Control Framework Updates)? DRAGON Aggregate Manager Control Framework Updates
MilestoneDate(MAX: S2.x User Support)? User Support
MilestoneDate(MAX: S2.y DRAGON Aggregate Manager Documentation)? DRAGON Aggregate Documentation

MilestoneDate(MAX: S3.a DRAGON Demonstration and outreach at GEC9)?
MilestoneDate(MAX: S3.b: White paper on network stitching in GENI)?
MilestoneDate(MAX: S3.c: Demonstration and outreach at GEC10)?
MilestoneDate(MAX: S3.d: MAX is an operational aggregate)?
MilestoneDate(MAX: S3.e: Demonstration and outreach at GEC11)?
MilestoneDate(MAX: S3.f: Updated white paper on network stitching in GENI)?

Project Technical Documents

Project wiki: ​http://geni.maxgigapop.net
DRAGON: ​http://dragon.maxgigapop.net
DRAGON Architecture: ​http://dragon.maxgigapop.net/twiki/bin/view/DRAGON/Architecture
DRAGON Network: ​http://dragon.maxgigapop.net/twiki/bin/view/DRAGON/Network
DRAGON Workshop materials and software: ​http://dragon.maxgigapop.net/twiki/bin/view/DRAGON/Internet2DCNWorkshopJul2008
DRAGON Aggregate Manager documentation: ​http://geni.maxgigapop.net/twiki/bin/view/GENI/Software

Quarterly Status Reports

4Q08 Status Report
1Q09 Status Report
2Q09 Status Report
3Q09 Status Report
4Q09 Status Report​
1Q10 Status Report​
2Q10 Status Report
3Q10 Status Report (due 09/30/2010)​
Nov 2010 (Post GEC9) Status Report​

MAX GENI Project Milestone Status and Quarterly Reports also available here: ​http://geni.maxgigapop.net/twiki/bin/view/GENI/MilestonesAndDeliverables

Recommended Reading

Standards Documents used in DRAGON: ​http://dragon.maxgigapop.net/twiki/bin/view/DRAGON/Standards

Those most relevent to the control plane work include:

RFC 2205, RFC 2328, RFC 2370, RFC 2702, RFC 3031, RFC 3209, RFC 3471, RFC 3473, RFC 3477, RFC 3630, RFC 3945, RFC 3946, RFC 4202, RFC 4203, RFC 4206, RFC 4990

Spiral 1 Connectivity

The list of MAX participant institutions that will have potential access to GENI for research experiments are included here: <​http://wiki.maxgigapop.net/twiki/bin/view/MAX/Participants>

These participants are homed into multiple PoP locations where MAX equipment has space agreements with universities, carriers, and participating partners.

PoP locations include: University of Maryland, College Park
USC ISI-East Arlington, VA
Qwest Eckington Place NE, Washington, DC
George Washington University
Level 3 Old Meadow Rd. Mclean, VA
6 St Paul Street Baltimore
660 Redwood Street Baltimore
Equinix 21715 Filigree Court Ashburn, VA

MAX is able to fully interconnect with NLR layers 1, 2, and 3. Peter O'Neil is the point of contact for NLR connectivity and Chris Tracy for Internet2.

Clarification is needed to address the current air gap of an Ethernet switch between the I2 10G port on the Infinera located at Mclean and the MAX infrastructure. MAX could connect the Infinera either directly to one of DRAGON's existing layer 2 switches, or if another switch is provided, we can connect DRAGON to that switch.

GPO Liaison System Engineer

​Vic Thomas

Related Projects

​Dynamic Resource Allocation via GMPLS Optical Networks