Overview of Domain - Networking
Networking infrastructure is essential technology vital to UCAR's ability to function and
prosper in a rapidly evolving scientific and technical environment. Networking infrastructure
enables business processes, scientific investigations and analysis, communication, global
collaborations, and educational and outreach missions to flourish. Network infrastructure is
literally the backbone of all other IT infrastructure and services. A sound and reliable
network infrastructure is critical to building stable IT infrastructure at the higher levels. It is
the goal of the networking infrastructure to provide this fast, robust, and flexible
infrastructure to support all other IT services.
In order to ensure the required networking infrastructure, the scope of the networking domain
must include providing network services encompassing the Local Area Network (LAN), the
Metropolitan Area Network (MAN), and the Wide Area Network (WAN). Network services
must be ubiquitous to all UCAR users and include data and telecommunications service.
Continuous effort must take place to ensure that network cabling across all UCAR campuses
is capable of supporting current and foreseeable user requirements. There should be
established replacement and upgrade cycles for networking hardware and infrastructure to
sustain the required network.
Due to the high visibility and integrated nature of the network, appropriate redundancy and
protection must be maintained. Network design and support is also required for central and
collaborative computer rooms. UCAR’s role has expanded with the increasing scope of
technology and now includes support of cellular services, which has become an integral part
of IT support.
Staff must continue to actively participate in metropolitan, regional, national, and
international networking initiatives to stay abreast of trends and strategic directions and to
establish relationships that aid in an integrated network infrastructure that supports the global
nature of UCAR’s mission. UCAR should continue to manage and operate regional
networks and related infrastructure since UCAR’s dependency and utilization of these
networks is high, and UCAR’s expertise and involvement ensure excellent performance and
reliability. Additionally, regional networks provide opportunities for cost sharing,
efficiencies, and economies of scale.
Staff must continuously research advanced technologies, services, and equipment and deploy
those that are appropriate and required by UCAR staff to keep UCAR technologically current
and competitive.
UCAR should continue its involvement in the design, implementation, and maintenance of
the NCAR Wyoming Supercomputing Center (NWSC) networking as a critical and
demanding component of UCAR’s IT system. Specific research into deployment of high
performance networking to support the supercomputers and mass storage system is required.
Larger Context of Domain
Networking is a critical component of cyberinfrastructure. Networks are interconnected and
interoperate at the campus, metropolitan, regional, national, and international levels.
Networking is a global endeavor. Being well connected has become a requirement for
successful business operations but is especially important for a national research center such
as UCAR. Networking provides a vital service enabling all functions at UCAR. UCAR’s
scientific mission is enabled and supported by networking. UCAR’s business operations,
including interactions with funding agencies, also depend on networking. Collaborative
science would not happen today without networks just as UCAR’s business operations would
not function.
Support of mobile work environments has also become a requirement. UCAR does not have
a static work environment and network support and access from anywhere is a necessary
service. Examples include virtual offices, work on travel, field projects, and support of the
UCAR flexible work policies including from home during inclement weather.
UCAR’s network connectivity provides a critical function to the atmospheric and
oceanographic research communities by linking supercomputing resources (including mass
storage systems and other data communication resources) to scientists at UCAR/NCAR and
throughout the university research community. These activities are essential to the effective
use of UCAR/NCAR's scientific resources, and they foster the overall collaborative mission
of UCAR/NCAR.
UCAR metropolitan and regional networking efforts not only enable the UCAR/NCAR
mission, but provide a critical resource to the research and education entities of Colorado and
Wyoming. These activities are an integral part of the larger UCAR education and outreach
mission.
There are some networking activities that fall outside the scope and budget of centralized
networking, for example: intra-supercomputer Infiniband networking, Storage Area
Networking, private/agency network connectivity, secured networks, satellite feeds, above
the net services (Cloud, video, middleware, etc.), and field project networking. However,
collaboration and consultation on this type of out of scope effort are valuable and consistent
with the role of NETS. Networking staff are available for collaboration and consultation
with chargebacks as appropriate.
Current technical systems and management of Domain
Networking is managed as a UCAR centralized function funded by overhead based on
headcount. All networking systems and support fall under this central entity housed in
CISL/OSD/NETS. This configuration has worked very well for over ten years, and this
should be continued.
Fundamental issues to be addressed - Top 10
It is important to continue to focus and ensure the priority of operational reliability,
availability, integrity, scalability, usability, and adaptability of the network. Continuous
renewal and refresh of the physical infrastructure are critical components of such a network.
Another component to ensuring a stable and usable network is adoption and adherence to
standards and protocols.
The network should continue to be designed to consider and enhance business continuity.
The ongoing effort to integrate and support security and security requirements must continue.
As noted above, we now support a mobile workforce and therefore must support a mobile
and flexible work environment. With mobility and the collaborative nature of our work, the
use of collaborative tools is evolving and expanding and puts demands on the network that
must be considered and specifically designed for. Another development is integrated IP
based services and examples include: Building Automation Systems (BAS), solar usage
tracking, and network based physical security. These IP based services sometimes utilize the
network in new and different ways and require design and implementation collaboration and
new usage and charging models. Bigger, faster computers enable bigger, faster models that
produce bigger data. Big data support is a driver for bigger, faster networks. This will be a
balance of faster networks to move the data, but also more efficiency in data storage, mining,
and analysis.
All of these efforts depend on trained, well compensated, and expert staff. The development
and retention of qualified and expert staff must continue to be a priority.
All of these efforts must also exist in an environment of resource constraints including space,
power, energy, staffing, heat, and budgets so projects and efforts must be coordinated and
prioritized. This requires close collaboration and planning with other IT efforts so that the
network is positioned to support UCAR wide IT priorities.
Current Initiatives within Domain
These efforts are being undertaken based on the priorities and support of the strategies
described above.
 MAN/WAN expansion/upgrades in support of critical UCAR dependencies
i. Boulder Research and Administration Network (BRAN)
1. The City of Boulder is working with Zayo on a fiber partnership that
would expand the scope and availability of fiber in the City of
Boulder as well as regionally to Denver and Longmont. This
would greatly benefit BRAN and Bi-State Optical Network
(BiSON) fiber efforts so NETS is working closely with the City of
Boulder and BRAN.
ii. BiSON
1. A portion of the BiSON ring uses Windstream/McLeod fiber that
Colorado State University owns and BiSON maintains. There is a
major fiber move required by the Wyoming Department of
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Transportation (WyDOT) that is critical to design and manage.
NETS is working closely with the BiSON partners on this effort.
2. EAGLE-Net (EN) is installing fiber in the I-25 corridor that would
be available for BiSON and UCAR use. NETS is working closely
with EN to ensure that the fiber path encompasses our needs. This
will provide an alternative fiber path to those currently on BiSON
and to the NWSC.
3. The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) is installing
fiber in the highway 36 corridor. NETS is working with BRAN
and BiSON to see if we can partner with CDOT on a pair of fiber
in this path. This would replace or supplement fiber we currently
pay for. The existing fiber contract expires 7/31/2016 so a no cost
or low cost replacement is desirable.
4. The Colorado School of Mines (CSM) in concert with the National
Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) are in the process of activating
Wave Division Multiplexing (WDM) to the FRGP with a
continuing path to the NCAR Mesa Lab. This is in support of
supercomputing collocation and collaboration with scientists at
NCAR/UCAR. NETS is supporting the design and installation of
this network.
5. If none of the fiber options discussed above come to fruition, or if
multiple fiber paths prove to be desirable, NETS will need to work
to renew the Level3 Indefeasible Rights of Use (IRU) agreements
by 7/31/2016 as these are critical BiSON paths.
iii. The Front Range GigaPoP (FRGP)/ UCAR Point of Presence (UPoP)
1. All FRGP/UPoP five year agreements expire on 6/30/13. It is a
major effort to update the agreements every five years. This
renewal cycle will include the addition of a number of
recommendations from the FRGP internal audit so will be
especially time consuming.
2. Once the new agreements are in place with the audit issues
addressed, NETS can bring full closure to the audit.
3. NETS is working with NREL to become a UPoP member as well as
an Internet2 member.
NETS is working with the National Ecological Observatory
Network (NEON) to become a UPoP member as well as an
Internet2 member. NETS is also supporting efforts to get access to
BRAN fiber for NEON.
4. In the coming year, NOAA will be required to install and use a
Trusted Internet Connection (TIC) for all non-NOAA traffic. This
has implications for the FRGP design and utilization. NETS is
working with NOAA on this project.
NETS is working to expand cellular service to all UCAR facilities. This is being
done carefully while addressing a recent FCC ruling on the installation and use of
cellular amplification systems.
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NETS is supporting the networking portion of the expanding central colocation
service including the ML 29 expansion and the shut down of CG2.
NETS is supporting the networking requirements for Bring Your Own Device
(BYOD) including guest wireless certificates, cellular, etc.
NETS is developing an IPv6 plan and deployment for UCAR. Once approved by
the appropriate constituents, NETS will deploy and support the plan.
NETS is investigating and as appropriate deploying voice services including
Single Number Reach, Softphones, Unified Messaging, and Google-related voice
integration.
NETS investigates and supports network status, health, tools and monitoring,
including Netflow, PerfSONAR, CASG central monitoring, ExtraView (EV).
NETS continuously documents the network using multiple tools including GIS for
fiber documentation, wiki for project management and documentation, the web,
etc. NETS also investigates and deploys documentation tools as appropriate.
Networking hardware and infrastructure is continuously changing and aging.
NETS reconstructs and reconfigures networks to meet optimal performance
needs. Current and planned projects include the Marshall Field Site (MFS),
Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport (RMMA), Fleischmann Building (FB), and
Cisco and ADVA End of Service (EoS) hardware replacement.)
NETS tracks and coordinates all network project activities via a workrequest/work-tracking system. Current projects include an Extraview (EV)
software upgrade and EV move to MySQL. NETS monitors this area for
efficiencies and potential product replacements.
NETS supports the networking portion of advanced projects that are a product of
outside or interagency funding. Current projects include SPOL, the CSM NSF
CC-NIE proposal, the CSM Supercomputer ML 29 colocation, XSEDE, SC ‘13,
and NEON collocation.
NETS supports IP Based technologies like Building Automation Systems (BAS)
and IP based security.
Proposed Initiatives within the Domain
It is important to identify a funding source for NSF owned building networking infrastructure
specifically for the Mesa Lab. The network refresh of these facilities is overdue and
becoming critical to support growing network demands.
Networking is carefully managed and projects are prioritized and budgeted for. At this time,
based on the current budget, priorities, and known requirements, there are no initiatives
currently unfunded or unsupported.