Emblem Sub Level Top APPLICATIONS: Computer & Information Sciences
Advanced Networking Infrastructure & Research
Emblem Sub Level Logo Photonic TeraStream
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ICAIR, in partnership with the Materials Sciences Research Center at Northwestern University, is developing an International Virtual Institute (IVI) for Materials Science. The IVI wants to be able to instantaneously discover, gather, integrate, and present information whether large-scale datasets, scientific visualizations, streaming digital media, results of computational processes from resources worldwide. To accomplish this, iCAIR is developing “Global Services-on-Demand” technologies for optical networks. The Photonic TeraStream is supported by OMNInet, the Chicago-area Optical Metro Network Initiative. OMNInet is designed and developed by SBC / Ameritech, Nortel Networks and iCAiR, in collaboration with EVL, CANARIE and ANL. It is an experimental networking testbed, enabling researchers to assess and validate next-generation optical technologies, architectures and applications in metropolitan networks. For iGrid 2002, however, the OMNInet testbed has been extended to Amsterdam through StarLight and NetherLight in order to demonstrate that photonicenabled applications are possible, not only at the metro level, but also on a global scale (the global LambdaGrid).

Researchers are using OMNInet to prototype tools for intelligent application signaling, dynamic lambda provisioning, and extensions to lightpaths through dynamically provisioned Layer2 and Layer3 configurations, in part, to allow for access to multiple types of edge resources. In turn, these network-control capabilities are being incorporated into next-generation large-scale global applications, which include high performance data transfer (based on GridFTP), digital media streaming (270Mbps encoding), and high performance remote data-access methods (based on iSCSI). At iGrid 2002, iCAIR is presenting its innovative dynamic lambda provisioning capability the Optical Dynamic Intelligent Network (ODIN) service layer. Applications use intelligent signaling to provision their own lightpaths with ODIN in order to optimize network-based resource discovery and performance; for example, to access and to dynamically interact with very large amounts of distributed data. Applications supported by dynamic lambda switching provide for significantly more powerful capabilities than those based on today’s communication infrastructure.

Acknowledgment: Hal Edwards, Paul Daspit, Nortel Networks; Teresa Elliott, Carol Huss, and Rachel Alarcon, SBC / Ameritech; USA National Science Foundation awards, including #ANI-0123399 on intelligent signaling.

Contact
Joe Mambretti
International Center for Advanced Internet Research (iCAIR), Northwestern University (NU), USA
j-mambretti@northwestern.edu

Collaborators
Joe Mambretti, Jeremy Weinberger, Jim Chen, Elizabeth Bacon, Fei Yeh, David Lillethun, iCAIR, NU, USA
Tom DeFanti, Jason Leigh, Oliver Yu, Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) University of Illinois at Chicago, USA
Robert Chang, Materials Sciences Research Center, NU, USA
Cees de Laat, Leon Gommans, Bas v. Oudenaarde, Bert Andree, Universiteit van Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Linda Winkler, Bill Nickless, Caren Litvanyi, Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), USA

www.icair.org/igrid2002
www.uva.nl
www.icair.org/omninet