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Evolution of research networks:quantity? quality? functionality?
Paul VAN BINST
Université Libre de Bruxelles
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Personal/Historical Introduction
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Why was I invited to talk to you today?
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Why was I invited to talk to you today?
• Because:
– I am old enough?– I had a great career in networking?– I am a good old friend of TERENA?– I am a good speaker?
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I am old enough?
• I started my career in 1967…
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I am old enough?
• I started my career in 1967…
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I am old enough?
• I started my career in 1967…
… and I stop next September
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I had a great career in networking?
• I was probably part of the pioneers…
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I had a great career in networking?
• I was probably part of the pioneers…
P. VAN BINST, R. VANDENBROUCKE
Development of a communication facility between two PDP‑11's and a DEC system 10.Société Belge de Physique, Réunion Scientifique Générale, 1980
M. GOOSSENS, J. TIBERGHIEN, P. VAN BINST, R. VANDENBROUCKE
Development of a file transfer capability between a PDP‑11 under RSX‑11M and a HP 1000 under RTE.DECUS Europe Symposium, 1982
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I am a good old friend of TERENA?
• Definitely!– I started working in the early 80’s at the
European level (with ECFA) to create, finance and deploy international networking infrastructures for research
– I was at the first meeting where the concept of such as thing as TERENA was discussed
– I represented Belgium in RARE/TERENA for 10 years (1985 – 1995)
– I was in the executive committee for 6 years
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Let me show you three souvenirs about the previous slide…
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ECFA - European Committee for Future Accelerators
ECFA/82/60
Networks for High-Energy PhysicsAn Interim Report on Wide-Area Communications
ECFA Working Group on Data Processing Standards
Subgroup 5 (Links and Networks)August 1982
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I am a good speaker ?
… I’ll leave it to you to decide … but I surely spoke a lot in my life!
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I am a good speaker ?
… I’ll leave it to you to decide … but I surely spoke a lot in my life!
19/5/08 TNC
I am a good speaker ?
… I’ll leave it to you to decide … but I surely spoke a lot in my life!
19/5/08 TNC
I am a good speaker ?
… I’ll leave it to you to decide … but I surely spoke a lot in my life!
19/5/08 TNC
I am a good speaker ?
… I’ll leave it to you to decide … but I surely spoke a lot in my life!
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Evolution of research networks(past, present and future)
• Quantity ?
• Quality ?
• Functionality ?
… an executive summary
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Quantity (1)
• A long story of increasing data rates at decreasing prices …
• … which I am not going to tell today, or even summarize
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Quantity (2)
• Two references:– An achievement : international 256 Kbps from
Belgium, 1987A. COHEN, C. HANON, T. MASSART, N. MEULEMANS, P. VAN BINST,
R. VANDENBROUCKEThe Helios‑B Project: Towards High Speed File Transfers by Satellite
Between Heterogeneous Computers.Proceedings of TENCON 87, IEEE
– A long fight : European 2 Mbps backboneP. VAN BINST (ed.)Proceedings of the Third Symposium on High Speed Networking for
Research in Europe, Brussels, February 1994.Computer Networks for Research in Europe, Elsevier, 25, 1994
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Quantity (3)
• Executive summary :
– For a long time, the problem was price …– … then came the great 1988 – 1998
decade: de-monopolization, liberalization of the European telecom market …
– … which resulted in the price/performance of the networks we use today
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Quality (1)
• The (old) concept of Quality of Service (QoS) has evolved considerably towards today’s Service Level Agreements (SLAs)
• QoS used to be defined and measured at the physical and network layers, with the main focus being put on Bit Error Rate (BER), as well as transit delay, jitter, etc. – in a world of virtual circuits / connection-oriented and broadcast networks– That is still the case today for most telephony,
radio and TV networks – with billions of users
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Quality (2)• Internet and LANs (connectionless / datagram
networks) changed the situation because of the essentially unreliable (« best effort ») lower layers
• The practical questions of QoS moved to layers 4 (TCP or UDP) and higher (applications and services) – also due to the much improved performance of the lower layers
• AND: the networks are mostly used by people (human beings) for voice, music, radio and video communications, and this in fact allows to drop the « hard » requirement for QoS (the « what » is more important than the « how ») – we listen to the news, we watch the football game, …
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Quality (3)
• Since a number years, the real basic answer to QoS questions at the lower layers is called « over-dimensioning » - exactly what we witness today in GEANT (or Belnet), as in most operators networks
• Precise QoS measurements in the lower layers are sometimes still carried out for industrial and professional users / contracts, but not for the vast majority of end users
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Quality (4)
• Most users (also on NREN’s) don’t see the quality of the lower layers, which is very often masked by the unpredictability of Internet applications and services
• Just one example: in a recent series of long file downloads into my PC at ULB, at various times by day and night, from a major university, well connected to its NREN in a European capital city, the observed sustained data rate varied by a factor 40 ! (from 40 KBps to 1.6 MBps)– That’s like a car doing sometimes 160 km/h, sometimes
4 km/h !!!
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Executive Summary (up to here)
• We have (more than) enough quantity
• So we don’t care too much about quality
• Especially if we love the functionality
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Functionality (1)
• The real paradigm shift is that we are preferring functionality to quality
• The obvious best example of this behaviour is the SMS (more than 1 billion per day in the world) – a very basic service with a lousy ergonomy
• Our regular web attitude is that we don’t mind to wait, either a fraction of a second or a large number of seconds, as long as we like what we get
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Functionality (2)
• All the same, we look at a poor definition TV broadcast or video in a small window on our computer screen while we have a high-quality, large TV set next door
• … and I will not comment on the phone or video conferencing applications tragedy…
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Functionality (2)
• All the same, we look at a poor definition TV broadcast or video in a small window on our computer screen while we have a high-quality, large TV set next door
• … and I will not comment on the phone or video conferencing applications tragedy…
• Meanwhile, the world is changing and people using (non research) networks are getting better and better services, with good (sometimes guaranteed) quality and functionality – think eg. of the banking or health worlds…
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A (Belgian) example of advanced functionality in the health world
The VIGITENS project, carried out by– St Peter hospital in Brussels– Hodie Vivere foundation– Belgacom– Tandberg– ULB/STC
Remote mentoring of emergency cases
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Irisnet
InternetADSL
T1700 local medecin Edge- local consultationMovi serveur
LAN
IPVCR (recording)
3 g gatewayISDN
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Functionality (3)
• Do research networks need to develop more advanced functionality?
• We have already some good and performant services in the NREN world, such as CERTs or EDUROAM
• One of the nicest « new » things is the development of the grid paradigm, because it means networks, technology, services and management – let me steal a nice slide from the EC
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e-Infrastructure - implementation blocks
networking
specific services
joint research activ
ities
GÉANT .
INFRASTRUCTURE
networking
specific services
joint research activ
ities
GRID .
INFRASTRUCTURE
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BEgrid
I “must” have one slide about BEgrid!• Infrastructure
– > 800 CPUs– about 30 Tbyte of storage– > 600 valid certificates
• Usage in 2007– > 600000 jobs– > 150 years of CPU time
• Integrated in EGEE (gLite middleware), > 40000 CPUs• Integrated with NLgrid• Ready to be an NGI in the EGI structure
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Functionality (4)
• But we are still far away from the « sexiness » of Google Earth, YouTube, ViaMichelin or DVB-H…
• How separate can (should?) NRENs be (or remain?) from other (public?) services?
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A last example from Brussels, Belgium
• The URBIZONE project:– a large meshed outdoor WiFi network
covering the campusses of Brussels universities (ULB-VUB) – 80 antennas
– organized and paid for by the government of the Brussels Region – free for all!
– linked to the IRISnet regional internet (ISP) – which is linked to BELNET
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Some first conclusive thoughts
URBIZONE is an interesting pilot project– it brings a sponsored network next to the
NREN– it is just an infrastructure, no services –
but that’s NOT the final idea– operators would love to do the same –
with a business model (eg. tourism, health)– the telcos and the media world are today
the clear winners on the Internet – how far should they stay from research networks?
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Final executive summary
• We have far exceeded our wildest expectations/dreams in terms of Quantity
• We are (happily?) often forgetting about Quality
• The non NREN world is overtaking us with Functionality
• Food for thought: does the NREN world need a (new) business model?
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Final souvenir…
P. VAN BINST
High Speed Networking in Europe: Dream, Nightmare, Utopia, or Reality?
Closing address presented at the Symposium on High Speed Networking for Research in Europe, RARE/CEC, Brussels, January 1991.
Computer Networks and ISDN Systems, North‑Holland, 21, June 1991, 4, 353.
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Final souvenir…
P. VAN BINST
High Speed Networking in Europe: Dream, Nightmare, Utopia, or Reality?
Closing address presented at the Symposium on High Speed Networking for Research in Europe, RARE/CEC, Brussels, January 1991.
Computer Networks and ISDN Systems, North‑Holland, 21, June 1991, 4, 353.
Now for the future of networking in Europe, let’s dream and make our Utopia become Reality!
