Faster, More Complex Networks Will Enhance Research Computing But as Abilene and others join the Internet, untested systems may bring unforeseen problems By KELLY McCOLLUM Indianapolis With only a few weeks left before its scheduled January opening, the next-generation research network known as Abilene has cleared technical hurdles no other network has ever faced. And while researchers at dozens of institutions are eagerly anticipating the new network's capabilities, network managers at those universities face new challenges as they prepare to plug in. ALSO SEE: How Old and New Networks Would Serve Users on One Campus The networking experts here at Indiana University's Indianapolis campus -- home of Abilene's "brain center" -- know the real troubles have yet to begin. The university's network-operations center, or "NOC," already watches over campus networks and Internet connections throughout the state. But the addition of the world's fastest and most untested network complicates the mix, just as it does for the dozens of other universities that will soon plug Abilene into their already-complex networking equations. At many institutions, Abilene will join one or more of the research networks, such as ESnet, NREN, and vBNS, that have made an alphabet soup of academic networking. Figuring out which systems to hook into and how much those connections are worth has given technology administrators plenty to think about. Here at Indiana, for instance, the link to Abilene comes in addition to connections to the Internet, to a regional network, and to the vBNS -- the National Science Foundation's very-high-performance Backbone Network Service. And all those connections -- used by everyone from struggling freshmen to scholarly researchers -- are watched over by technicians in the NOC. "For dealing with problems with the network, this is the front line," says Jacob Levanon, standing in front of a long console of computer screens that display information about the speed and quality of the university's network connections. At the moment, the front line is quiet. Three technicians move among the console and three other computer stations, working or eating their lunches while Mr. Levanon, the university's director of telecommunications, explains how the center operates. At all times -- "24 by 7," as one technician says -- someone is on duty here, waiting for the phone to ring or for e-mail messages to come in. When those messages do come -- often at a rate of several per shift -- they are from users who have found trouble on the network, usually a crashed server or broken connection. Michael A. McRobbie is vice-president for information technology at the university. He describes the NOC's duty as "proactive and reactive." Even when no crises are being resolved, technicians in the NOC are keeping their eyes on the networks with diagnostic software that lets them see slowdowns that may lead to problems later. They also make constant adjustments to equipment on the networks to keep it all running as efficiently as possible, says Mr. McRobbie. From a technical standpoint, the NOC for Abilene could be located just about anywhere, says Mr. McRobbie, since all the servers and routers on the network will be accessible remotely. But, he says that having the NOC at a central location "probably makes some sense" because the center is physically connected to more parts of the network. The actual fiber-optic cables that carry the Abilene network crisscross the Midwest. As one network engineer recently told Mr. McRobbie, "Indianapolis and Cleveland are at the center of the fiber universe." From the windowless Abilene NOC -- which is a walled-off corner of a room in the university's computer center -- technicians will be able to reach out to thousands of routers, servers, and other bits of hardware around the world. By the time Abilene is up and running, Mr. Levanon says, the university will have hired eight to 10 new network engineers, assuring that at least three people will be watching the network at all times. To help out when something goes wrong that cannot be fixed remotely, the university has made "eyes and hands" arrangements -- contracts with engineers around the world who are familiar with standard network hardware and can be called at any hour of the day to make on-site repairs to malfunctioning equipment. The NOC here already monitors network connections on the university's eight campuses and will soon begin full-time control over Abilene and the recently announced TransPAC connection between American and Asian research networks. Although its scale is unusual, the center is really just a larger version of the network-operations headquarters that many colleges and universities maintain. In addition to the dozens of local networks that may exist on a single campus -- within departments or schools -- many colleges and universities now maintain multiple links to external networks. Most institutions are hooked up to the Internet, but connections to high-speed networks like Abilene and the vBNS will become more common in the coming months. Many universities have also joined regional networks or started cooperating with neighboring colleges and universities to share resources. The most common links, by far, are to the now-old-fashioned Internet, the network of networks that carries the clicks of millions of Web surfers to and from commercial, government, and university sites around the world. Experts have started calling this network the "commodity Internet" to differentiate it from newer systems. To hook in to the commodity Internet, a college or university must link to the commercial backbone, a chain of high-capacity networks owned by companies like SprintLink, MCI Worldcom, and AT&T. Usually, the institution will pay for a full-time connection to the backbone, one that offers enough bandwidth for many users. To make the connection, an institution typically leases a cable that runs from the campus to the backbone company's "point of presence," a facility where the wire can be physically connected to the network. If more capacity is needed, more connections can be added, and colleges will often make connections to different parts of the backbone. If one segment gets congested, the campus has a backup. A student in a campus computer lab, a professor dialing in from home, or an administrator using his or her office computer uses the commodity Internet for calling up Web pages or sending e-mail. Page requests or messages are sent to a computer called a router, which sends the information along toward its destination. Other routers relay those bits along the way, choosing the fastest route available to them. But overlapping the commercial backbone and interwoven with it are faster paths that are off-limits to the average Net user. These high-speed research networks rely on many of the same fiber-optic cables as the commercial backbone. But the research traffic travels on a virtual "express lane." In the case of the vBNS (http://www.vBNS.net), the N.S.F. pays MCI Worldcom for high-capacity bandwidth to connect several supercomputing centers in the United States. Institutions that want to tap into that backbone must pay to run a cable to it from their campuses. The connections that universities make to the vBNS backbone can be 100 times faster than commodity-Internet connections, and the backbone itself is far less congested than the commodity Internet, allowing users to send information hundreds of times as fast. But institutions must win permission from the N.S.F. before they can make those connections. Since 1996, the foundation has given that blessing to 128 institutions in two-year "high-performance connection" grants -- $350,000 awards that colleges and universities can use to cover the cost of connecting. To win one of the grants, an institution must submit a proposal showing ways in which its faculty members plan to use the connection for research. For instance, researchers have used vBNS connections to control electron microscopes in real time from across the country, and doctors have examined patients and given consultations over the network, using video feeds and remote instruments. One project used the network to combine the power of supercomputers across the country to model a theoretical collision of the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies. In another, researchers ran a computer simulation of the Chesapeake Bay on a supercomputer while users "walked through" the bay via a remote virtual-reality link. Besides the vBNS, several other networks provide high-speed communications for researchers. For example, the Department of Energy operates the Energy Sciences network, or ESnet, and NASA runs NREN, the NASA Research and Education Network. Those efforts, along with the vBNS and others, are paid for in part by the Clinton Administration's Next Generation Internet project, intended to develop fast network technologies and applications. From there, the mix of organizations and acronyms becomes almost as complex as the networks themselves. N.G.I.'s goals nearly parallel those of Internet 2, which is not actually a network but a consortium of colleges and universities organized to develop uses for high-speed networks. Internet 2's parent organization, the University Consortium for Advanced Internet Development, or UCAID, is also steering development of Abilene. Many Internet 2 members are already connected to the vBNS, but even as other members work to get their links to it on line, network technology is improving so fast that the vBNS is no longer leading-edge. And the science foundation does not intend to finance the network forever, although it has committed to running the backbone until 2002. The vBNS's heir apparent is Abilene (http://www.ucaid.edu/), which is faster than vBNS, and is expected to operate as a research-only network for at least five years. The N.S.F. has announced that universities may use their high-performance connection grants to pay for connections to either vBNS or Abilene, although universities need not win permission to connect to Abilene -- they need only be members of the Internet 2 consor tium. Ultimately, network administrators plan to link the two networks so that institutions will be able to make high-speed connections through either network. But unlike vBNS and other networks, which share wires with other commercial and research traffic, Abilene travels on a wire all its own -- a single, hair-thin strand of fiber-optic cable. While the cable, provided by Qwest Communications, is already in place, the connections that will make the network useful are still being installed. Abilene is now undergoing testing as Internet 2 members connect to it. After Abilene becomes operational early in 1999, the network will be expanded and improved throughout the year. Universities will connect with Abilene through POPs, as they do with other networks, but Abilene relies on a more advanced version of the connection nodes, called gigaPOPs, which can handle the network's higher capacity. Some gigaPOPs can also serve as connection points for research networks and the Internet, saving universities the trouble of making connections to several locations. Connections from the gigaPOPs to campus or regional networks will typically be several hundred times as fast as a T-1 line, a common commodity-Internet connection for businesses. Abilene's backbone will be capable of transmitting several billion bits per second -- roughly the amount of information in 30 issues of The Chronicle, photographs, job ads, and all. Rather than running cables directly from their campuses to the networks' backbones, most Internet 2 members are joining together into statewide or regional networks that collectively tie in to one gigaPOP. One such consortium, the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California, includes the University of California and California State University systems, Stanford University, the University of Southern California, and the California Institute of Technology. CENIC members have created two networks in the state that connect members to one another and to various network POPs and gigaPOPs. Russell Hobby, director of advanced network and scientific applications for the University of California's Davis campus, says the cooperative efforts let institutions split the cost of creating and maintaining a gigaPOP connection. And since each campus still needs to connect to the regional network, the groups can save money by buying networking hardware in bulk. The regional networks also let neighboring universities share resources among themselves, and campuses in the same system can beam high-quality video and other content for distance education. But this wealth of connections is creating its own set of difficulties. As the networks are becoming increasingly interconnected, fewer physical barriers prevent traffic on slow networks from taking shortcuts through faster systems. For example, a piece of junk e-mail traveling across the country might jump onto Abilene for an express ride, rather than crawling through gridlocked traffic on the commodity Internet. Keeping research networks fast and clear for the researchers is still an issue. According to Mr. Hobby, most institutions on the research networks are using "destination-based routing" to control the traffic. In other words, as a bit of information leaves an Internet 2 campus to head out onto the network, a router looks at where that information is going. If the destination is another Internet 2 campus, then the information will be sent over Abilene, which is limited to use by Internet 2 members. If the information is headed for a commercial site or non-member institution, it gets sent over the commodity Internet. The networks make similar decisions for using vBNS or other research networks. But destination-based routing doesn't offer a distinction between research and non-research uses. A student playing an on-line video game with a friend at a university across the country could potentially use the same route as an astrophysicist programming a remote supercomputer. Unfortunately, says Mr. Hobby, "we don't know how to do it any other way at this point." But he says the amount of traffic generated by such miscellaneous Net use is small in relation to Abilene's capacity -- for now. Meanwhile, network engineers are developing routing schemes that will let institutions determine what path a given piece of information should take. Mr. Hobby says technology is already available to route data according to its source. A university's public computer labs might be hooked into the commodity Internet by default, for instance, while traffic from faculty workstations or supercomputers might be steered onto Abilene. Using such technology would also prevent non-Internet 2 institutions from getting free rides on the faster networks through their connections to regional systems. In a way, such problems are almost as welcome as the new network that is creating them. The solutions that network engineers will inevitably devise will be put to use in other networks, including the commodity Internet, say Internet 2's organizers. "Nobody knows if there will be new problems," says Indiana's Mr. Levanon, "but there are likely to be new and interesting issues." http://chronicle.com Section: Information Technology Page: A33