Massive bandwidth for collaborative research

Canada’s biggest industrial R&D spender is tapping into Canada’s leading-edge broadband research network to accelerate development of its next generation of products and collaborate with top researchers around the globe. Nortel Networks Corp has established a direct link to CANARIE’s CA*net 4 that will provide it with access to independent lightpaths and permit collaboration on advanced technologies requiring massive bandwidth.

Nortel made the physical connection last month between one of its Ottawa laboratories and CANARIE’s main site in downtown Ottawa. Several projects are about to start or are being considered. Furthest advanced is an Advanced Resource Allocation Controller (DRAC) between Nortel and researchers associated with Holland’s SURFnet advanced research network.

DRAC is still in the proof of concept stage but the technology being tested allows an application to generate the required bandwidth to operate. Nortel is developing DRAC in conjunction with researchers at the Univ of Amsterdam. The software seeks out additional capacity that’s available on the network and utilizes it, facilitating massive data flows for specific periods of time.

DRAC has already been publicly demonstrated by SURFnet as part of its hybrid optical and packet switching network architecture. It allows users to bypass the packet layer and go directly onto wavelengths between end points across temporary optical links.

“The link to CANARIE allows our researchers in Ottawa to collaborate in real time with network modelling researchers in Amsterdam,” says Rod Wilson, Nortel’s director of collaboration and partnerships in its advanced technology research division. “It speeds our technology forward and it’s a big money saver because of the immediacy of the project and the research itself.”

Nortel is one of the few — and by far the largest — companies to take advantage of CA*net 4’s grid architecture, which allows users to establish individual peer-to-peer lightpaths of between one and 10 gigabits per second for collaborative research. Both CANARIE and Nortel are outfitted with the latter’s new OME 6500 Sonet cross-connect switch, which is in prototype testing.

“CA*net 4 is an enabling technology that could change the ways we do research,” says Wilson. “We’re looking at ways it can be utilized for different research projects.”

Nortel is also collaborating with researchers at Chicago’s Western University Centre for Advanced Research on grid and collaborative computing models as part of the Global Lambda Integrated Facility (GLIF).

Created by Dr Kees Neggers, managing director of Holland’s SURFnet, GLIF is a world-scale lambda-based laboratory for application and middleware development that relies on dynamically configured networks based on optical wavelengths. Nortel is an active participant in GLIF’s lightwave experiments.

“The link to CANARIE makes all this possible. We collaborate on a global scale with leading researchers, usually at universities but often governments as well. From a research partnerships perspective, 40% of what Nortel invests is in Canada, while 30% is invested in the US and 30% elsewhere. Most investments are in very advanced technologies that are at least three years out,” says Wilson. “

Despite the major benefits CA*net 4 offers to a company like Nortel, CANARIE isn’t expecting a private sector rush to take advantage of its lightpaths. The precise numbers are unclear but its estimated that fewer than 10 Canadian firms are linked to CA*net 4, mostly through regional points of presence like Ontario’s ORION network.

“Nortel doesn’t have a routed connection but the capability to establish a point-to-point lightpath connection to do research periodically,” says René Hatem, CA*net 4’s chief engineer. “CA*net 4 provides the capability for users to set up their own lightpaths or circuits and establish direct peering. It permits them to extend their capability for collaboration onto networks.”

“There won’t be that many because a company typically needs to have a large research component and do university-based research. There aren’t that many companies like that in Canada,” says Bill St Arnaud, CANARIE’s senior director of advanced networks. “We hope that (Network of Centres of Excellence) Auto 21will connect but that’s likely two years away.”

In addition to lightpaths, Nortel is also using new Canadian-developed user controlled lightpath (UCLP) software. Along with its connection to CA*net 4, CANARIE has committed to assist in the training of Nortel staff in UCLP. Wilson notes that training has already begun and is proving highly beneficial.

Wilson says there are advantages to partnering with CANARIE that go beyond the superior technical capabilities it has gained by linking to CA*net 4.

“CANARIE has the technology, reputation and ability to be recognized in global research and education communities,” he says. “That has value to Nortel.”

R$