UKLight
DF
Plans for the UKLight Dark Fibre Network
UKLIGHT Town Meeting
National e-Science Centre, Edinburgh
UKLight DF
UKLight
DF

Setting the Scene
Today, bandwidth is the key ingredient for nearly every
initiative and service within higher education institutions
 Research
in particular is driving the need for additional bandwidth
 Advances
in the tools used for teaching and learning have also driven an
increase in demand beyond research


We need to get control over the infrastructure that connects
our campuses and labs
Dark fibre has become the key enabler for institutions to get
control over their BW needs for research, teaching and learning
UKLight DF
UKLight
DF

Basic Terminology
Lit service:
 Is
A
a connection that you purchase from a telecommunications provider
specified amount of bandwidth for a specified monthly cost
 The
provider handles all the elements between your campus router and the
router at the destination

Dark fibre:

Is a fibre optic connection path that has not been lit
 Dark
fibre is something you acquire, either through buying or leasing
unused fibre, or through installing new fibre
 You
own the path and you are responsible for the integrity of that path,
and for acquiring equipment to light the fibre and make it carry
information
UKLight DF
UKLight
DF

Why DF?
Primary drivers:

Low cost & simplicity




Simple network design (no SDH, no ATM): Use of raw lambdas or
Ethernet-Interfaces all over the place
Transparent optical paths
Network scalable to multiples of 10 Gbps or 40 Gbps with low additional
cost
Natural hierarchy of technologies



Long living infrastructure, no need to change provider every couple of
years



DWDM on main trunk lines (128 l today, expandable if later needed)
CWDM or single GE to smaller sites off the backbone
Interruptions mainly due to planned maintenance
True fiber cuts are rare, but last for hours if not days (e.g. fiber on high
voltage power lines, fiber along railway)
Independence of carrier market
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UKLight
Why DF?
DF

Long term benefits:
 Liberating
effect on users and applications constrained by BW
 Organizations
increase their performance and availability by sharing
infrastructure and resources with other organizations/institutes

i.e. creation of virtual laboratories, libraries, remote instrumentation
 Radical


change to the current Telecom model
Customer-empowered and customer-controlled network models
Extending the Internet model of peering autonomous networks from the logical
to the physical layer:

hundreds of "customer-owned " networks interconnected by "customer-owned"
wavelengths on long-haul DWDM systems
UKLight DF
UKLight
DF
Pros and Cons of DF Networks
Technical View
Operational View
Economic View
Stable, long living
infrastructure
 We are the boss
 Low recurring cost
 High future potential
Χ Big effort for
negotiations with a lot of
contract partners
 Low marginal cost for
additional bandwidth
 Experimenting with
new network concepts
and technologies
Χ No single provider to
blame in case of connection
loss
Χ High initial
investment
Χ None
Χ Need personnel to
maintain the network
(transparency,
upgradeability)
Χ Uncertainty about
development of BW
prices
Pros () & Cons (Χ)
UKLight DF
UKLight
DF
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Corporations with high Bandwidth requirements, hospitals, banks





Reduce the cost of line rentals
Security - reliability
Future increase of BW / network updates
Improve client-business relations (online products, services)
Storage – computational - visualization – media facilities



Who Needs DF Networks
Variety of speed connections with respect of the equipment used (2.5Gb/s –
10Gb/s)
Offer greater variety of services without restriction by the carriers
infrastructure
Research Facilities – Universities – Colleges


Experimental test-beds – new technologies protocols and applications
Distributed resources (libraries, databases, computing facilities)
UKLight DF
UKLight
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DF Fundamental Enabler of Research
Researchers around the world are acquiring DF or dedicated wavelengths on
DF for specific experiments and Grids
We are currently creating a pool of wavelengths and fibres dedicated to
specific applications the same way we have today a pool of distributed
computing and storage resources
Without fibre and wavelength resources research communities will be unable
to support their future computational and communication needs
UKLight DF
UKLight
DF
Why DF will become the 21st Century Driver
for Computing
Performance per Dollar Spent
Optical Technologies offer huge capacity at relatively cost
Optical fibre
Source: Scientific American
(bits/sec double every 9
months)
Data Storage
(bits per square inch
double every 12 months)
Silicon Computer Chips
(Number of transistors
double every 18 months)
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
Number of years
Bandwidth is getting cheaper and faster than storage and storage is getting cheaper
and faster than computing.
It makes sense to use BW in order to conserve silicon area and transistors
UKLight DF
UKLight
DF
Examples of DF Networks for the Research
Community
Argonne
Starlight
(NU-Chicago)
UIC
UIUC/NCSA
IIT
UChicago
The SURFnet6 Network
I-WIRE
UKLight DF
UKLight
UKLight International and Phases 1 & 2
DF
ULCC - LAB
C&NLMAN
Lancaster
Leeds
C-PoP
Warrington
C-PoP
YHMAN
Leeds
NNW
Manchester
Reading
C-PoP
EastNet
Cambridge
CLRC-RAL
Leased Bandwidth
St Pancras
10G
10G
10G
10G
ULCC
Amsterdam
Chicago
10G
UKLight DF
UKLight
DF
UKLight Dark Fibre Network: Phases 1&2
LEANET Fibre
UKLight DF Fibre
Connection to other facilities
UKLight International nodes
& connectivity to international
exchanges
Lancaster
Leeds
Manchester
eMerlin fibre
Aston
eMerlin fibre
Cambridge
Starlight
Adastral Park
CCLRC-RAL
Reading
Essex
UCL
Netherlight
Southampton
UKLight DF
UKLight
UKLight DF for UK Photonics Research
DF
4x160 Gb/sec OTDM
test-bed
Recirculating loop
Raman amplifiers
Ultrafast links and switches for
OTDM routing
Low cost links for 40 Gb/s
Quantum dot based switches,
amplifiers and routers for
ultrabroadband WDM operation
BT Labs
CIP (Centre of
Integrated
Photonics)
Cambridge
Aston
UKLight DF
Essex
International
Wavelength routed test-bed
Optical packet core router and edge
interfaces
160 Gb/sec OTDM facility
UCL
Southampton
Optical regeneration
OCDMA test bed
Agile WDM channel generation (< 10 ns)
Optical regenerators (10 & 40 Gb/s)
DWDM Wavelength Routers
WDM test beds for 10, 40, 160 Gb/s
UKLight DF
The Optical Network Will Create the Backbone for
High Performance-Data Intensive Grid Computing
UKLight
DF
Applications &
Middleware
Computing clusters
and storage
Dynamic optical network
GUNI
Optical switching
interfaces
signalling & monitoring
WDM links
C
O
N
T
R
O
L
GRNI
l-switching
or
hybrid solutions
Optical burst switching
Optical packet switching
UKLight DF
P
L
A
N
E
UKLight
Proposal for a Network Demonstrator
DF
MEM+SOA based optical routers with
signal monitoring &
selective O-E-O & optical regeneration
Data Intensive
Users
RSNI
Agile OBS
msec agility
Interface
ASTON
RANI
Cambridge
UCL
Computational
resources
l/OBS/OPS
R
Data
Agile
S
Intensive
Interface N
Users
I
>40
Gbit/sec
msec
agility
>10 Gbit/sec
msec agility
Peering optical router
Data Network
10-40 Gbit/sec
nsec agility
OADM
Essex
OPS: Optical Packet Switching
OBS: Optical Burst Switching
SOA: Semiconductor Optical
amplifier
RSNI: Resource Scheduling Interface
RANI: Resource Allocation Interface
Agile
Interface
OADM
OPS Agile
Interface
UKLight DF Links
Electrical Telecom Subnetwork
(Adastral Park)
OADM
OADM
RANI
UK Social Sciences
Data Archive
Fast reconfigurable OADMs
UKLight DF
UKLight
OXCs
DF
Conditioning
Input
Monitoring
Node Control
OWS
Rx
1
Output
N
Tx
Selective
Regeneration
Rx
Tx
UKLight DF
UKLight
Optical Packet Router
DF
Header
Processing
El
ec
tro
n
ic
C
on
tro
l
Tunable lasers
W
TWC
A
TWC
TWC
G
TWC
TWC
TWC
UKLight DF
Agile Optical Interface for l and Sub-l
Granularities
UKLight
DF
High-Precision
DAC
FPGA
Controller
+
Wavelength
Lookup Table
Impedance
matching
Reflector
Precise Current
Source
Gain
2
GCSR LASER
High-Precision
DAC
Impedance
matching
High-Precision
DAC
Impedance
matching
Phase
Coupler
TEC
Control
Laser controller module
UKLight DF
UKLight
DF
Thank you!
dsimeo@essex.ac.uk
UKLight DF