VIOLA: A testbed for advanced network services
Peter Kaufmann, DFN, Stresemannstr. 78, 10963 Berlin, Germany,
E-mail: <kaufmann@dfn.de>
Ferdinand Hommes, FhG/IMK, Schloss Birlinghoven, 53754 Sankt Augustin, Germany
E-mail: <ferdinand.hommes@IMK.FRAUNHOFER.DE>
Keywords: optical testbed, dynamical bandwidth allocation, signalling methods, advanced
applications.
Abstract
The VIOLA testbed has been started in summer 2004 in the region of North-Rhine-Westphalia
with an extension to Bavaria. It is an integrated testbed for applications and advanced network services, organised as a consortium with partners from industry, research laboratories, universities and
the DFN association. Major goals are the test of different signalling mechanisms in an heterogeneous
environment of routers and switches and the development of a user-driven dynamical bandwidth allocation. The results will give input for the stepwise implementation of the X-WIN, the next generation
research network in Germany.
Introduction
In June 2004 the project VIOLA (Vertically Integrated Optical Testbed for Large Applications in
DFN) has been started. Within VIOLA a consortium with partners from industry, research laboratories, universities and the DFN association will implement a German „Optical Testbed“ in the region of
Aachen–Bonn–Cologne (State of North-Rhine-Westphalia) and an extension to Erlangen–Nuremberg
(State of Bavaria).
The major goals of VIOLA are:
 Test of advanced network equipment and network architectures;

Development and test of software tools for the user-driven dynamical provision of bandwidth;

Interworking of network equipment from different manufacturers;

Enhancement and test of new advanced applications (e.g. Grid, Virtual Reality);

Cooperation with similar projects in Europe and elsewhere.
These goals shall be obtained with integrated work in the areas of network technology and application
development, both as part of a testbed environment. The integration of applications into VIOLA will
offer a realistic and near-operational environment to test such new network equipment.
The results of VIOLA shall support DFN, the application groups and the industrial partners for their
respective interests:
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


DFN is currently preparing the next generation of the German science network (X-WIN) and
VIOLA will provide know-how about the according network technology. This know-how includes
the knowledge about new network equipment, the collection of operational experiences and the
ongoing overview about the available technique.
User groups from the areas of distributed computing and Virtual Reality (VR) get an innovative
network environment to enhance their existing applications. Both areas are of special interest. Distributed computing is an essential part of the Grid-concept and Virtual Reality is of great interest
in many scientific and commercial areas (e.g. architecture, car industry, weather forecast service,
...) for planning processes.
The industrial partners get the possibility to test their equipment in a close-to-production environment. They will get results about e.g. stability, user-friendliness of operation and performance parameters. The experiences in VIOLA will help them to enhance their products and services.
Technical goals of VIOLA
The implementation of the X-WIN with a high performance backbone with trunk capacities of 10 to
40 Gb/s is a major goal of DFN in the coming years. But not only the increase of bandwidth is a necessary task for the X-WIN. The increase of network intelligence is as much as important, especially
the user-driven dynamical provision of bandwidth based on WDM or SDH-channels. The basic XWIN implementation will start in 2005. Its further development will be an ongoing process with input
from VIOLA. Thus, the project VIOLA will deal (with respect of further usage in X-WIN) with following aspects:





Which switching and management capabilities future generations of network equipment will
have? In which way the dynamical provision of bandwidth is implemented? In which way the optical layer and the IP layer will be combined?
Which network properties are depending either on different architectures of network protocols
(e.g. IP, Gigabit-Ethernet over WDM, with or without usage of a SDH layer) or just on higher
bandwidth?
In which way the operational functions of the equipment can be measured with respect to simplicity, stability, fault tolerance etc?
Which problems occur with the cooperation of different manufacturer equipment in real life?
Which additional components (middleware tools) must be developed for the interest of applications?
To deal with these issues the cooperation of network technology and applications is an integral part of
the VIOLA concept. Such integrated structure will provide to the network specialists the chance to test
their components under near-operational conditions which forms a good base for later operational/commercial usage. The other way around, application developers might enhance their (already existing) tools within an attractive environment which elsewhere will be available only in future. This
concept will be realised in VIOLA to demonstrate the advantage for applications with high transmission demands and QoS requirements that cannot fulfilled for single users in today operational networks.
At the beginning the applications in VIOLA will stem from the areas of Grid computing and VR
which are of special interest in the scientific community.
Grid applications using mainly distributed resources like super computers, large data bases or large
experimental equipment have (or will have) strong requirements for the performance of networks
(throughput, dynamical connectivity, QoS) and such applications will certainly form a large user
community in future science networks. Apart from high throughput a special goal of the Grid projects
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within VIOLA is to test the ability for user-driven dynamical bandwidth requirements. VR applications will mainly have requirements for QoS (real-time) and high burst traffic.
Currently the following application projects will be realised within VIOLA:
 VIOLA-Support: Implementation and operation of a compute-Grid,
 MetaTrace: Simulation of pollution distribution on distributed SMP-clusters,
 TechSim: Distributed simulation of various complex technical systems,
 AMG-OPT: Optimal hierarchical-algebraic solver
 KoDaVis: Collaborative visualisation of large atmospheric data within heterogeneous environments.
Further application projects shall be integrated later on.
Altogether VIOLA will provide an environment for operational field tests with advanced network
equipment. The participating research institutions may collect network experiences and enhance applications. In that sense VIOLA forms a link between laboratory test environments and production-like
networks.
International Cooperation
Many other research networks execute important tests and preparations of future network technology.
A lot of work is done e.g. in CANARIE, but also in European networks (e.g. SURFnet, UKERNA,
CESNET or PIONIER). Further on there has been started a number of European projects, e.g. MUPPET and GN2 (funded within the 6th framework program of the EU). VIOLA forms the German national base for European projects that are set up on top of national activities. In that sense VIOLA and
other international projects complements each other.
Network Structure in VIOLA
The testbed VIOLA will be implemented at the beginning in the region Aachen–Bonn–Cologne (State
of North-Rhine-Westphalia) with an extension to Erlangen–Nuremberg (State of Bavaria).
The task of the transport network is to interconnect the Gigabit-Ethernet-Switches or workstations at
the application site with n times 1 Gigabit-Ethernet (1 GE) or n times 10 Gigabit-Ethernet (10 GE). As
project time goes on this should be done dynamically depending of the requirements of the users. Figure 1 presents a topological overview about the locations and the used bandwidth in VIOLA.
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RWTH
Aachen
Research Centre
Jülich
FH Bonn-Rhine-Sieg
Sankt Augustin
caesar
Bonn
University of
Bonn
Fraunhofer Institutes
Sankt Augustin
GÉANT
Frankfurt
10 Gbit/s SDH
10 GE
2,5 Gbit/s (2 x GE)
planned for 2. phase
optional within co-operation
of GSN+ and VIOLA
GSN+
backbone node and user node
user node
planned node
T-Systems
Nuremberg
location NN
University of
Erlangen
Munich
Figure 1: VIOLA topology
It is planned to integrate further locations into VIOLA later on, e.g. Munich. Further on there shall be
a connection link with the testbed „Global Seamless Networks“ (GSN, GSN+) of Deutsche Telekom
which is used also in the project MUPPET.
The VIOLA backbone includes sites in Sankt Augustin, Jülich, Bonn, Nuremberg and Erlangen with
OEO switches (Alcatel 1678, Siemens hiT 7070, Sycamore SN 16000) connected via 10 Gb trunks. In
addition there will be 10GE switches (Riverstone 15008) in Sankt Augustin, Jülich und Bonn again
connected via 10 Gb trunks. The further 7750 SR from Alcatel and the hiT 7070 from Siemens may be
connected either with the other local OEO switches or via 10 Gb trunks with each other.
It is planned in phase 2 of VIOLA to transfer the Siemens SDH switches (hiT 7070) from Bonn and
Sankt Augustin to further locations (e.g. Munich)
The other VIOLA user sites are connected with 10GE or 2 x GE to the backbone. Details of the
equipment and the connections to each other are presented in Fig. 2 for the sites University of
Bonn/FhG/FZ Jülich.
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Alcatel
7750 SR
10 x MM
10 Gbit/s SDH
10 GE
2,5 Gbit/s (2 x GE)
10 x GE
4 x 2,5
Gbit/s SDH
3 x MM
57 km
RWTH
Aachen
2 x SM
2x
GE
1 x MM
TDM
TDM
2,5 Gbit/s
2x
GE
10 GE
backbone node and user node
FZJ
1 x MM
8x
MM
15 x MM
24 x
GE
10 GE optional
1 GE with number and type of interfaces (TP, MM, SM)
SDH
12 x Alcatel
GE
1678
10GE
Riverstone
15008
user node
10 Gbit/s
SDH
10
GE
8 km
10GE
Riverstone
12 x
15008
GE
10 GE
12 x
TP
FH Bonn-Rhine-Sieg
Sankt Augustin
17 km
caesar
Bonn
4 x MM
44 x TP
10GE
48 x Riverstone
15008
GE
ca. 200 km
10 GE
2x
GE
143 km
2,5 Gbit/s
TDM
TDM
6x
MM
24 x
GE
10GE
Riverstone
15008
10 GE
10 GE
10GE
IMK
Riverstone
24 x
15008
GE
15 km
2x
MM 20 x
GE
10 GE
10 x
MM
Alcatel
1678
4 x 2,5
Gbit/s
SDH
10 Gbit/s SDH
SDH
Alcatel
1678
10 GE
10 x GE
Alcatel
7750 SR
2 x MM
22 x TP
16 x
GE
4 x 2,5
Gbit/s
SDH
10 Gbit/s
SDH
Alcatel
7750 SR
4 x MM
10 Gbit/s SDH
temporary locations
FhG
10 Gbit/s
SDH
10 x
MM
10 x GE
SDH
8 x Siemens
8 x MM GE
hiT 7070
10GE
SCAI
Riverstone
24 x
15008
GE
10 GE
…
SDH
GÉANT
Frankfurt
540 m
10 GE
10 x
MM
12 x
MM
Uni Bonn
18 x
MM
2x
GE
2 x MM
2 x MM
ca. 400 km
8 x MM
SDH
Siemens
hiT 7070
8x
GE
Nuremberg
Figure 2: Equipment and connections at the backbone sites in North-Rhine-Westphalia
In Figure 3 the extension to Bavaria and to the testbed of Deutsche Telekom is presented. The SDH
switch Sycamore SN 16000 in Nuremberg is connected with the Rhineland area with a 10Gb link.
Nuremberg forms the distribution point to Erlangen and possible further locations in Bavaria.
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12 x
MM
10 Gbit/s SDH
4 x 2,5 Gbit/s
SDH
SDH
Alcatel
1678
16 x
GE
Darmstadt
4 x MM
FhG
Berlin
GSN+
10 Gbit/s SDH
10 Gbit/s
SDH
10 Gbit/s SDH
2,5 Gbit/s
1 GE with number and type of interfaces (MM)
planned for 2. phase
optional within co-operation
of GSN+ and VIOLA
ca. 400 km
8 x MM
SDH 8 x GE 1 x 2,5
Siemens
Gbit/s
hiT 7070
10 Gbit/s SDH
16 km
backbone node and user node
planned node
?x
GE
Nuremberg
SDH
Siemens
hiT 7070
Erlangen
10 Gbit/s SDH
SDH
Sycamore
SN 16000
10 Gbit/s SDH
10 Gbit/s SDH
now switches are placed at University of Bonn and FhG
location NN
SDH
?x
Siemens GE
hiT 7070
Munich
Figure 3: Equipment and connections at the nation wide backbone sites
The usage of OEO switches based on SDH and 10GE switches in the backbone offers the chance to
test different advanced signalling methods for dynamical bandwidth reservation in parallel:


Signalling based on MPLS, VPLS or H-VPLS at the 10GE backbone switches;
Signalling of dynamical bandwidth allocation based on different protocols like GMPLS, UNI,
I-NNI, E-NNI at the OEO backbone switches and routers of various manufacturers.
The provision of appropriate interfaces at the equipment, the development of signalling mechanism
and of resource managers shall achieve these goals. Altogether, the variety of hardware and signalling
methods will result in extensive experiences.
VIOLA lab
In addition to the backbone with its test field environment including real applications, there will be a
so called VIOLA laboratory. Within that context further test with additional equipment from other
manufacturers are planned. Such additional equipment might be available just for special tests and
short periods.
Status of VIOLA
Currently (October 2004) the physical network backbone is nearly established. Almost all hardware
equipment from Alcatel, Siemens and Riverstone is delivered and installed. In the very near future it
will go into operation. Afterwards the tests and developments will start.
The applications are prepared also to start the usage of the VIOLA network. They will connect to
VIOLA in the next few weeks.
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Information and contact
Further information about VIOLA (including contact information) is available at „www.violatestbed.de“.
Partners in VIOLA
Leader of the VIOLA consortium: DFN-Verein
Members of the VIOLA consortium:
 Fraunhofer Institute for Media Communication (IMK )
 Fraunhofer Institute for Algorithms and Scientific Computing (SCAI)
 Research Centre Jülich (FZJ)
 Alcatel
 Siemens
 T-Systems International
 Research Center caesar
 RWTH Aachen University
 University of Bonn
 University of Applied Sciences (FH) Bonn-Rhine-Sieg
Associated partner: GasLINE
Acknowledgment
This article is based on the work of all VIOLA-partners.
Vitae
Dr. Peter Kaufmann is technical manager in the branch office of DFN-Verein (Deutsches
Forschungsnetz). He has been responsible for the planning of advanced projects within DFN. Currently he is project leader for the VIOLA-testbed. He received his Ph.D. in 1980 in Theoretical Nuclear
Physics from the Free University Berlin.
Address:
E-Mail:
Phone:
Fax:
DFN-Verein, Stresemannstr. 78, 10963 Berlin, Germany
kaufmann@dfn.de
+49 30 8842 9932
+49 30 8842 9970
Ferdinand Hommes received his masters degree in computer science from the University of Bonn and
has been working as a scientist at the German National Research Center for Information Technology
(GMD) and the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft (FhG) since 1975. At present he is working on networking
(optical networks, Gigabit Ethernet, WLAN) in the institute for Media Communication of FhG.
Address:
Email:
Phone:
Fax:
533554797
Fraunhofer Institute for Media Communication, Schloss Birlinghoven,
53754 Sankt Augustin, Germany
Ferdinand.Hommes@imk.fraunhofer.de
+49 2241 14 1932
+49 2241 144 1932
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