[CAnet - news] Ireland deploys user controlled lightpaths with Cisco E-DI

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Press release HEAnet UCLP(HULP) project:


HEAnet (Ireland’s National Education and Research Network) will be the first
European NREN with the capability to implement a network provisioning system
based on User Controlled Lightpath (UCLP) technology. It will allow users to
establish by themselves their own Ethernet connections across the HEAnet
network. The HEAnet transmission network is composed of a switched layer 2
network using Ethernet switches and a layer 2 VPN MPLS network using Cisco
routers either connected directly to fibre or to DWDM optical equipment..

The project is being supported by HEAnet and leaded by the i2CAT Foundation
(a Foundation that promotes research and innovation projects in the second
generation of the Internet environment), with the participation of Cisco,
TECSIDEL (a Spanish based software company, whose main objective is the
Development and Integration of Advanced Information Systems), NDP (Ireland`s
National Development Plan) and the CRC (Communications Research Centre
Canada).  

Started one year ago, and made possible in part due, to a research grant
from Cisco Systems, Inc.  this HEAnet initiative focused on integrating the
Cisco Enhanced Device Interface (E-DI) [an XML interface to Cisco devices],
into HEAnet’s provisioning system by means of the UCLP system. 

HEAnet aimed to have a system capable to allow its users (i.e. Universities
and Research Centres) to manage their own connections across the HEAnet
transmission network. Using UCLP end users are able to provision their own
connections across the network. Two different types of connections are
available to the end user either ERS (Ethernet Relay Services), which
provides VLAN tags to the end user on a single port or EWS (Ethernet Wire
Services) which tunnels all incoming layer 2 traffic from a port.  Both ERS
and EWS use a combination of Layer 2 VPN MPLS technology in the MPLS domain
and in the case of EWS it uses QnQ or in the case of ERS it uses VLAN
trunking within the switched Ethernet domain.

It was decided to develop an extension for the UCLPv1 system, using as a
starting point the version firstly developed by CRC-UofO under CANARIE’s
Directed Research Program on UCLP. The resulting system developed by i2CAT
will allow, from the administrator point of view, to represent all the
network resources as objects, and partition the network by providing users
with access and management capabilities to a determined set of  resources.

Cisco E-DI is a comprehensive management interface for Cisco devices and
offers two interfaces. A CLI user interface (CLI-UI) and an XML programming
interface (XML PI). It can be deployed in conjunction with a management
application, or in a stand-alone configuration. Cisco’s E-DI has been
integrated into ULCPv1.5 in order to manage and configure the network
elements via the E-DI XML PI.

In order to offer ERS/EWS services, network resources have to be partitioned
accordingly to the needs of each connection, since several connections can
use the same port or link. For those familiar with the UCLP technology, the
“parent” ResourceObjects and LightPathObjects have to be partitioned in
several sub-resources, one for each connection that uses them.

Manually-generated ROs and LPOs are called “parents”, and do not participate
in any connection, they only have information about the physical resource
and the remaining capacity in that resource.

Each time a connection is requested, parent resources partition themselves
to generate sub-resources with enough capacity for the connection. After
that, the parent resources update their current available bandwidth. 

A new pseudo device has been implemented to support connections across the
MPLS networks (MPLSCloud). This pseudo device contains instances of the edge
devices of the MPLS core network cloud. In addition to the MPLSCloud, a new
type of resource object has been defined (MPLSRO). This kind of resource
object represents edge interfaces of an MPLSCloud.

In the case of the MPLSCloud only the edge ports of the cloud are
configured, internal backbone links are  configurated  by the HEAnet network
administrator.

Currently, the i2CAT Foundation, has already migrated the beta version of
the UCLPv1.5 to the HEAnet experimental environment.

The following is a list of enhancements which were incorporated into
UCLPv1.0 resulting in the latest version released being called  UCLPv1.5.

1.	Provide a manual mechanism for learning the MPLS network topology
and the Ethernet switched network.
2.	Support of Layer 2 MPLS VPN, QnQ and VLAN trunking CISCO equipment. 
3.	Keep state of all interfaces and all nodes. Using the E-DI interface
to interact with the equipment.
4.	Provisioning, deletion and modification of links/connections
5.	Configure both Ethernet Relay Service (ERS) and Ethernet Wire
Service (EWS) type circuits (EoMPLS connections with or without QnQ or
trunking on the Ethernet switches.)
6.	List circuits, and availability monitoring
7.	VLAN manager system
8.	UCLPv1.5 with EDI functionalities
9.	Secure Web based graphical user interface, with hierarchical users
10.	Installation and user’s guide manuals.

Several partners have contributed to the project, by performing different
roles. These contributions are:

•	HEAnet provided network resources and defined the user requirements
for the project
•	i2CAT provided €20,000 to budget its own development resources with
CRC support
•	Tecsidel provided €30,000 to budget the project developments
performed by i2CAT. TECSIDEL has a framework of collaboration with i2CAT
signed in 2003
•	Cisco implemented a test-bed at the i2CAT premises in order to
emulate the HEAnet network, with all the user cases to be supported. The
total value of the equipment provided for the test-bed is $250,000, and it
has been supported under the CARD program. The test-bed is based on:

o	2 x Cisco 7604 MPLS routers with 10 Gbps interfaces
o	2 x Cisco Catalyst 3750 (16 ports) with 10 Gbps interfaces
o	3 x Catalyst 3750 (12 Ports with SFPs)
o	2 x E-DI servers.


Currently HEAnet is testing the system and will decide shortly on whether or
not the system will be become a full user production system. 

In terms of Ethernet connections, EWS is a point-to-point port-based
transparent Ethernet Virtual Circuit (EVC) that is used primarily to connect
geographically remote LANs over the HEAnet network. It provides connectivity
for both layer 2 data and control plane data. EWS is a VLAN transparent
service, which means that the customer edge VLANs are independent from the
HEAnet VLAN and remain intact throughout the HEAnet network. Also, the EWS
supports Layer 2 control protocol tunnelling, which effectively makes the
remotely-connected LAN segments appear as if they are on the same network.

On the other hand, ERS is a point-to-point VLAN-based EVC.  It is presented
to the user as an 802.1q trunk which filters customer Layer 2 control
protocols and uses the different customer VLAN IDs to direct customer
traffic to different destinations. ERS is a non-transparent service, which
means that the customer Layer 2 control protocols are dropped. When HEAnet
implements an ERS over its MPLS core, the customer VLAN(s) are mapped to an
MPLS label switched path.




Contact people and more info:

http://www.i2cat.net/i2cat/servlet/I2CAT.MainServlet?seccio=16_25_6


Sergi Figuerola ([email protected])
Victor Reijs ([email protected]),
Wayne Clark ([email protected])
Ramon Figueres ([email protected])
Michel Savoie ([email protected])
Bill St. Arnaud ([email protected])


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These news items and comments are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect
those  of the CANARIE board or management.



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