Establishing an Advanced Internetworking Research Laboratory at Dalhousie University 1
Nauman Aslam, 1Jacek Ilow, 2Shyamala C. Sivakumar, 1William Robertson 1 2
Internetworking Program, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada
Sobey School of Business, Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, NS, Canada 1
{bill.robertson, naslam, j.ilow}@dal.ca,
[email protected]
Abstract Networking, communications and computing research employ state-of-the-art infrastructure and facilities to develop and test next generation Internet applications including electronic education and electronic health. With this focus, the Internetworking Program at Dalhousie University has established an Advanced Internetworking Laboratory (AIL) research and development space in Atlantic Canada. The major aim of the AIL is to provide a comprehensive platform for collaborative academic-industry research into networking applications development. This paper identifies the key design metrics used in establishing the research laboratory infrastructure. In particular, the architecture of our research centric test bed is presented considering design objectives of all three stakeholders in this project: academics, industry and technology providers.
1. Introduction In recent years, next generation network applications and services including e-education and ehealth have attracted a great deal of attention from the research community [1]. Developing and testing such advanced applications necessitates a platform consisting of a comprehensive suite of networking technologies. According to Smith and Weingarton, “Networking research and application development is an iterative process requiring continuous feedback between network researchers and researchers (of various disciplines) testing applications on the network. These two activities are vertically coupled: networks drive the applications, and applications drive new developments in such networks” [2]. The complex nature of today’s data communication network requires comprehensive, realistic and sophisticated test beds for verifying and validating their functionality [3]. Network research test beds enable a critical stage in the
process of understanding the relationship between the research experimentation and actual implementations. Such test beds facilitate the process of transferring research results into industry and the broader research community [4]. Realizing the challenges involved, the Internetworking Program at Dalhousie University has developed a state-of-the-art internetworking environment to enable interdisciplinary research into converging communications, computing technologies, and their applications. The AIL contains a full complement of mutli-vendor technologies including optical, wireless, IP telephony, storage area networks, security, network performance measurement and testing tools, IPTV and multimedia application and service platforms capable of true end-to-end networking capabilities. This end-to-end view replicates a service provider core, transport layer, enterprise class network, branch office infrastructure, small-office home-office (SOHO) and residential networking. The AIL allows researchers/organizations to test network primed business applications and services in an integrated fashion allowing for the rapid deployment of new technologies.
2. Design Metrics in AIL This section focuses primarily on key technology and infrastructure centric issues. We identify critical metrics that are valuable in an advanced internetworking laboratory (AIL) from the point of view of the various stakeholders. In this paper the word critical means that a particular metric is an absolute requirement that must be met [6]. The three stakeholders identified in the AIL framework are the academic researcher, the industrial users and the provider of technology [5]. We identify in Table 1 the key metrics that had to be evaluated before adopting or integrating a particular product, protocol or technology into the AIL.
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Table 1. Critical design metrics from Stakeholder Perspective
Industry centric Design, analysis and measurement of application performance Distributed application development Capable of deploying next generation applications Flexible
Security and Privacy
Real time application delivery and deployment
University centric
Technology centric
High accessibility, reliable operation, and support multiple industrial users
Scalability: The network should accommodate growth and unforeseen changes across many dimensions—including traffic load, network size and topology, link speed, number and type of applications, and node heterogeneity Provide advanced storage solutions for real time access of multi-media information Integrated environment for IP, Architecture: Ensure interoperability of wireless, optical and access etc heterogeneous communication/ networking systems. Collaborative environment Accommodate legacy and new Good infrastructure design: Integrate legacy technologies, Flexible topology devices with state of the art devices, modular creation and resource design. Interoperable protocols and service management model. Security, privacy, encrypt communication, time-bound role-based access, online testing, accountability Integrate wired and wireless QoS capabilities.
This has helped the academic researchers decide what technology is relevant and how much of it must be deployed in the AIL. These metrics were used as the basis for investigating and evaluating the features and services offered by products and communication protocols incorporated into the AIL test bed. Table 1 summarizes the critical metrics in relation to these three stakeholders. It is seen from this table, that from the perspective of the industrial user, the AIL must provide a flexible infrastructure test bed that allows for the development, analysis and testing of distributed, real-time applications while securing the application from unauthorized access and protecting application user’s privacy. From the academic researcher’s perspective, these metrics translates into an integrated, flexible test bed that is accessible, supports multiple industrial users and can accommodate the deployment of security, privacy and QoS functions. From the technology vendor’s perspective, these requirements translate into protocols, technologies, software and architectures that are interoperable, scalable, modular and provide support for robust security and QoS.
Network architecture, & protocols must support robust, integrated, application appropriate use enforcement security and privacy policies Network architecture, & protocols must provide QoS support
3. Design Approach Internetworking researchers at Dalhousie university in collaboration with leading technology vendors laid out the fundamental design requirements for AIL. The important design factors considered were fundamental components, traffic generation, performance analysis, measurement, layout, configurations and management, interoperability and environment to foster collaborative research. Selecting the fundamental architectural components was a major challenge in the AIL design. The answer to this very challenging task lies in our definition of “comprehensive” platform. A platform equipped with tools capable of supporting the interdisciplinary communication and networking research. Such a platform encompassing the entire breadth of networking world would consists of multiple standalone but modular technologies when combined together can replicate a true end-to-end networking scenarios. Figure 1 briefly describes the fundamental architectural blocks for the AIL.
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In this paper we have presented the key design metrics for establishing a state-of-the-art networking research laboratory. We identified the stakeholders as well as the design objectives in setting up such an infrastructure. We have shown that such a carefully designed infrastructure provides enormous opportunities for a collaborative industry-academic research projects. The unique feature of this infrastructure is that it provides a comprehensive platform of latest technologies and valuable resources to carry out diversified research in communication and networking.
5. Acknowledgements: The authors wish to thank the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), and the Provincial government of Nova Scotia for providing the funds required to set up the Advanced Internetworking Laboratory test bed discussed in this paper.
6. References Fig. 1: Fundamental Architectural Components in AIL
4. Research Scope and Projects New advances in the Internet technology and service development have led to the emergence of many e-type applications including e-Health, eLearning, e-Commerce etc. As an example in the eHealth area, the AIL are well equipped to support investigations into such components as electronic access to health records, ubiquitous health information networks, guideline/protocol-based decision support, alert and reminder systems, patient-provider and provider-provider collaboration tools, intuitive patientcentric user-interfaces and devices, and wireless communications. Research in e-health application delivery spans multiple dimensions including security and privacy of patient’s records, development of realtime emergency and response systems, ensuring realtime transmission of a patient’s vital statistics to monitoring equipment, etc. The AIL’s comprehensive platform provides an opportunity for research, design, and implementation of technology and software that will enable a viable and comprehensive e-Health solution.
[1] T. Drempetic,, T. Rihtarec, , D. Bakic, “Next generation networks architecture for multimedia applications”, 4th EURASIP Conference on Video/Image Processing and Multimedia Communications, 2003. [2] J. E. Smith and F. W. Weingarton “Research Challenges for the Next Generation Internet” Computing Research Association Report, May 1997. [3] B. Ionescu, M. Ionescu, S. Veres, D. Ionescu, F. Cuervo and M. Luiken-Miller, “A Test bed and Research Network for Next Generation Services over Next Generation Networks” Proceeding of the First International Conference on Test beds and research Infrastructures for the Development of Networks and Communities (TRIDENTCOM’05)” 2005. [4] National Science Foundation “Report of NSF Workshop on Network Research Test beds” November 2002. [5] S.C. Sivakumar, “A critical survey of protocols proposed by the IETF as enablers for customer interaction in an electronic customer relationship management system – Part I - eCRM metrics”, IEEE Canadian Review, No. 40, Spring 2002,Pages 5-9. [6] S. Bradner, (1997, March), Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels, Request for Comments: 2119, BCP: 14, Category: Best Current Practice, Network Working Group, Retrieved January 4, 2006 from http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2119.txt?number=2119
5. Conclusions:
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