Examples of Past Network Research Projects Supported by Internet2

The following four examples describe the range of different types of support for network research projects. They include an extension to the PlanetLab project using MPLS tunnels on the old Abilene network, the Passive Measurement and Analysis Project from NLANR providing a router clamp for an Abilene router node, and the HOPI testbed for exploring next-generation network architectures.

The PlanetLab Extension

PlanetLab is a testbed for overlay networks. PlanetLab nodes are located at over 500 sites around the world, including all eleven router nodes of the Abilene backbone network. Research groups that request PlanetLab participation can experiment with a variety of planetary-scale network devices. Using PlanetLab, researchers are able to experiment with new services under real-world conditions, and at large scale.

A recent proposal to the NSF would create an MPLS L2VPN across Abilene to create a Layer-2 Ethernet network connecting the PlanetLab nodes on Abilene. This facility will essentially provide a national scale Ethernet network for research on fundamental Layer-3 extensions or protocol replacements.

The Abilene Observatory and Data Access

The Abilene Observatory provides access to substantial data collections from the Abilene routers. Among other datasets, flow data sets can be used to study the types of traffic carried by the network, or determine source-destination matrices for traffic aggregates. An example project is Anukool Lakhina's thesis work in diagnosing network-wide traffic anomalies, that was presented at SIGCOMM 2004. The Abilene flow data was used to test Anukool's algorithms on real data sets.

Direct access to SNMP variables on the routers has been given to projects that require particular sampling rates or access to variables that are not routinely collected. An example project is CAIDA's Bandwidth Estimation project that requires fine-grained polling to more accurately gauge the effectivness of bandwidth estimation algorithms. Access to the SNMP MIBs of routers enabled CAIDA researchers to make a comparison between estimation algorithms and the actual utilization data on the Abilene links.

A router clamp is a collection of passive measurement devices capable of examining the headers of all packets passing through every interface of a router. This is very difficult to achieve on a backbone network where interfaces operate at a rate of typically 10 Gbps. NLANR has installed a router clamp surrounding the Abilene router node located in Indianapolis, IN. The router has three three attached OC-192c backbone circuits and a variety of connector and measurement circuits. Header traces over short periods of time permit an examination of all traffic in and out of the router. The associated data is made available to the network research community.

The HOPI Testbed

The Hybrid Optical and Packet Infrastructure (HOPI) project is dedicated to exploring innovative approaches to future network architectures. A design team consisting of network engineers and researchers from the Internet2 community has been assembled to create a testbed that examines new architectures for next generation networks. The design team has prepared a white paper that describes a testbed for circuit and packet switched infrastructures including elements of dynamic provisioning. The white paper is currently available for comment. A corporate advisory team consisting of corporate engineering leaders with experience in optical switching and dynamic provisioning has also been formed to support the project. A research advisory panel also guides the experimentation on the testbed.