2023 Internet2 Technology Exchange

Wenesday 4-4.50 pm, Lighting Talk

Speakers:

• Frederic Loui, RENATER/GEANT
• Sonja Filiposka, GEANT
• Harvey Newman, Caltech

Slides:

• GP4L in GEANT-5 Project

Abstracts:

Talk 1: RARE/freeRtr is a project that started in 2019. Its objective is to implement an Open Source Routing platform versatile enough to run in various situations. It aims to support Research and Education (R&E) specific use cases. While RARE uses freeRtr as the control plane, the platform has the particularity to run on top of different data plane implementations. This allows a high degree of deployment and flexibility. Most features are developed with P4 for the software target BMv2, and where possible also for the Intel Tofino hardware target. Additionally, a DPDK-based data plane called P4DPDK for x86 platforms is also available that addresses use cases requiring lower bandwidth.

NMaaS is another project from GEANT initiated in 2015. It aims to provide a comprehensive catalog of network management applications. Relying on Kubernetes technology, It has never been that easy to deploy Prometheus, Influxdb or Grafana application.

It has become natural for NMaaS to become RARE/freeRTr inherent network management solution. The combination of these 2 platforms constitute a turnkey solution for Network operators.

All of these features are tested in the Global P4 lab, which is a representative lab environment that started with 4 nodes in Europe only. It received a warm welcome from the R&E organisations and has become a world-wide community effort and comprise now 30 nodes all around the world. Various demonstrations were presented during SC22 via the usage of GP4L.

RARE/freeRtr, GP4L & NMaaS are initiatives pursued within the GÉANT-5 project which started January 2023 under the umbrella of Horizon Europe.

Talk 2: The Global Network Advancement Group (GNA-G) has brought together the major R&E and mission oriented networks and major data intensive science programs to enable the best use of networks and computing facilities worldwide, while developing the next generation of programmable national and intercontinental networks and distributed systems designed to address the most challenging needs of leading edge programs in a manner compatible with continued excellent service to the at large academic and research communities. I will review the mission and structure of the GNA-G and its working groups, and recent progress in the Data Intensive Sciences and AutoGOLE/SENSE working groups towards the next generation network paradigm, working in concert with the Global, National, Americas and Asia Pacific Research Platforms.