[Excellent article on integration of 3G, LTE, Wifi and land lines i.e.- 5G networking.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Marriage of Facebook & Telcos - and why we need a National Public Internet (NPI)
[One of the most powerful features of the Internet was that it allowed anyone to establish a web page, or other type of content and make it instantly accessible to anyone in the world. Thanks to the early design of the Internet, specifically the end to end principlel, the smallest web portal, on the most distant point on the planet was on equal footing with the biggest content giants.
That model is now under serious threat by the oligopoly of telcos and cablecos
That model is now under serious threat by the oligopoly of telcos and cablecos
Friday, January 14, 2011
International Conference Emerging Standards for the Educational Cloud and importance to IPv6
[Many R&E organizations are wrestling with issue of clouds in terms of adoption and deployment.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
R&E networks and universities can once again revolutionize Internet and digital society
[Few people realize that Internet and many of its fundamental applications such as the web were created by the university and R&E network community. Innovation and fundamental economic transformation by R&E networks continues to this day in all sorts of related fields.
Monday, January 3, 2011
Eduroam the key to a National Public "IPv6 only" R&E Internet
[As many have you seen in the press there has been a lot of discussion on overloaded 3G/4G networks and the need for WiFi handoff to handle the huge data volumes now flooding 3G/4G networks
Monday, December 20, 2010
My top 10 predictions for Internet and R&E networks for 2011
I have decided to join the parade of prognosticators and seers who at this time of year make wildly, uneducated predictions for 2011. So for no apparent reason or logic here are my 10 top predictions for 2011:
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Cisco promotes do-it-yourself optical networks
[Great Cisco presentation on do-it-yourself optical networks
Thursday, December 16, 2010
The dirty tricks that monopolists play and why Level 3 needs to get into last mile access
[It is interesting to watch the dirty little games that Comcast is playing in the US to protect its video delivery monopoly and protect themselves from “Over the Top” (OTT) competitors like Google and Netflix.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Smartphones and HPC-Clouds: The Emerging eScience Mobile Trend
[This is another critical reason why R&E networks need to start to provide national wireless 5G networks.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
What comes after IPv6 and DNS??
[Around the world alarm bells are going off that we are running out of IPv4 address space.
Saturday, December 4, 2010
US legislation to mandate open WiFi in all government buildings
[This legislation is something that I have been advocating for some time – that all public sector buildings (especially universities) should have open WiFi preferably powered by renewable energy. As the authors of the bill notes this will save telecom costs for consumers and government. National R&E networks or organizations like UCAN could obtain their own IMSI numbers to effectively offer a national wireless service that operating as a MVNO, in partnership with 3G/4G providers could offer a very low cost national broadband wireless Internet service. Understandably many institutions are leery of offering an open WiFi service because of the fear of DMCA take down orders and other abuse – but a national R&E network or similar entity that is the MVNO could manage all the hot spots on behalf of the various institutions – much like is what is done at many airports today. Eduroam or Shibboleth could be used for authentication on 3G/4G MVNO networks. In combination with new software based SIMs for smart phones and tablets would be the first steps to a National Public Internet. More details at http://billstarnaud.blogspot.com/– BSA]
Sens. Snowe and Warner want WiFi in all federal buildings
http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/131969-sens-snowe-and-warner-want-wifi-in-all-federal-buildings
Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) introduced legislation on Friday that would require all public federal buildings to install WiFi base stations in order to free up cell phone networks.
The Federal Wi-Net Act would mandate the installation of small WiFi base stations in all publicly accessible federal buildings in order to increase wireless coverage and free up mobile networks. The bill would require all new buildings under construction to comply and all older buildings to be retrofitted by 2014. It also orders $15 million from the Federal Buildings Fund be allocated to fund the installations.
“I see a great opportunity to leverage federal buildings in order to improve wireless broadband coverage at a very reasonable cost," Warner said. "By starting with the nearly 9,000 federal buildings owned or operated by the General Services Administration, we will be able to provide appreciable improvement in wireless coverage for consumers while also reducing some of the pressure on existing wireless broadband networks."
The bill is aimed at preventing dropped calls that occur indoors and in rural areas due to poor cell phone coverage, while also hopefully boosting wireless network capacity by more effectively deploying broadband wireless networks. The bill is also an acknowledgement of the crucial role that cell phones and smartphones such as BlackBerrys play in the daily routine of federal workers.
“With over 276 million wireless subscribers across our nation and growing demand for wireless broadband, it is imperative that we take steps to improve wireless communication capacity, and this legislation will make measurable progress towards that goal,” said Snowe. “Given that approximately 60 percent of mobile Internet use and 40 percent of cell phone calls are completed indoors, utilizing technologies such as Wi-Fi and femtocells will dramatically improve coverage.”
The Federal Communications Commission’s National Broadband Plan argues most smartphones sold today have Wi-Fi capabilities, so installing mini-base stations and Wi-Fi hotspots in federal buildings would improve indoor cell phone coverage and increase wireless network capacity.
Rudolph van der Berg on how to become a MVNO
http://www.slideshare.net/Raindeer/your-customer-wants-to-be-mvno-v2
------
email: Bill.St.Arnaud@gmail.com
twitter: BillStArnaud
blog: http://billstarnaud.blogspot.com/
skype: Pocketpro
Sens. Snowe and Warner want WiFi in all federal buildings
http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/131969-sens-snowe-and-warner-want-wifi-in-all-federal-buildings
Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) introduced legislation on Friday that would require all public federal buildings to install WiFi base stations in order to free up cell phone networks.
The Federal Wi-Net Act would mandate the installation of small WiFi base stations in all publicly accessible federal buildings in order to increase wireless coverage and free up mobile networks. The bill would require all new buildings under construction to comply and all older buildings to be retrofitted by 2014. It also orders $15 million from the Federal Buildings Fund be allocated to fund the installations.
“I see a great opportunity to leverage federal buildings in order to improve wireless broadband coverage at a very reasonable cost," Warner said. "By starting with the nearly 9,000 federal buildings owned or operated by the General Services Administration, we will be able to provide appreciable improvement in wireless coverage for consumers while also reducing some of the pressure on existing wireless broadband networks."
The bill is aimed at preventing dropped calls that occur indoors and in rural areas due to poor cell phone coverage, while also hopefully boosting wireless network capacity by more effectively deploying broadband wireless networks. The bill is also an acknowledgement of the crucial role that cell phones and smartphones such as BlackBerrys play in the daily routine of federal workers.
“With over 276 million wireless subscribers across our nation and growing demand for wireless broadband, it is imperative that we take steps to improve wireless communication capacity, and this legislation will make measurable progress towards that goal,” said Snowe. “Given that approximately 60 percent of mobile Internet use and 40 percent of cell phone calls are completed indoors, utilizing technologies such as Wi-Fi and femtocells will dramatically improve coverage.”
The Federal Communications Commission’s National Broadband Plan argues most smartphones sold today have Wi-Fi capabilities, so installing mini-base stations and Wi-Fi hotspots in federal buildings would improve indoor cell phone coverage and increase wireless network capacity.
Rudolph van der Berg on how to become a MVNO
http://www.slideshare.net/Raindeer/your-customer-wants-to-be-mvno-v2
------
email: Bill.St.Arnaud@gmail.com
twitter: BillStArnaud
blog: http://billstarnaud.blogspot.com/
skype: Pocketpro
Thursday, December 2, 2010
The need for a National Public Internet (NPI) - important role for R&E/community networks
[Once again there has been a lot of press discussion about network neutrality with FCC Chair Genachowski’s announcement to put a proposal to his fellow commissioners “Preserving a Free and Open Internet” and EC Commissioner Neelie Kroes statements in Europe on the same issue. The recent debacle with Comcast charging Level 3 a peering fee to deliver NetFlix and Comcast’s intent to purchase NBC (see below) reinforces the need to protect and enshrine an Open Internet given the huge concentration of market power of the cable/telco duopoly and the lack of competition in the Internet telecom marketplace. This is not only true for US, but other countries like Canada where restrictions on foreign ownership have created a similar vortex of market concentration between media and telecom/cable companies.
The highly respected Internet pioneer David Reed I think summed up the issue quit well in his recent blog (http://www.reed.com/blog-dpr/?p=64) that the Internet is a “separate” thing. It is often confused with and equated with broadband, but the two are not the same. The Internet is essentially an agreed upon set of protocols for the sharing and transmission of data over virtually any medium, while broadband is one of many possible infrastructures for delivering the Internet to users.
To my mind treating the Internet as a separate “thing”, especially different from broadband is an important concept and why regulation of an Open Internet needs to be treated differently than broadband. This is not the first time that regulators and policy makers have recognized a new technology as requiring special treatment. As I have blogged before cable TV, in the early days was also given special regulatory treatment in Canada and US, in recognition that it’s a separate thing than being just another telecom service. (http://billstarnaud.blogspot.com/2010/11/how-will-we-know-when-internet-is-dead.html) The outcome of regulation of cable TV as being a separate thing was the creation of a strong and vibrant cable TV industry in North America. Countries that allowed the telcos to compete with cable companies such as Australia largely killed off this important industry sector in those early years.
I fear the same thing will happen to the Open Internet today as happened in Australia with cable TV in the 1970s. The cablecos and telcos will continue to push for ways to control and modify the Internet, especially in the wireless domain. They will morph it into many different variants of “Internet-like” architectures and “special” services, and essentially kill the Open Internet as we know it today. This is why I also agree with David Reed that making a special exemption in terms of network neutrality for wireless broadband is a bad idea. The case for treating wireless Internet differently is based on the misguided assumption that wireless is a narrow, single-channel, low-bandwidth service. But in reality there is an incredible wave of innovation occurring in the wireless market with multi-channel, cognitive radio integrating WiFi, WhiteFi, mesh radio etc that will more than enable sufficient bandwidth to treat the Internet over wireless the same as Internet over wires.
However I am not as hopeful as David Reed in terms of regulatory protection for an Open Internet. The incumbents will emasculate any regulation through the courts or by lobbying their political friends . A case in point is Canada where the regulator has probably imposed some of the most stringent requirements anywhere, in terms of open access on both cable and telephone industry, and yet for the most part these requirements have been thwarted in gaming of the system by the incumbents.
From the lessons we have learned about cable television, I believe if we want a truly Open Internet we need to deploy an infrastructure that is independent of the telcos and cablecos. Fortunately we have most of the important components of such an infrastructure in place thanks to the deployment of R&E networks nationally and regionally. With the added capabilities of the many community networks funded by BTOP such as UCAN it is well within the realm of possibility to deploy both a wired and wireless National Public Internet (NPI)– that is committed to the principles of an Open Internet. I am not advocating that we replace the telcos and cableco and their “Internet-like” service. But much like PBS and NPR provides an alternate voice to the mainstream broadcasters, NPI could ensure that there remains an independent and open Internet with all the benefits that entails in terms of innovation, freedom of speech and freedom of assembly.
I also believe that deployment of a NPI is critical for the future of R&E networks, as the mandate for many R&E networks is to provide services to researchers and educators that are not available on the commercial Internet. The Internet would have never been created by the telcos/cablecos in the first place as its basic principles of openness and intelligence at the edge are fundamentally counter to that of large bureaucratic monopolies. New advances in wireless 5G networking, green Internet, cloud computing and next generation optical technologies are in many ways are even a greater threat to the incumbents. The next wave of Internet innovation, especially in the wireless domain, is likely to be even more profound consequences than what we saw over the last two decades.
To my mind a NPI is more than deploying a network, but should also about providing services like Transit exchanges, Peering routes and free Internet at all public institutions. New technologies such as 100G and 1000G wavelengths will insure that there is plenty of bandwidth on the backbones, and technologies like distributed federated forwarding tables will allow deployment of low cost routing (and hopefully zero carbon) using hundreds, if not thousands of ordinary PCs, much in the same way Google revolutionized data center computing.
Initially NPI may not be accessible to all users, because of the current duopoly in broadband access. But with the growing number of community fiber networks the ability to deliver next generation 5G wireless using hubs at schools and libraries. By obtaining its own IMSI codes, as advocated by Rudoplh van der Berg (http://internetthought.blogspot.com/) and open source GSM base stations, coverage to most citizens and machines (e.g.sensor networks, grids etc) should be within the realm of possibility.
An early example of what a NPI may look like is the R&E network in Alberta Canada – Cybera (www.cybera.ca). Cybera has installed a Transit Exchange, which allows Cybera to aggregate members’ commercial Internet traffic and pass it directly to an Internet Service Provider (ISP) of their choice. This group buying setup will secure Cybera members the kind of low-cost Internet rates usually reserved for large corporations. Also, Cybera has set up initial peering connections with the Toronto Internet Exchange (TorIX) and the Seattle Internet Exchange (SIX) – where users can take advantage of these direct connections and avoid the inevitable queuing for bandwidth that takes place during peak use periods on the regular commercial Internet. These services are not only available to academic community but to small businesses and communities that are connected through the Alberta province wide broadband network – SuperNet. Cybera is quite clever in that rather than trying to establish their own peering connections at the TorIX and SIX they are sharing peering routes with other R&E networks. This is something I have been advocating for some time amongst all international R&E and community networks – such an arrangement could reduce Internet costs for users by as much as 90%. The advent of 100G and soon 1000G waves will obviate any concern about bandwidth congestion.
In conclusion while we should continue to press on the regulatory front for an Open Internet, if nothing else to prevent egregious harm to the Internet and society by the incumbents, I think ultimately the only way we will protect and insure an Open Internet, is if we deploy the technology ourselves. We have the tools. We have the means.
Bill
For more information:
A personal perspective on the evolving Internet and Research and Education Networks
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0ARgRwniJ-qh6ZGdiZ2pyY3RfMjc3NmdmbWd4OWZr&hl=en
http://www.telecomramblings.com/2010/11/traffic-ratio-is-a-code-word-for-over-the-top-video/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed:+TelecomRamblings+(Telecom+Ramblings)&utm_content=Twitter
By choosing to make a stand on traffic ratios in peers, Comcast is fighting directly against over-the-top video, pure and simple. This way they can state to regulators that they will not interfere with over the top traffic, as they did recently during the NBC merger oversight, even while trying to create a world where they *always* get paid on both ends for that same traffic. And while they must compete in a duopoly for the consumer end, they can set whatever price they like for transit because there is no way to bypass the consumer connections they have at any one time. Quite elegant actually. Why build a new toll booth when you can just re-purpose the one you have and close down all other gates.
There has long been a dispute about whether traffic ratios are a real and important criteria in peering, or else simply a conveniently labeled bargaining chip in a game of power. But we’re going to see that debate move beyond the traditional crowd of IP nerds now, I think.
------
email: Bill.St.Arnaud@gmail.com
twitter: BillStArnaud
blog: http://billstarnaud.blogspot.com/
skype: Pocketpro
The highly respected Internet pioneer David Reed I think summed up the issue quit well in his recent blog (http://www.reed.com/blog-dpr/?p=64) that the Internet is a “separate” thing. It is often confused with and equated with broadband, but the two are not the same. The Internet is essentially an agreed upon set of protocols for the sharing and transmission of data over virtually any medium, while broadband is one of many possible infrastructures for delivering the Internet to users.
To my mind treating the Internet as a separate “thing”, especially different from broadband is an important concept and why regulation of an Open Internet needs to be treated differently than broadband. This is not the first time that regulators and policy makers have recognized a new technology as requiring special treatment. As I have blogged before cable TV, in the early days was also given special regulatory treatment in Canada and US, in recognition that it’s a separate thing than being just another telecom service. (http://billstarnaud.blogspot.com/2010/11/how-will-we-know-when-internet-is-dead.html) The outcome of regulation of cable TV as being a separate thing was the creation of a strong and vibrant cable TV industry in North America. Countries that allowed the telcos to compete with cable companies such as Australia largely killed off this important industry sector in those early years.
I fear the same thing will happen to the Open Internet today as happened in Australia with cable TV in the 1970s. The cablecos and telcos will continue to push for ways to control and modify the Internet, especially in the wireless domain. They will morph it into many different variants of “Internet-like” architectures and “special” services, and essentially kill the Open Internet as we know it today. This is why I also agree with David Reed that making a special exemption in terms of network neutrality for wireless broadband is a bad idea. The case for treating wireless Internet differently is based on the misguided assumption that wireless is a narrow, single-channel, low-bandwidth service. But in reality there is an incredible wave of innovation occurring in the wireless market with multi-channel, cognitive radio integrating WiFi, WhiteFi, mesh radio etc that will more than enable sufficient bandwidth to treat the Internet over wireless the same as Internet over wires.
However I am not as hopeful as David Reed in terms of regulatory protection for an Open Internet. The incumbents will emasculate any regulation through the courts or by lobbying their political friends . A case in point is Canada where the regulator has probably imposed some of the most stringent requirements anywhere, in terms of open access on both cable and telephone industry, and yet for the most part these requirements have been thwarted in gaming of the system by the incumbents.
From the lessons we have learned about cable television, I believe if we want a truly Open Internet we need to deploy an infrastructure that is independent of the telcos and cablecos. Fortunately we have most of the important components of such an infrastructure in place thanks to the deployment of R&E networks nationally and regionally. With the added capabilities of the many community networks funded by BTOP such as UCAN it is well within the realm of possibility to deploy both a wired and wireless National Public Internet (NPI)– that is committed to the principles of an Open Internet. I am not advocating that we replace the telcos and cableco and their “Internet-like” service. But much like PBS and NPR provides an alternate voice to the mainstream broadcasters, NPI could ensure that there remains an independent and open Internet with all the benefits that entails in terms of innovation, freedom of speech and freedom of assembly.
I also believe that deployment of a NPI is critical for the future of R&E networks, as the mandate for many R&E networks is to provide services to researchers and educators that are not available on the commercial Internet. The Internet would have never been created by the telcos/cablecos in the first place as its basic principles of openness and intelligence at the edge are fundamentally counter to that of large bureaucratic monopolies. New advances in wireless 5G networking, green Internet, cloud computing and next generation optical technologies are in many ways are even a greater threat to the incumbents. The next wave of Internet innovation, especially in the wireless domain, is likely to be even more profound consequences than what we saw over the last two decades.
To my mind a NPI is more than deploying a network, but should also about providing services like Transit exchanges, Peering routes and free Internet at all public institutions. New technologies such as 100G and 1000G wavelengths will insure that there is plenty of bandwidth on the backbones, and technologies like distributed federated forwarding tables will allow deployment of low cost routing (and hopefully zero carbon) using hundreds, if not thousands of ordinary PCs, much in the same way Google revolutionized data center computing.
Initially NPI may not be accessible to all users, because of the current duopoly in broadband access. But with the growing number of community fiber networks the ability to deliver next generation 5G wireless using hubs at schools and libraries. By obtaining its own IMSI codes, as advocated by Rudoplh van der Berg (http://internetthought.blogspot.com/) and open source GSM base stations, coverage to most citizens and machines (e.g.sensor networks, grids etc) should be within the realm of possibility.
An early example of what a NPI may look like is the R&E network in Alberta Canada – Cybera (www.cybera.ca). Cybera has installed a Transit Exchange, which allows Cybera to aggregate members’ commercial Internet traffic and pass it directly to an Internet Service Provider (ISP) of their choice. This group buying setup will secure Cybera members the kind of low-cost Internet rates usually reserved for large corporations. Also, Cybera has set up initial peering connections with the Toronto Internet Exchange (TorIX) and the Seattle Internet Exchange (SIX) – where users can take advantage of these direct connections and avoid the inevitable queuing for bandwidth that takes place during peak use periods on the regular commercial Internet. These services are not only available to academic community but to small businesses and communities that are connected through the Alberta province wide broadband network – SuperNet. Cybera is quite clever in that rather than trying to establish their own peering connections at the TorIX and SIX they are sharing peering routes with other R&E networks. This is something I have been advocating for some time amongst all international R&E and community networks – such an arrangement could reduce Internet costs for users by as much as 90%. The advent of 100G and soon 1000G waves will obviate any concern about bandwidth congestion.
In conclusion while we should continue to press on the regulatory front for an Open Internet, if nothing else to prevent egregious harm to the Internet and society by the incumbents, I think ultimately the only way we will protect and insure an Open Internet, is if we deploy the technology ourselves. We have the tools. We have the means.
Bill
For more information:
A personal perspective on the evolving Internet and Research and Education Networks
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0ARgRwniJ-qh6ZGdiZ2pyY3RfMjc3NmdmbWd4OWZr&hl=en
http://www.telecomramblings.com/2010/11/traffic-ratio-is-a-code-word-for-over-the-top-video/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed:+TelecomRamblings+(Telecom+Ramblings)&utm_content=Twitter
By choosing to make a stand on traffic ratios in peers, Comcast is fighting directly against over-the-top video, pure and simple. This way they can state to regulators that they will not interfere with over the top traffic, as they did recently during the NBC merger oversight, even while trying to create a world where they *always* get paid on both ends for that same traffic. And while they must compete in a duopoly for the consumer end, they can set whatever price they like for transit because there is no way to bypass the consumer connections they have at any one time. Quite elegant actually. Why build a new toll booth when you can just re-purpose the one you have and close down all other gates.
There has long been a dispute about whether traffic ratios are a real and important criteria in peering, or else simply a conveniently labeled bargaining chip in a game of power. But we’re going to see that debate move beyond the traditional crowd of IP nerds now, I think.
------
email: Bill.St.Arnaud@gmail.com
twitter: BillStArnaud
blog: http://billstarnaud.blogspot.com/
skype: Pocketpro
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Europe and Canada partner on Next Generation R&E networks and Green Internet
[The Mantychore project is a very exciting new initiative funded under the European FP7 program. It builds on earlier work in Europe called Manticore and ultimately on pioneering concepts at Canada’s Communication Research Center called UCLP, funded originally by CANARIE. Mantychore plans to deploy pre-production facilities to enable virtual networks supporting a number of virtual organizations in Europe including the Nordic Health Data Network, the British Advance High Quality Media Services and the Irish Grid effort. An important part of the partnership is collaborating with Canada’s Greenstar to insure the facilities are low or zero carbon. This work will also be critical for deploying 5G networks. Ultimately these virtual network services will be available as part of research and education collaborative tool sets such as SURFnet COIN -- BSA]
http://jira.i2cat.net:8090/display/MANTECH/Home
Current National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) in Europe provide connectivity services to their main customers: the research and education community. Traditionally these services have been delivered on a manual basis, although some efforts towards automating the service setup and operation have been initiated. At the same time, more focus is being put in the ability of the community to control some characteristics of these connectivity services, so that users can change some of the service characteristics without having to renegotiate with the service provider.
The Mantychore FP7 [2] project wants to consolidate this trend and allow the NRENs to provide a complete, flexible IP network service that allows research communities to create an IP network under their control, where they can configure:
i) Layer 1, Optical links. Users will be able to get permissions over optical devices like optical switches, and configure some important properties of its cards and ports. Mantychore will integrate the Argia framework [3] which provides complete control of optical resources.
ii) Layer 2, Ethernet and MPLS. Users will be able to get permission over Ethernet and MPLS (Layer 2.5) switches, and configure different services. In this aspect, Mantychore will integrate ETHER project and its capabilities for the management of Ethernet and MPLS resources.
iii) Layer 3, Mantychore FP7 suite includes set of features for:
1. Configuration of virtual networks.
2. Configuration of physical interfaces.
3. Support of routing protocols, both internal (RIP, OSPF) and external (BGP).
4. Support of QoS and firewall services.
5. Creation, modification and deletion of virtual resources: logical interfaces, logical routers.
6. Support of IPv6. It allows the configuration of IPv6 in interfaces, routing protocols, networks,
…
. Mantychore FP7 will carry out pre-operational deployments of the IP network service at two NRENS: HEAnet [4] and NORDUnet [5]. Initially three communities of researchers will benefit from this service: the Nordic Health Data Network, the British Advance High Quality Media Services and the Irish Grid effort [6]. Part of the project effort will be dedicated to consolidate and enhance the community of providers (NRENs but also commercial) and users of the IP network service. It includes a first phase to get requirements of each Mantychore users, and a second phase to define necessary use cases.
In order to improve IaaS service some alternative but very interesting topics will be researched. Framed as Joint Research Activities (JRAs), an infrastructure resource marketplace and the use of renewable energy sources to power e-Infrastructures will be liaised, enriching both the user community and the roadmap of the Mantychore project.
A marketplace provides a single venue that facilitates the sharing of information about resources and services between providers and customers. It provides an interface through which consumers are able to access the discovered resources from their respective providers. The Mantychore FP7 marketplace represents a virtual resource pool that provides a unified platform in which multiple infrastructure providers can advertise their network resources and characteristics to be discovered by potential consumers of the resource. Thus, the Marketplace involves three types of entities. (a) the customers that use the resources. These customers may be end-users, service providers or other providers who wish to extend their point of presence, (b) the infrastructure providers, that provide information about the state of their underlying infrastructure to satisfy the demands of customers, and (c) the matchmaking entity that is used to lookup and locate relevant resources as requested by the customer. The matchmaking entity mediates among the providers and the customer and uses a matching algorithm that parses requests into queries, evaluates the queries over the resources in the marketplace repository and returns the relevant resources. These algorithms are implemented on a generic manner using quality of service parameters suitable to both Layer 3, 2 and 1.
Also, as a part of a JRA, the Mantychore FP7 project will start collaborating with the GreenStar Network project (GSN) [7], a CANARIE [8] funded initiative. The GSN project will develop a practical carbon footprint exchange standard for Information & Communication Technology (ICT) services, will carry out studies on the feasibility of powering e-Infrastructures with unstable renewable energy sources, such as solar or wind, and will also develop management & technical policies that leverage virtualization to migrate virtual infrastructure resources from one site to another based on power availability to facilitate use of renewable energy within the GreenStar Network. The principal objective of this collaboration relies on providing an IaaS management tool and integrating the NREN infrastructures with the GSN network that is formed by a set of green nodes where each one is powered by renewable energy source. The benefits obtained from this collaboration are reflected on the emergence of new and rare use cases where energy considerations are taken into account. Among other topics of research, how to move virtual services without suffering connectivity interruptions and how the physical location can influence in that relocation.
In addition to the two JRA, NA3 is working towards incorporating new users and communities to enrich the user base. The Mantychore FP7 project is committed to incorporate as much viewpoints and uses as possible in order to reach a more complete and valuable software and expertise pool. In that regard, and taking to account that the project is developed inside a research framework, coordination channels and infrastructure tools have been setup around an open model that not only allows but welcomes expert participation at all levels. For this reason, the project resources (technical discussions, contributions, official documents) are open and available for any interested individual or community to join. In addition, Mantychore FP7 is very much open to receive feedback and collaborations with other research fields.
------
email: Bill.St.Arnaud@gmail.com
twitter: BillStArnaud
blog: http://billstarnaud.blogspot.com/
skype: Pocketpro
http://jira.i2cat.net:8090/display/MANTECH/Home
Current National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) in Europe provide connectivity services to their main customers: the research and education community. Traditionally these services have been delivered on a manual basis, although some efforts towards automating the service setup and operation have been initiated. At the same time, more focus is being put in the ability of the community to control some characteristics of these connectivity services, so that users can change some of the service characteristics without having to renegotiate with the service provider.
The Mantychore FP7 [2] project wants to consolidate this trend and allow the NRENs to provide a complete, flexible IP network service that allows research communities to create an IP network under their control, where they can configure:
i) Layer 1, Optical links. Users will be able to get permissions over optical devices like optical switches, and configure some important properties of its cards and ports. Mantychore will integrate the Argia framework [3] which provides complete control of optical resources.
ii) Layer 2, Ethernet and MPLS. Users will be able to get permission over Ethernet and MPLS (Layer 2.5) switches, and configure different services. In this aspect, Mantychore will integrate ETHER project and its capabilities for the management of Ethernet and MPLS resources.
iii) Layer 3, Mantychore FP7 suite includes set of features for:
1. Configuration of virtual networks.
2. Configuration of physical interfaces.
3. Support of routing protocols, both internal (RIP, OSPF) and external (BGP).
4. Support of QoS and firewall services.
5. Creation, modification and deletion of virtual resources: logical interfaces, logical routers.
6. Support of IPv6. It allows the configuration of IPv6 in interfaces, routing protocols, networks,
…
. Mantychore FP7 will carry out pre-operational deployments of the IP network service at two NRENS: HEAnet [4] and NORDUnet [5]. Initially three communities of researchers will benefit from this service: the Nordic Health Data Network, the British Advance High Quality Media Services and the Irish Grid effort [6]. Part of the project effort will be dedicated to consolidate and enhance the community of providers (NRENs but also commercial) and users of the IP network service. It includes a first phase to get requirements of each Mantychore users, and a second phase to define necessary use cases.
In order to improve IaaS service some alternative but very interesting topics will be researched. Framed as Joint Research Activities (JRAs), an infrastructure resource marketplace and the use of renewable energy sources to power e-Infrastructures will be liaised, enriching both the user community and the roadmap of the Mantychore project.
A marketplace provides a single venue that facilitates the sharing of information about resources and services between providers and customers. It provides an interface through which consumers are able to access the discovered resources from their respective providers. The Mantychore FP7 marketplace represents a virtual resource pool that provides a unified platform in which multiple infrastructure providers can advertise their network resources and characteristics to be discovered by potential consumers of the resource. Thus, the Marketplace involves three types of entities. (a) the customers that use the resources. These customers may be end-users, service providers or other providers who wish to extend their point of presence, (b) the infrastructure providers, that provide information about the state of their underlying infrastructure to satisfy the demands of customers, and (c) the matchmaking entity that is used to lookup and locate relevant resources as requested by the customer. The matchmaking entity mediates among the providers and the customer and uses a matching algorithm that parses requests into queries, evaluates the queries over the resources in the marketplace repository and returns the relevant resources. These algorithms are implemented on a generic manner using quality of service parameters suitable to both Layer 3, 2 and 1.
Also, as a part of a JRA, the Mantychore FP7 project will start collaborating with the GreenStar Network project (GSN) [7], a CANARIE [8] funded initiative. The GSN project will develop a practical carbon footprint exchange standard for Information & Communication Technology (ICT) services, will carry out studies on the feasibility of powering e-Infrastructures with unstable renewable energy sources, such as solar or wind, and will also develop management & technical policies that leverage virtualization to migrate virtual infrastructure resources from one site to another based on power availability to facilitate use of renewable energy within the GreenStar Network. The principal objective of this collaboration relies on providing an IaaS management tool and integrating the NREN infrastructures with the GSN network that is formed by a set of green nodes where each one is powered by renewable energy source. The benefits obtained from this collaboration are reflected on the emergence of new and rare use cases where energy considerations are taken into account. Among other topics of research, how to move virtual services without suffering connectivity interruptions and how the physical location can influence in that relocation.
In addition to the two JRA, NA3 is working towards incorporating new users and communities to enrich the user base. The Mantychore FP7 project is committed to incorporate as much viewpoints and uses as possible in order to reach a more complete and valuable software and expertise pool. In that regard, and taking to account that the project is developed inside a research framework, coordination channels and infrastructure tools have been setup around an open model that not only allows but welcomes expert participation at all levels. For this reason, the project resources (technical discussions, contributions, official documents) are open and available for any interested individual or community to join. In addition, Mantychore FP7 is very much open to receive feedback and collaborations with other research fields.
------
email: Bill.St.Arnaud@gmail.com
twitter: BillStArnaud
blog: http://billstarnaud.blogspot.com/
skype: Pocketpro
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Research Collaborative Tools for integrating commercial clouds and university cyber-infrastructure
[Around the world there are a number of initiatives on developing new collaborative tools and generic portal services for various research communities that allows the seamless integration of commercial cloud services and campus HPC facilities. There is no question that some applications require dedicated high performance HPC facilities on the campus, but there is a wide range of other research and education applications and services using commercial clouds that could make life much more easier for both researchers and IT staff. Two great examples of this type of architectural thinking is the new Globus Online: A cloud based managed file transfer service and SURFnet’s COIN – Collaboration Infrastructure Project. Other related initiatives include Zero Hub an Internet 2’s CoManage Project.
The big advantage of providing integrated collaborative services with commercial clouds as Ian Fosters eloquently states is that “The biggest IT challenge facing science today is not volume but complexity…. It is establishing and operating the processes required to collect, manage, analyze, share, archive, etc., that data that is taking all of our time and killing creativity. And that's where outsourcing can be transformative....For that to happen, we need to make it easy for providers to develop "apps" that encapsulate useful capabilities and for researchers to discover, customize, and apply these "apps" in their work. The effect, I will argue, will be a dramatic acceleration of discovery.”
And of course the major attraction to me personally is that these are the types of collaborative services that could run on a zero carbon infrastructure such as Greenstar, and then direct the compute or application jobs to the appropriate cloud or HPC with the lowest carbon footprint.
https://projectcoin.surfnet.nl/
The COIN infrastructure will link collaboration services set up by educational institutions, research organisations, commercial parties and SURFnet and enable them to interact, thus making custom, flexible online collaboration possible.
At the moment, users are still obliged to choose one or, at most, a couple of online applications for their groupwork. Sharing information between these systems is almost impossible. The COIN project is designed to change this by ensuring that institutions connected to SURFnet can offer their users a greater variety of collaboration services. The aim is to develop a set of online tools that users can combine into a collaboration environment suitable for them.
COIN is based around OpenSocial, a powerful collaborative tool originally developed by Google and now made open to the research and education community. For more details please see http://www.surfnet.nl/en/Thema/coin/Pages/OpenSocialevent.aspx
http://ianfoster.typepad.com/blog/
Globus Online: A cloud-based managed file transfer service
Moving data .. can sound trivial, but in practice is often tedious and difficult. Datasets may have complex nested structures, containing many files of varying sizes. Source and destination may have different authentication requirements and interfaces. End-to-end performance may require careful optimization. Failures must be recovered from. Perhaps only some files differ between source and destination. And so on.
Many tools exist to manage data movement: RFT, FTS, Phedex, rsync, etc. However, all must be installed and run by the user, which can be challenging for all concerned. Globus Online uses software-as-a-service (SaaS) methods to overcome those problems. It's a cloud-hosted, managed service, meaning that you ask Globus Online to move data; Globus Online does its best to make that happen, and tells you if it fails.
The Globus Online a service can be accessed via different interfaces depending on the user and their application:
-A simple Web UI is designed to serve the needs of ad hoc and less technical users
-A command line interface exposes more advanced capabilities and enables scripting for use in automated workflows
- A REST interface facilitates integration for system builders who don't want to re-engineer file transfer solutions for their end users
All three access methods allow a client to:
-establish and update a user profile, and specify the method(s) you want to use to authenticate to the service;
-authenticate using various common methods, such as Google OpenID or MyProxy providers;
-characterize endpoints to/from which transfers may be performed;
-request transfers;
-monitor the progress of transfers; and
-cancel active transfers
The two keys to successful SaaS are reliability and scalability. The service must behave appropriately as usage grows to 1,000 then 1,000,000 and maybe more users. To this end, we run Globus Online on Amazon Web Services. User and transfer profile information are maintained in a database that is replicated, for reliability, across multiple geographical regions. Transfers are serviced by nodes in Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) which automatically scale as service demands increase.
We will support InCommon credentials and other OpenID providers in addition to Google; support other transfer protocols, including HTTP and SRM; and continue to refine automated transfer optimization, by for example optimizing endpoint configurations based on number and size of files.
------
email: Bill.St.Arnaud@gmail.com
twitter: BillStArnaud
blog: http://billstarnaud.blogspot.com/
skype: Pocketpro
The big advantage of providing integrated collaborative services with commercial clouds as Ian Fosters eloquently states is that “The biggest IT challenge facing science today is not volume but complexity…. It is establishing and operating the processes required to collect, manage, analyze, share, archive, etc., that data that is taking all of our time and killing creativity. And that's where outsourcing can be transformative....For that to happen, we need to make it easy for providers to develop "apps" that encapsulate useful capabilities and for researchers to discover, customize, and apply these "apps" in their work. The effect, I will argue, will be a dramatic acceleration of discovery.”
And of course the major attraction to me personally is that these are the types of collaborative services that could run on a zero carbon infrastructure such as Greenstar, and then direct the compute or application jobs to the appropriate cloud or HPC with the lowest carbon footprint.
https://projectcoin.surfnet.nl/
The COIN infrastructure will link collaboration services set up by educational institutions, research organisations, commercial parties and SURFnet and enable them to interact, thus making custom, flexible online collaboration possible.
At the moment, users are still obliged to choose one or, at most, a couple of online applications for their groupwork. Sharing information between these systems is almost impossible. The COIN project is designed to change this by ensuring that institutions connected to SURFnet can offer their users a greater variety of collaboration services. The aim is to develop a set of online tools that users can combine into a collaboration environment suitable for them.
COIN is based around OpenSocial, a powerful collaborative tool originally developed by Google and now made open to the research and education community. For more details please see http://www.surfnet.nl/en/Thema/coin/Pages/OpenSocialevent.aspx
http://ianfoster.typepad.com/blog/
Globus Online: A cloud-based managed file transfer service
Moving data .. can sound trivial, but in practice is often tedious and difficult. Datasets may have complex nested structures, containing many files of varying sizes. Source and destination may have different authentication requirements and interfaces. End-to-end performance may require careful optimization. Failures must be recovered from. Perhaps only some files differ between source and destination. And so on.
Many tools exist to manage data movement: RFT, FTS, Phedex, rsync, etc. However, all must be installed and run by the user, which can be challenging for all concerned. Globus Online uses software-as-a-service (SaaS) methods to overcome those problems. It's a cloud-hosted, managed service, meaning that you ask Globus Online to move data; Globus Online does its best to make that happen, and tells you if it fails.
The Globus Online a service can be accessed via different interfaces depending on the user and their application:
-A simple Web UI is designed to serve the needs of ad hoc and less technical users
-A command line interface exposes more advanced capabilities and enables scripting for use in automated workflows
- A REST interface facilitates integration for system builders who don't want to re-engineer file transfer solutions for their end users
All three access methods allow a client to:
-establish and update a user profile, and specify the method(s) you want to use to authenticate to the service;
-authenticate using various common methods, such as Google OpenID or MyProxy providers;
-characterize endpoints to/from which transfers may be performed;
-request transfers;
-monitor the progress of transfers; and
-cancel active transfers
The two keys to successful SaaS are reliability and scalability. The service must behave appropriately as usage grows to 1,000 then 1,000,000 and maybe more users. To this end, we run Globus Online on Amazon Web Services. User and transfer profile information are maintained in a database that is replicated, for reliability, across multiple geographical regions. Transfers are serviced by nodes in Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) which automatically scale as service demands increase.
We will support InCommon credentials and other OpenID providers in addition to Google; support other transfer protocols, including HTTP and SRM; and continue to refine automated transfer optimization, by for example optimizing endpoint configurations based on number and size of files.
------
email: Bill.St.Arnaud@gmail.com
twitter: BillStArnaud
blog: http://billstarnaud.blogspot.com/
skype: Pocketpro
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
More on Apple software SIM and impact of Internet of Things and Smart Grid
[Another excellent article on the critical importance of software SIMs and the Future Internet of Things. I am pleased to see GSMA is looking at software SIMs, but given that they are controlled by the carriers I have little faith that they will produce a software SIM that will allow access to simultaneous 5G network services both licensed and unlicensed. I think this is a critical role for regulators, especially in the EU, to make sure that future software SIMs meet needs of consumers and innovative application companies – rather than entrenching once again the “confuseopoly” of the carriers – BSA]
Apple SIM Soap Opera to Play Out on M2M and Smart Grid
http://gigaom.com/2010/11/23/apple-sim-soap-opera-to-play-out-on-m2m-and-smartgrid/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+OmMalik+(GigaOM:+Tech)&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher
•
Last month, we broke the news that Apple was working with SIM-card manufacturer Gemalto to create an embedded SIM that could effectively bypass carrier control. Instead of carrier-specific data on such a SIM, for example, an embedded SIM allows for use with various operator networks and would be activated remotely instead of at the point of purchase for a device. In theory, a consumer could purchase an unactivated smartphone with an embedded SIM and later decide which carrier to use it with.
The GSMA, a worldwide consortium of telecommunications companies, lent credence to our reports last week by announcing the formation of a task-force to research the use of programmable SIM cards. The intent of the organization’s research is to set usage standards as early as this January, with the expectation that embedded SIMs will appear in devices starting in 2012. According to The Telegraph, a UK-based publication, carriers aren’t happy with the prospect of losing their direct customer relationships by way of embedded SIMs; some have reportedly threatened to cease phone subsidies to Apple if the handset maker continues its desire for embedded SIM cards.
The battle between Apple and the carriers may be over for now, although I expect this to be unfinished business between the two sides. In the meantime, embedded SIM technology represents huge benefits to the “Internet of Things” or web-connected machines, gadgets and appliances that are use the web in a near autonomous method.
Imagine you want a web-connected refrigerator that sends you a reminder text to buy milk when it realizes you’re running low. Would you want to contract with a carrier during the purchase of such a device, or would you rather have options to choose from? An embedded SIM would allow for the latter, and even better, enables easier network provider switching if you can find a better connectivity deal in the future. The same goes for smart electric meters that shoot your consumption data into the cloud, both for your own monitoring as well as your electric company to see. Do you really want to run outside to swap a SIM card if you change Internet service for your meter?
I suspect the carriers will continue to fight Apple in the embedded SIM war, but over the long term, it’s likely to be a losing battle. Other handset makers will see the same opportunity to own customer relationships that Apple does, and are sure to band together. If the largest telecom industry group sees benefit for embedded SIM cards in the growing number of web-connected devices, carriers may want to stop fighting and instead start figuring out new ways to prevent themselves from becoming dumb pipes.
------
email: Bill.St.Arnaud@gmail.com
twitter: BillStArnaud
blog: http://billstarnaud.blogspot.com/
skype: Pocketpro
Apple SIM Soap Opera to Play Out on M2M and Smart Grid
http://gigaom.com/2010/11/23/apple-sim-soap-opera-to-play-out-on-m2m-and-smartgrid/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+OmMalik+(GigaOM:+Tech)&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher
•
Last month, we broke the news that Apple was working with SIM-card manufacturer Gemalto to create an embedded SIM that could effectively bypass carrier control. Instead of carrier-specific data on such a SIM, for example, an embedded SIM allows for use with various operator networks and would be activated remotely instead of at the point of purchase for a device. In theory, a consumer could purchase an unactivated smartphone with an embedded SIM and later decide which carrier to use it with.
The GSMA, a worldwide consortium of telecommunications companies, lent credence to our reports last week by announcing the formation of a task-force to research the use of programmable SIM cards. The intent of the organization’s research is to set usage standards as early as this January, with the expectation that embedded SIMs will appear in devices starting in 2012. According to The Telegraph, a UK-based publication, carriers aren’t happy with the prospect of losing their direct customer relationships by way of embedded SIMs; some have reportedly threatened to cease phone subsidies to Apple if the handset maker continues its desire for embedded SIM cards.
The battle between Apple and the carriers may be over for now, although I expect this to be unfinished business between the two sides. In the meantime, embedded SIM technology represents huge benefits to the “Internet of Things” or web-connected machines, gadgets and appliances that are use the web in a near autonomous method.
Imagine you want a web-connected refrigerator that sends you a reminder text to buy milk when it realizes you’re running low. Would you want to contract with a carrier during the purchase of such a device, or would you rather have options to choose from? An embedded SIM would allow for the latter, and even better, enables easier network provider switching if you can find a better connectivity deal in the future. The same goes for smart electric meters that shoot your consumption data into the cloud, both for your own monitoring as well as your electric company to see. Do you really want to run outside to swap a SIM card if you change Internet service for your meter?
I suspect the carriers will continue to fight Apple in the embedded SIM war, but over the long term, it’s likely to be a losing battle. Other handset makers will see the same opportunity to own customer relationships that Apple does, and are sure to band together. If the largest telecom industry group sees benefit for embedded SIM cards in the growing number of web-connected devices, carriers may want to stop fighting and instead start figuring out new ways to prevent themselves from becoming dumb pipes.
------
email: Bill.St.Arnaud@gmail.com
twitter: BillStArnaud
blog: http://billstarnaud.blogspot.com/
skype: Pocketpro
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