Research & Education (R&E) Networking

1. Research & Education (R&E) Networking Warren Matthews (Georgia Tech).

2. What is R&E Networking? • Internet for the Research and Education Community. • Research Universities • Colleges and Teaching Universities • Schools • Some commercial research labs (e.g. Microsoft Research). • Often referred to as Internet2.

3. What is Internet2? • National Backbone Network • also National Lambda Rail (NLR) • Advanced Networking in General • Peachnet (Georgia State-wide R&E network) • Southern Crossroads (SOX) Gigapop and Regional Optical Network. • Umbrella organization for applications communities • e.g. Philadelphia Orchestra

4. What R&E Networking isn’t. • Not commercial, unless it is. • e.g. ticket sales. • Not myspace/facebook, but sometimes. • SOX Peers with Google. • Not to be confused with Web 2.0

5. National Lambda Rail (NLR) Internet2 Footprint is similar.

6. Peachnet • Peachnet passes within 5 miles of 35 school district offices. • SOX connects most of the R&E institutes in the South East to National and International destinations.

7. SEGP • Sponsored Education Group Participant. • SOX sponsors Peachnet. • Any K-12 District connecting to Peachnet will get connectivity to Internet2/NLR via SOX. • Improve performance, enabling access to rich content.

8. Why not Internet1 (1/2)? • EdTechNext mentions slow and unreliable connections, pop-up adds etc. • 10 years ago, R&E community faced similar challenges. • lack of capacity, routing, etc led to formation of Internet2 organization, Abilene and regional gigapops. • R&E Networking launched research into new era.

9. Why not Internet1 (2/2)? • R&E is not competing with ISPs. • K-12 doesn’t “compete” with Universities • Large corporations build their own networks. • We need AT&T, Level3, Qwest, AGL etc • Fiber providers • But we want • Separate Layer 3 service with high capacity connections and direct routing between sites.

10. Capacity. • Congestion causes packet loss and delay. • Interactive applications are harder to use. • Even non-interactive applications are slow. • Bandwidth is required but not sufficient • Also latency, jitter, routing.

11. A Typical K-12 System in Georgia. In the evenings and weekends, delay is 5 milliseconds. Severely congested pipes mean long queues in routers. This graph show the delay (in milliseconds) between the clean room at Georgia Tech and a district central office .

12. A K-12 System Connected to Peachnet. 2.4 milliseconds 2.2 milliseconds 001e.4fbf.e53d 001e.4fbf.e53d 001e.4fbf.e53d This graph show the delay (in milliseconds) between the clean room at Georgia Tech and a district central office .

13. Utilization District upgraded from 20 Mbps to 155 Mbps (Peachnet). Immediately see usage 2-3x previous capacity. More capacity means less congestion

14. What is it Used For?

15. What Else Is It Good For? • The applications mentioned on the MUSE site (http://k20.internet2.edu): • videoconferencing (D2D) • teleimmersion/telepresence (Gray’s Reef) • remote control of scientific instrumentation (ORNL) • Sensors, simulations, haptics

16. Beyond the Bandwidth Barrier • Additional capacity is just the first step. • What becomes possible if there was almost unlimited bandwidth? • R&E networking enables advanced applications for new learning experiences. • Also see http://ceap.wcu.edu/houghton/i2

17. Next Steps • Equipment and Professional Development • To make optimal use of R&E networking, you need to have the classroom-side equipment and professional development for teachers who need to know how to use it to further learning.

18. Summary - What is R&E Networking? • A network, advanced networking, and the applications it enables. • Fourth Leg (for added stability) • Enthusiastic participants • Key component of 21st Century learning. • Potential.

19. Links. • http://www.internet2.edu • http://www.nlr.net • http://www.usg.edu/peachnet • http://www.sox.net • http://ceap.wcu.edu/houghton/i2

20. Any Questions?