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The Energy Sciences Network is a nationwide data communications
network managed and funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Office
of Energy Research (DOE/ER) for the purpose of supporting multiple-program,
open scientific research. ESnet fulfills this purpose by providing
widespread access to research facilities, state-of-the-art communications
between collaborators, and on-line information services and other
related services.
ESnet is an ongoing activity whose success depends heavily on the
cooperation and collaboration of the ER community. Although responsibility
for the implementation and operation of ESnet resides with ESnet
management at NERSC, guidance for the network comes from two key
sources, the ESnet Steering Committee and the ESnet Site Coordinating
Committee. The Steering Committee defines program requirements and
recommends directions and priorities to the implementation staff,
while the Site Coordinating Committee represents the institutions
that benefit from the use of ESnet and assumes responsibility for
disseminating information to them.
Currently, ESnet's principal mandate is to support the programs
sponsored by DOE/ER. The major OER-supported programs are: Basic
Energy Sciences, High Energy Physics, Magnetic Fusion Energy, Nuclear
Physics, Health and Environmental Research, and Applied Mathematical
Sciences. ESnet usage in support of other activities, such as interagency
collaboration or foreign-country access, may also be authorized.
Since its inception, ESnet has been dedicated almost exclusively
to the Energy Research community. However, recent years have seen
a rapid growth in the use of networked data communications services
by researchers, scientists, and other personnel throughout DOE.
With the increasing integration of network services into the workstyles
of a broad spectrum of personnel, people from a number of other
DOE program areas have expressed interest in availing themselves
of ESnet's services. Such usage must first be formalized through
an internal agreement known as an intra-agency Memorandum Of Understanding
(MOU) between the group in question and the Office of Scientific
Computing. MOUs are currently in place between the OSC and IRM,
EM, and HR. An MOU between OSC and DP (Defense Programs) is currently
under consideration.
ESnet's initial T1 (1.3-1.5 Mbps) backbone became fully operational
in early 1990. Today there are more than 30 sites directly connected
to the backbone, and portions of it have been upgraded to T3 links,
which provide bandwidths of 45 Mbps (see Figure 6-1). Connectivity
to numerous other scientific and educational locations is provided
through extensive interconnections with other networks that comprise
the global Internet. In addition, ESnet supports multiple network-level
protocols, including the Department of Defense Internet Protocol
(DOD-IP), DECnet Phase IV, and the Open Systems Interconnection
ConnectionLess Network Protocol (OSI CLNP).
Figure 6-1. ESnet backbone as of mid-1994
Networking data communications can be characterized in terms of
two important parameters, performance and connectivity. Performance
metrics include both bandwidth and latency, while connectivity defines
the geographical extent of the destinations that can be reached
over the network. ESnet's current project implementation seeks to
address both network performance and connectivity, in response to
program requirements ultimately based on the capabilities that end
users require for the support of their research.
When ESnet's T1 topology first became operational in early 1990,
it was a trunking system based on point-to-point 1.5 Mbps circuits
with less than three "hops" (i.e., interconnecting links) between
sites, on average. In early 1990 this configuration provided what
was considered to be a respectably high level of performance, particularly
for a national wide-area network (WAN). However, by early 1991 it
was becoming clear that an upgrade of capability would be required
within a few years, and planning for a T3 (45-Mbps) capability was
started. An ESnet review in early 1992 recommended that additional
attention be given to this effort. Simultaneously, a national program
to enhance American competitiveness got underway. This program,
the High Performance Computing and Communications (HPCC) Initiative,
incorporated a network focus on similar capability, with a target
of gigabit-per-second networking by sometime in 1996.
ESnet was thus confronted simultaneously by two requirements
with rather differing implications: the requirement to provide
production-quality network services, as specified by the existing
OSC programs, and the requirement to promote leading-edge technology
mandated by the HPCC. In response to these divergent requirements,
a plan was developed to establish a cooperative approach with
a vendor whereby ESnet would make use of emerging communications
technology in a carefully implemented manner while serving a large
and sophisticated customer base to help shake down the new technology.
A Request For Proposal released in February 1992 described the
details of this plan.
In June of 1992, a vendor was selected to supply communications
service based on T3 ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) technology.
By mid-1994, T3 links were in place spanning the nation from PPPL
(Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory) to NERSC at LLNL, as shown
in Figure 6-1. At that time, many of the T1 lines had become very
heavily loaded, due to the dramatic growth in ESnet's traffic
(see Figure 6-2), and the conversion of the remainder of the backbone
began.
Figure 6-2. The growth of ESnet's traffic, 1990-94
Connectivity requirements come in many forms: connections of new
sites, general requirements to gain access to University and other
collaborator sites, requirements to connect with regional networks,
requirements to share access with other agencies, and requirements
to provide international access to selected sites or countries.
This interconnectivity is provided in a variety of means that include
indirect connections though other R&E networks (see Figure 6-3
) in addition to direct connection of sites to the ESnet backbone.
Figure 6-3. ESnet `s connectivity to regional networks
As of late 1993, the sites with direct connections to the ESnet
backbone were:
ANL Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL
BNL Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY
CIT California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA
CEBAF Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility, Newport News, VA
DOE DOE Office of Energy Research, Germantown, MD
FIX-E Federal Interagency eXchange-East, University of Maryland, College
Park, MD
FIX-W Federal Interagency eXchange-West, NASA Ames Research Center, Mountain
View, CA
FNAL Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Chicago, IL
FSU Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL
GA General Atomics, La Jolla, CA
GRM Grumann Aerospace, Princeton, NJ
HARVARD Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
ISU Iowa State University, Ames, IA
ITER International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor Project,
Jolla, CA
LBL Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Berkeley, CA
LLNL Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA
LANL Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM
MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, MA
NEVIS Nevis Laboratories, Columbia University, Irvington, NJ
NYU New York University, Upton, NY
OER US DOE, Office of Energy Research, Germantown, MD
ORAU Oak Ridge Associated Universities, Oak Ridge, TN
OSTI Office of Science and Technology Information, Oak Ridge, TN
ORNL Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN
PNL Pacific Northwest Laboratory, Richland, WA
PPPL Princeton Plasma Physics Lab, Princeton, NJ
SNLA Sandia National Laboratory, Albuquerque, NM
SNLL Sandia National Laboratory, Livermore, CA
SLAC Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, Palo Alto, CA
SSC Superconducting Super Collider, Waxahachie, TX
UCLA University of California, Los Angeles, CA
UTA University of Texas, Austin, TX
The broad regional connectivity illustrated above has been developed
in part as a strategic response to NSF's announced plans to withdraw
from providing general networking support for the US academic and
research community. ESnet has established, or plans to establish,
direct "peering" relationships with nearly all US regional networks.
The 18 months between mid-1993 and early 1994 saw the emergence
of a major set of requirements for increased connectivity to Europe,
particularly to Germany and Italy, and to the former Soviet Union,
particularly to Russia. An agreement was established with DFN
(German Research Network) in Germany and INFN (Italian National
Institute for Nuclear Physics Network ) in Italy to jointly fund
a T1 circuit to Germany and a 512 kbps circuit to Italy. Orders
for these "half-circuits" were placed and installation was completed
in mid-1994.
Establishing connectivity to Russia is proving much more difficult.
An effort to collect requirements has produced a list of approximately
35 sites of interest in Russia, and new sites are being requested
at the rate of several per month. A trip was made in August-September
1993 to St. Petersburg and Moscow to better assess possible approaches
and to develop contacts and working relationships with Russian
counterparts. Development of plans to provide connectivity to
both of these cities has been identified as a first step toward
general access into Russia and other former Soviet Union countries.
On a shorter time-frame, ESnet has begun providing indirect
access to available Russian institutions through other networks,
such as NSFnet. These connections are typically of fairly low
performance but do offer at least an initial opportunity for network
connectivity. In December 1993, we established a connection to
the prototype GIX (Global Internet eXchange) located in the Washington,
D.C., area to provide some additional (albeit indirect) connectivity.
Many people think of ESnet primarily in terms of its ability to
deliver data packets. Although the mainstay of ESnet services certainly
is its ability to provide data communications on a national and
international basis, the entire set of ESnet services is much more
extensive. These services can be classified as follows. Click a
button to view a detailed description of the corresponding service.
Network Operations Management
Network Infrastructure Services
Information Services
Videoconferencing Services
Go to the next section, High Energy Physics
Go to the preceding section, Collaborations
and Liaisons
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