NSF International Research Network Connections (IRNC) Program
I2 Joint Techs Meetings
Kevin Thompson
NSF CISE/SCI
February 15, 2005

IRNC Solicitation
2004 Solicitation (NSF 04-560, see www.nsf.gov)
“NSF expects to make a small number of awards to provide network connections linking U.S. Research networks with peer networks in other parts of the world”
“The availability of limited resources means that preference will be given to solutions which provide the best economy of scale and demonstrate the ability to link the largest communities of interest with the broadest services”
Follow-on to “High-Performance International Internet Services” (HPIIS) 1997

IRNC cont’d
Program Funding - $5M per year
Cooperative agreements for up to 5 years
New themes applied to program
In support of Production r&e traffic
Cohesive organization and architecture
“geographic sensibility”
“pay for what we need”
Measurement
Security

2005 IRNC Awards
Pacific Rim
#0441102 – “US-Russia-China GLORIAD…”
#0441096 – “TransPAC2”
#04XXXX – [one Award Not Yet Official L]
Europe
#0441094 “TransLight/StarLight”
Latin America
#0441095 “WHREN: Increasing the Rate of Discovery and Enhancing Education across the Americas”

Awards - Asia
#0441102 – “US-Russia-China GLORIAD: Global Ring Network for Advanced Applications Development”
PI Greg Cole (Univ. of Tennessee)
Funds connectivity to U.S. from Russia, China, and Korea
Leverages donated Tyco circuits in 1st year
To/from Moscow 1 Gig-E
To/from Beijing STM-16 (2.5 G) with likely additional STM-16 to Pusan
Funded at $4.2M over 5 years

GLORIAD Topology – Current, Plans for Years 1-5

Asian Portion of GLORIAD (Segment 1)
(illustrating HK-SEA link and HK-Pusan-SEA link)

Awards - Asia
#0441096 – “TransPAC2”
PI Jim Williams (Indiana)
Funds TransPAC2 U.S. connectivity with Japan
10G connection between Los Angeles  (PacificWave) and Tokyo
Additional opportunities (see last talk)
Funded at $5M over 5 years

TransPAC2 Architecture

Awards - Europe
#0441094 “TransLight/StarLight”
PI Tom DeFanti (Univ. of Illinois at Chicago)
Provides 2x10 Gbps between U.S. and Europe
From MAN LAN in NYC
First circuit to be homed to GEANT in Amsterdam
Can also be used for ESnet (DOE) traffic
Funded at $5M over 5 years

Awards – Latin America
#0441095 “WHREN: Increasing the Rate of Discovery and Enhancing Education across the Americas”
PI Julio Ibarra (FIU)
Funds U.S. connectivity to RedCLARA
1.2 Gbps connection Miami – Sao Paulo (evolving to 2.5Gbps)
1.0 Gbps connection San Diego – Tijuana (easily upgradeable, dark fiber access)
Funded at $5M over 5 years

Slide 12

Inter-regional Links
WHREN-LILA links interconnecting with RedCLARA in Tijuana, Mexico and Sao Paulo, Brazil

Awards - Other
Africa: #0451384 SGER – “Extending High Bandwidth Academic and Research Networking to Africa”
PI George Sadowsky (Internews Network) 9/1/04 start, 100k
Develop plan to extend connectivity to African countries (Ghana, South Africa, Mozambique, Madagascar, Senegal, possibly others)
IRNC Measurement
#0457404 SGER - “Network Measurement for International Connections”, PI Matt Zekauskas (UCAID, Internet2)
#0XXXXX SGER – [2nd SGER Award in this area not officially made yet L]
Investigate approaches and help develop guidelines for common measurement capabilities and metrics across IRNC connections

Other Plans
IRNC Kickoff meeting at NSF on March 11
Methodical technology insertion
Insertion of layer2 and “hybrid” services as needed
Granular traffic reporting – NSF will have detailed visibility into usage
Eventual resource for research on network traffic
BRO Platforms, OCxMONs?
Expansion into new regions?