NSF IRNC Program International Deployment and Experimental Efforts with SDN in 2013 The National Science Foundation (NSF) International Research Network Connections (IRNC) program is enabling the development and operation of international prototype Openflow/Sofware Defined Networking (SDN) collaborations on four of its projects that connect the U.S. to Europe, Asia and Latin America. The America Connects to Europe (ACE) project and the TransPAC3 Asia- US High Performance International Networking (TP3) infrastructure are managed by Indiana University. The ACE project provides multiple 10Gb/s circuits between the United States (US) and European (EU) Research and Education Network (REN) infrastructure. A 10G LAN PHY circuit between the StarLight facility in Chicago and the NetherLight exchange point in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands is dedicated to SDN research and testing. The TP3 project provides a single 10G production circuit between the US and Asian Pacific Advanced Network (APAN) infrastructure. TP3 has SDN capabilities in Los Angeles (LA) providing a direct OpenFlow (OF) connection between the Research Infrastructure for large- Scale network Experiments (RISE) project in Japan and other SDN activities using the TP3 circuit. The Americas Lightpaths (AmLight) project is jointly managed by Florida International University (FIU), the Academic Network of São Paulo (ANSP), and the Brazilian National Research and Education Network (RNP). The AmLight project connects the U.S. to Latin America via Miami, Florida São Paulo, Brazil; Miami Santiago, Chile; Santiago, Chile São Paulo, Brazil; Miami Panama City, Panama; San Antonio, Texas Mexico City, Mexico; and Los Angeles, California Tijuana, Mexico. Two 10G WAN PHY circuits between the AMPATH International Exchange Point in Miami and the Southern Light Exchange Point in São Paulo support connections to Openflow/SDN switches to enable SDN research and testing activities. AmLight collaborators at FIU, the Academic Network of Sao Paulo, and the Brazilian National Research and Education Network (RNP) are supporting the U.S. Global Environment for Network Innovations (GENI) and the FIBRE: Future Internet Testbeds Experimentation between Brazil and Europe projects. These are national- scale projects that leverage AmLight SDN network infrastructure resources towards the advancement of network research. The NSF IRNC program in partnership with the Internet2 Advanced Layer 2 Services (AL2S) Network is supporting transport for international prototype Openflow/SDN collaborations. Figure 1 shows ACE, TransPAC3 and AmLight 10Gb/s circuits in red interconnecting the U.S. to Europe, Asia and Brazil (Chile, via Santiago is a future SDN interconnection point). Key international exchange points in the U.S. in Miami (AMPATH), Chicago (StarLight), and Los Angeles (PacificWave) leverage network transport services provided by Florida LambdaRail (FLR) from Miami to Jacksonville, Florida and the Internet2 AL2S Network to establish multiple high- performance network paths between themselves (shown in Green).
Figure 1 NSF IRNC projects circuits enabling the development and operation of international prototype Openflow/SDN collaborations The last effort is related to an NSF supported project called GLORIAD: In an effort to expand capabilities in using OpenFlow technologies for the R&E communities in SE Asia, Northwestern University (NWU), SingAREN and GLORIAD have partnered in creating the first SE Asia OpenFlow testbed during the GLIF 2013 meeting that took place in Singapore from Oct 2-4, 2013. Joe Mambretti (NWU/StarWave/Starlight) has provided an OpenFlow switch and a Control Server that was shipped to Singapore and deployed at the SingAREN's colocation space at the GlobalSwitch (2 Tai Seng Ave), a premier colo facility in Singapore. This leverages the longstanding GLORIAD- SingAREN partnership and the underlying global network fabric spreading from Singapore's Research Institutions and Universities to Hong Kong and on to Seattle, and finally to Starlight facilities in Chicago, tying it there into the global, GLIF sponsored, OpenFlow testbed.
Figure 2 GLORIAD Openflow trans- Pacific network testbed ACE Openflow trans- Atlantic inter- domain network testbed description A demonstration at the TERENA 2013 conference showed data transfers between AL2S in Los Angeles and the Netherlands testbed in AMS (Figure 3). The following is a breakdown of the ACE Openflow resources: Chicago side: OpenFlow enabled switch in Chicago (Blade RackSwitch G8264) Switch has a dedicated port connected to the AL2S Brocade Chicago switch Switch is connected to StarLight ACE circuit connects to StarLight Static vlans are configured to ACE OpenFlow switch and the ACE circuit Dedicated test/controller host connected to ACE OF switch EU side: ACE circuit connects to a NetherLight switch NetherLight OpenFlow test bed connected to NetherLight switch. Vlans configured to through NetherLight switch to NetherLight OpenFlow test bed Access to hosts on the NetherLight OF test bed
Figure 3 ACE Openflow trans- Atlantic inter- domain network testbed Phase two will land the Chicago to Amsterdam circuit directly on OF equipment eliminating the SL and NL infrastructure. This will provide more control and visibility of the circuit. Another part of phase two is connecting the NL OF infrastructure to the GEANT OF PoP in Amsterdam. This part is completed and now provides connectivity between the US and EU OF infrastructures including Ophelia. A recent demonstration at the SuperCompting 2013 (SC13) conference expanded the above infrastructure to include connectivity to a host in Tokyo using the TP3 network (Figure 4.). Los Angeles (LA) side: OpenFlow enabled switch in LA (Brocade MLX- 4) Switch has a dedicated port connected to the RISE OpenFlow switch
Switch is connected to Pacific Wave Dedicated test/controller host connected to TP3 OF switch Tokyo side: Currently host connected to MX80 router Future host will reside in RISE OpenFlow testbed Figure 4 ACE/TransPAC three continent SC13 GridFTP demonstration AmLight Openflow/SDN Testbed The AmLight project has deployed Openflow switches at the AMPATH International Exchange point (Figure 5). A Pronto 3925 and a Brocade MLX- 4 have been
connected to the AMPATH switching fabric. A NOX Controller is also operational and established an Openflow domain at AMPATH. At the Southern Light exchange point, a Brocade XMR 8000 is configured and ready to work with Openflow v1.0. From this device, it is possible to reach ANSP and RNP networks. In Santiago, Chile, a Brocade CES 2000 is configured and capable of running Openflow v1.0. From this switch, it will be possible to support REUNA and AURA networks. Figure 5 - AMPATH/AMLIGHT SDN Diagram AmLight is supporting an ExoGENI rack. AmLight is also supporting NSF Campus Cyberinfrastructure - Network Infrastructure and Engineering Program (CC- NIE) projects that require international Layer2 transport to Latin America, including FIU s FlowSurge project a CC- NIE data driven networking infrastructure award to enhance end- to- end science flows by establishing a Science DMZ based on Openflow/SDN.