University Connection Policy


This memo describes a change in policy concerning the connection of Universities to the Department of Energy Funded Energy Sciences Network (ESnet). Since 1988 ESnet has provided high performance network services to researchers supported by the Office of Energy Research as well as a number of other programs. It is a critical link among researchers at DOE laboratories and Universities. This change in policy in no way affects our commitments to provide these leading edge communications services which are so important to the scientific research of DOE's scientific programs.

However, we do need, for reasons detailed below, to change our policy for establishing one class of connections, direct physical connection, between universities and ESnet. A direct physical connection implies a direct telecommunications carrier circuit from network hardware at the university to network hardware which is part of ESnet. Other ways of connecting to ESnet include connecting to other networks (e.g. UUnet, BARRNet) which are interconnected with or "peer" with ESnet or through future connections to Next Generation Internet "gigapops" that ESnet will peer with.

The past policy on university connections to ESnet only required that the university researchers, with the support of their scientific program at DOE, request a direct connection through that program's designated DOE ESnet program representative. These requests were prioritized by the ESnet steering committee and, if funding was available MICS autorized the direct connection.

The new policy is stated below:

The process of approving the direct connection of a university to ESnet will now also include the requirement of a letter from an appropriate official of the University, such as the president or Chief Information Officer or Provost, requesting ESnet connection, addressed to the Director of DOE ER's Mathematics, Information, and Computational Sciences (MICS). The letter should state the university's requirement for a direct connection to ESnet. The expressed requirement may be stated to be temporary, lasting only until Internet 2, NGI, or other future infrastructure fills the requirement that necessitated the ESnet connection We will reevaluate our existing direct university connections to ESnet as well. In cases where such connections are not supported by the university administration as described above, we will work with the DOE supported researchers at the site to develop a transition plan which leads to eventual termination of the direct connection to ESnet. There are several reasons for this change. First, the administrations of the major research universities through the Internet 2 organization have raised this as a significant issue for the universities because of problems in managing multiple connections from their internal networks into the Internet. Second, because direct connections to ESnet have a significant additional cost, it is important to ensure that alternative ways of providing equivalent access to ESnet are fully explored

Daniel A. Hitchcock, Acting Director

Mathematical,  Information and Computational Sciences Division

Office of Computational & Technology Res.
Email: Daniel_Hitchcock
Phone: +1 301-903-6767
or 
George R. Seweryniak
ESnet Program Manager, U.S. Department of Energy
Email: George_Seweryniak
Phone:  +1 301-903-0071

Policy on direct connections of ESnet to Universities

Background:

DOE has become sensitive to the issues raised by the Internet 2 Community with respect to multiple agency connections to the universities and is striving to meet the requests of this community to minimize unnecessary multiple connections.

The past policy on university connections to ESnet only required that the university request a direct connection through the designated DOE ESnet program representative, is in line with the ESnet AUP, prioritized by the ESnet Steering Committee and the availability of funding. The new policy still requires the above in addition to a letter from an appropriate official of the University, such as the president or Chief Information Officer, requesting ESnet connection, addressed to the Director of DOE ER's Mathematics, Information, and Computational Sciences (MICS). The letter should state the university's requirement for a direct connection to ESnet. The expressed requirement may be stated to be temporary, lasting only until Internet 2, NGI, or other future infrastructure fills the requirement that necessitated the ESnet connection

Both NGI and Internet 2 (I2) share the goals of creating and enabling a new generation of R&E applications based on high performance network infrastructure. There is general agreement that the test of success is delivery of differentiated multimedia network services at the application workstation API interface on an end to end basis. Ideally this would be perceived by the application user and builder as seamless, with enhanced middleware functionality and services (e.g. QOS), and subsequently the ability to provide stable and reliable network services to a variety of policy driven application domains.

The Internet 2 community believes that today, we have individual efforts to upgrade agency networks, working in concert with different major carriers, and the emergence of broadband SONET "cores" with varying degrees of end to end delivery capability. Not only don't these cores interoperate at effective broadband rates, but the 3 carriers involved aren't even working, or showing any interest in working, together to achieve interoperability. They contend that this inability to interoperate suggests that only vBNS connections to the Universities be supported for the initial phase of the Internet 2 project.

The I2 community is also concerned about the perceived historical "islanding" of agency networks, and the proliferation of narrowband redundant links (i.e. multiple agency links) to the universities and its potential affect on supporting local campus infrastructure and access.

Therefore, in an attempt to address these concerns regarding redundant links and islands, DOE will only connect, those universities that express a clear requirement to have a direct connection to ESnet, understand the potential impact of connecting to multiple networks, and are willing to send a letter stating so to the director of MICS.