UKLight

Jeremy Sharp, UKERNA Advanced Technologies Manager

John Graham UKLight Engineer

www.uklight.ac.uk

9th September 2004

UKLight Town Meeting

Themes

• What is UKLight

• UKLight Governance

• UKLight – International

• UK National Access to UKLight

• Project facilities at ULCC

9th September 2004

UKLight Town Meeting

The lure of the lambda• e-science: huge end-to-end data flows

• Will this be possible with IP networks?

• UKLight project:• End-to-end Gbps bandwidth• Ultimate goal: application-controlled switching of

WDM wavelengths• First steps: electrical multiplexing

applications proof-of-concept

• Early adoptors• Particle Physics - high performance data transfer• Radio Astronomy - very long baseline interferometry

(near-real-time data transfer)• Distributed HPC & visualization

9th September 2004

UKLight Town Meeting

The birth of UKLight• International activities

• StarLight – evolved from Startap• Joined by NetherLight

• ‘Lambda’ workshops – Sept 01, 02, 03, 04-UK• TERENA

• Initiative attempted with Flag Telecom during 2002• Interest within Grid Network team – UK e-Science

programme• UK activities have evolved from these over last 2 + years

• Internal meetings and papers during 2002• UKLight bid to JCSR – Nov 2002• Funding approved March / April 2003• Mid 2004, first bandwidth channels established

9th September 2004

UKLight Town Meeting

What is UKLight

• Facility to provide national & international ‘bandwidth channels’ for use by research & e-Science projects

• Cross-discipline initiative• JANET community

• Network research• E-Science applications• Optical (photonic) communications

research• UKERNA – manage and develop JANET

• Supporting the community• Advanced service-network development

9th September 2004

UKLight Town Meeting

UK Access Network

NetherLightAmsterdam

10G

b

StarLight

Chicargo

10Gb

UKLight

London

Lancaster University

Glasgow Edinburgh

LeedsManchester

LondonReading

Portsmouth

Bristol

Cambridge University

2.5Gb

2.5GbManchester

University

London

UKLight

Leeds University

RAL

UKLight point-of-access and international facilities

UKLight components

UK national R&D network infrastructure

9th September 2004

UKLight Town Meeting

UKLight Components

A UK national photonics facility/infrastructure - TBC

Essex

Cambridge

UCL

Aston

Southampton

International

UKLight DF Wavelength routed test-bed

Optical packet core router and edge interfaces

160 Gb/sec OTDM facility

4x160 Gb/sec OTDM test-bedRecirculating

loopRaman

amplifiers

BT LabsCIP (Centre of

Integrated Photonics)

Agile WDM channel generation (< 10 ns)

Optical regenerators (10 & 40 Gb/s)DWDM Wavelength Routers

WDM test beds for 10, 40, 160 Gb/s

Optical regenerationOCDMA test bed

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

9th September 2004

UKLight Town Meeting

Funding Source

• Funding – SRIF - £6.5M total• From HEFCE (Higher Education Funding

Council for England)• Via JISC (Joint Information Systems

Committee)• Sub-committee for Support of research

(JCSR)

9th September 2004

UKLight Town Meeting

What does the funding provide?

• International Point of Access• Circuits, equipment, housing, NMS, staff

• UK Access and photonics infrastructure• Equipment, housing…

9th September 2004

UKLight Town Meeting

UKLight Governance

• Steering Committee (SC) – JISC established• covers policy and funding issues• Hugh Pilcher-Clayton (EPSRC) will chair• International representatives

• Bill St Arnaud (Canarie) and David Williams (CERN/TERENA)

• Community representation• Peter Clarke (UCL), Dave Deroure (Southampton),

Brian Gilmour (Edinburgh), David Hutchison (Lancaster), Guy Rickett (PPARC), David Salmon (UKERNA), Lesley Thompson (EPSRC)

• Plus JISC & UKERNA attendees

9th September 2004

UKLight Town Meeting

UKLight Governance

• Technical Advisory Group (TAG) – UKERNA established• operations and project-feasibility assessment• David Hutchison (Lancaster University) will chair• Community representation

• Tim Chown (Southampton), Lionel Sacks UCL), Dimitra Simeonidou (Essex), Ian White (Cambridge)

• John Graham (ULCC) – UKLight engineer• David Salmon (UKERNA)

9th September 2004

UKLight Town Meeting

Use by projects

• Projects expected to be funded by Research Council or other programmes

• Central funding covers equipment interface at backbone edge

• Projects discuss options with UKLight project manager & submit written connection proposal

• UKLight TAG will assess feasibility & provide a report• Use as part of research proposal

• Existing projects can also make a case to connect• Will need endorsement by original funding

programme• In some cases may need to consult the UKLight

steering committee

9th September 2004

UKLight Town Meeting

Future Expansion• Build to meet requirements of approved projects• Phase 3 – still speculative

• Remaining budget would allow equipping access to about half of the Regional Networks)

• JISC/Research Council call for expressions of interest to connect to UKLight issued

• Steering Committee will prioritise responses• Commit funds during 2004

• Use budget to give projects working time during 2005

• Beyond this leads into SuperJANET5 !• Incorporate these concepts from ground up• Flexible transmission platform

• Fibre / wavelength service based

9th September 2004

UKLight Town Meeting

Overview of SuperJANET5 architecture

requirements

Flexible transmission platform

IP production network

Special purposebandwidth

Test – bed(s)

Commodity e-Science Network R&D

Service Dev.

Test – bed(s)

Requirements to be served

Teaching & Learning

9th September 2004

UKLight Town Meeting

9th September 2004

UKLight Town Meeting