ESnet Staff Share Expertise, 100G Experiences at Joint Techs Meeting

Twice a year, staff from ESnet and Internet, two of the leading research and education networks, meet to exchange information and experiences on topics of mutual interest. The meetings, known at the Joint Techs, also draw an international crowd of networking experts. The Winter 2012 meeting was held Jan. 22-26 in Baton Rouge, La., where ESnet staff gave a series presentations, including:

• Acting ESnet Director Greg Bell gave an update on the state of the network and organization. In a departure from most such presentation, Bell did not include any network maps and instead focused on the critical importance of data-intensity and the value of ESnet’s services to the research community.
• Chris Tracy gave an overview of 100 gigabits-per-second (Gbps) technology and ESnet’s 100 Gbps experiences.
• Chin Guok presented a history of OSCARS and coined a memorable new acronym:
  Eric Pouyoul and Brian Tierney gave a lightning talk on achieving 98 Gbps throughput on a coast-to-cost link.
• Eli Dart and NERSC’s Brent Draney collaborated on a panel describing national lab success stories.
• Patty Giuntoli, Sheila Cisko and Dan Peterson presented a vision for the future of ECS, ESnet’s videoconferencing services.
• Michael Sinatra covered IPv6 deployment issues and transit, peering and related topics.
• Chris Tracy co-presented the results of his research with Malathi Veerararghavan (U-Va) on traffic flow identification and classification.
• Joe Metzger gave an update on ESnet5 deployment plans.

ESnet staff also made other contributions to the program. Eli Dart played a leading role in programming Tuesday’s special focus on data, and Brian Tierney, Dart and Eric Pouyoul taught a well-attended workshop on “Achieving a Science DMZ.” At the GLIF (Global Lambda Integrated Facility) meeting held concurrently, Inder Monga made three presentations.