The Silk Project

1
The Silk Project

• Peter Kirstein, Hans Frese and Robert Janz
• SILK Task Force

2
Overview

• The Background of the Project
• The Project concept
• The equipment being delivered
• The conditions for delivery of equipment
• Current status
• Operations
• User and Technical Groups
• Sponge technical activities

3
NATO Science Com. Netw. Panel NIGs

• Improve National Research Net Infrastructure
• Not that of isolated groups or institutes
• Encourage national collaboration
• Preferably to set up National Research and
  Education Networks (NRENs)
• Encourage international collaboration
• Ever more important at the current time

4
Networking Panel NIG Support

• The Networks Panel has supported Network
  Infrastructure Grants (NIGs) for many years
• Was initially Russia and Eastern Europe
• Southern Caucasus and Central Asia are current
  principal areas for our larger grants
• Internet Connectivity has been a large part of
  each NIG
• Current bandwidths much too small
• but all that could be afforded from budget

5
Status at End 2001

• Bandwidth from NATO sources 64 512 Kbps
• Wanted to go up by an order of magnitude at least
• Cost unaffordable in pre-SILK model (100k per
  year for 1 Mbps)
• National Research and Education Networks (NRENs)
  existed in most of the countries

6
SILK Project

• Decided to address whole Region of Southern
  Caucasus and Central Asia
• Wanted to build on the existing NRENs
• Put in regional network connecting NRENs
• Connected also to European NRENs (GEANT)
• Start with own resources
• Allow to be extensible by others

7
Possible Technologies

• Mainly Fibre in Western Europe
• No affordable fibre yet in Caucasus or Central
  Asia (gt 5 times satellite cost)
• Does exist in E. Europe and Russia
• Satellite attractive in these areas
• Satellite Bandwidth driving force
• Broadcast capability can be useful
• Proposed SILK Project in 2000
• Based on VSAT technology
• Much cheaper than earlier 64 256 Kbps links

8
A Short Primer on Satelltes - 1

• Satellites are bent pipes in the sky
• 5 to 10 year lead times imply mature/old
  technology in the sky
• Fibre has taken over the oceans, satellites are
  looking for work
• Compared to fibre, satellite bandwidth is low,
  but ...

9
A short primer on satellites (2)

• one satellite covers one third of the globe
• ... broadcasting to many locations is trivial
• ... bandwidth is simplex
• it can be allocated asymmetrically and shared
  between locations
• ... minimal local infrastructure requirements
• unobstructed view south
• 240 Volts with diesel backup if needed

10
Short Primer on Satellites (3)

• Buying satellite bandwidth
• You pay for radio frequency bandwidth
• And battery consumption in the sky
• Buy in bulk to obtain discount
• Using a larger dish fetches more energy and
  improves the signal to noise ratio
• This allows higher density modulation which
  produces more Mbps per MHz
• Net result 1 Mbps/year for 25-35K

11
The Silk Task Force

• Sergey Berezhnev, MSU, Russia
• Jane Butler, Cisco, UK
• Hans Frese, DESY, Germany Panel Member
• Robert Janz, RUG, Netherlands
• Walter Kaffenberger, NATO, Belgium NATO Panel
  Officer
• Peter Kirstein, UCL, United Kingdom STF Chair
• Ramaz Kvatadze, GRENA, Georgia Panel Member
• Askar Kutanov, AKNET, Kyrgyz Republic Panel
  Member
• Ruben Mkrtchyan, ARENA, Armenia Panel Member
• Rolf Nordhagen, UIO, Norway Panel Chair
• Zita Wenzel, ISI, USA

12
SILK Task Force Operations

• Acts as de facto management body on all matters
  concerning the SILK Project
• Has very few physical meetings, mainly
  Teleconferences twice a month
• Most of its functions should be taken over by
  SILK Board when that is established

13
The SILK Countries
14
Schematic of the Silk System
15
Fiscal Constraints

• Assumed that not more than 2.5M was available
  from NATO 01-04 Panel Budget
• Feasibility study demonstrated that this
  suffices to provide a minimum of 500 Mbpsmonths
  to 8 countries
• Other financial or in kind contributions
  additional to this budget

16
Who gets connected?

• Funded by NATO/Cisco
• NRENs
• Co-funded by NGOs and others
• More bandwidth for NRENs
• Libraries, schools, etc.
• Staged implementation
• Installing equipment only when NRENs ready
• Staged upgrades
• Minimum, equal facilities from NATO each NREN

17
Architectural Overview

• Hub Earth Station at DESY with access to the
  European NRENs and the Internet via GEANT
• Providing International Internet access directly
• National Earth Station at each Partner site
• Operated by DESY
• Providing international access
• Additional earth stations from other sources
• Routers for each Partner site
• Linked on one side to the Satellite Channel
• On the other side to the NREN

18
Equipment at Each Site

• Kalitel-supplied, NATO financed, central hub and
  VSATs
• 5.6 m dish for hub
• 2.4 or 3.8 m dishes for VSATs (the 3.8m dishes
  are needed for Almaty and Bishkek)
• Cisco-supplied and financed LAN items
• A 7204 Router, and a 3524 Switch with 24
  interfaces
• A CE 560 Content Engine with 155 GB of disc as a
  Web Cache

19
Schematic of Equipment at each site
20
Equipment at Each Site
21
EarlyPlanned Silk Bandwidth
Planned Silk total bandwidth from NATO Per half
year
Total bandwidth in
Mbps
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
02/H2
03/H1
03/H2
04/H1
04/H2
05/H1
22
Extending the System

• Have started talking to other funding agencies to
  provide extension
• Could be just extra national bandwidth
• Could be extra VSATs
• Could be Receive-only earth stations
• Could be extra networks on SILK routers
• Early discussions look promising
• E.g. OSI extension to libraries and schools

23
Results of the Tendering Process

• Satellite prices dropped by 40 during
  negotiations EurasiaSat won in the end
• Now around 35K per year for 1 Mbps
• Kalitel has supplied central hub and 8 VSATs
• Cisco has provided 9 Routers, Switches and
  Content Engines
• One of each acts as spare to exchange faulty
  units
• DESY hosts the VSAT hub

24
Requirements of Host Sites

• Established NREN
• Named person to be on SILK Board
• Provided Acceptable Use Policy to STF
• Connection approval for Earth Station to NREN
• Suitable site with power network connection
• Have some capability to operate system
• If these not available, will install another
  site first

25
Simple Exemplar AUP

• 1.   XXX is the NREN for Country YYY
• 2.   Connecting to the XXX-network is restricted
  to
• Universities,  Academic hospitals, Research
  institutes, libraries.
• 3. The Internet services provided to these
  institutions include are only for their staff
  and students.
• 4. The international facilities may not be used
  by commercial entities except as specified in (5)
  below.
• 5. Within approved projects, other organisations
  in YYY may connect in only to test and develop
  advanced network technologies and applications.
• 6. No commercial use of international SILK
  facilities.

26
SPONGE Project (EC funded)

• UCL, Groningen U, (ARENA), (GRENA)
• 220K over three years
• Four Work Packages
• Management of SILK Project
• Dissemination, Help, workshops, training
• Monitoring, management and caching
• Voice/IP, Conferencing

27
SILK Board

• Will include NRENs, STF and funders
• Terms of Reference to be decided by members
• Policy includes many areas to discuss
• AUP rules, membership, responsibilities of NRENs,
  move to financial sustainability, bandwidth
  rules, any dispute resolution

28
The SILK Board
29
NATO Early Silk Pre-board agreement

• SILK Task Force (STF) Represent NATO
• Kirstein chairs STF
• SPONGE and SILK Project Director
• Frese Technical Manager
• Manages SILK Network, NOC
• Janz Service Manager, providing
• Monitoring infrastructure services

30
Current Status

• Remote Installations only experimental
• Budapest, Hamburg Tashkent
• Still problem with co-planar polarisation
• Kalitel did not have access to satellite
• Currently need two earth stations
• Tashkent has done video conference
• Limited management of Demand Assignment Multiple
  Access (DAMA)

31
Planned Installations

• No more 2 earth station installations
• Need new co-planar feeds (planned mid-September)
• Budapest stations must come back to Hamburg
• Want to keep test rig in Hamburg if possible
• Will test new co-planar feeds in Hamburg first
• Will probably deliver with a PC for DAMA
  monitoring, and IP Phone
• Then resume staged installation, plan
• Uzbekistan, Georgia, Turkmenistan Sept/Oct 02
• Armenia, Kyrgyz Rep, Kazakhstan Oct/Nov 02
• Azerbaijan, Tajikistan - 03

32
Network Support Plans

• DESY/MSU Network Operations Centre
• Based on system provided Radio MSU Net
• Have 3 people from MSU in Hamburg
• Probably enough for 7 day x 14 hr coverage
• Will re-route out of hours to Moscow
• Must have modem access to remote PC node
• Need telephone access in emergency
• May need limited local operation

33
Radio MSU Network Experience

• Connects Russian High Energy Physics institutes
• gt50 Moscow-area institutes and scientific centers
• Provides access to the Russian networks
• Scientific (RBNet), Educational (RUNnet)
  Internet
• Provides Russian communications with DESY
• Irkutsk, L. Baikal, Novosibirsk, St Petersburg
• Provides routing for some FSU NRENs
• Minsk, Almaty, Kharkov, Tblisi

34
Main Central NOC Functions

• Install and support network equipment
• Control network operation via network
• Including bandwidth allocation
• Provide channel usage quality statistic
• Provide liaison channel for repair/replace
• With EurasiaSat, Kalitel and Cisco
• Provide the necessary IP-address space according
  to the RIPE forms
• Consult and help filling RIPE forms for new
  domain names, AS, LIR etc

35
Technical Staff at DESY, Hamburg

• Managers
• Hans Frese - hans.frese_at_desy.de, Technical
  Manager
• Sergey Berezhnev - sfb_at_radio-msu.net, NOC
  Manager
• Responsible person, NOC Radio-MSU, Hamburg
• Vladimir Lavrov - lavrov_at_radio-msu.net, sysadmin
• e-mail noc_at_radio-msu.net
• phone [phone] - satellite node
• phone [phone] office
• phone [phone]
• phone [phone] - privat

36
Responsible Persons in Moscow NOC

• Evgen Kuznetzov - evgen_at_radio-msu.net, sysadmin
• Nikolay Grishin - nick_at_radio-msu.net, manager
• Michel Perfil'ev - michel_at_radio-msu.net, manager
• e-mail noc_at_radio-msu.net
• phone [phone]
• fax [phone]

37
Contact at EurasiaSat

• Only to be used if NOC not reachable
• Cem Bilsel Customer Operations Manager
• E-mail c.bilsel_at_eurasiasat.com
• Telephone [phone]
• Fax [phone]

38
Service issues

• Help desk
• Monitoring
• Communication
• Training

39
DESY Silk NOC

• Helpdesk manned in Hamburg 7 days 14 hrs
• Problem reporting 7 days 24 hrs
• Mobile phone access, or via Moscow NOC
• Maintenance support
• Only for NREN technical staff
• Contact EurasiaSat
• NREN Staff contact EurasiaSat if NOC unavailable
• Management reporting

40
Monitoring

• Current status of infrastructure
• Statistics of use
• Ticket tracking

41
Communication

• Webpages www.silkproject.org
• document store minutes, publications, manuals,
  papers
• Operations current status, historical status,
  performance, resource usage, caching statistics
• Distribution lists
• Silk taskforce, Silk board, Working groups,
  funders
• Interactive facilities support
• IP telephony (with advice on document store)
• Video conferencing (with advice on document
  store)
• Requires SPONGE for full operation

42
Training

• NATO workshops
• OSI support for NRENs
• CISCO Academy
• On-site training
• distance education

43
SILK Technical Groups

• SILK Technical Groups
• Started by Users or SILK Board
• Subjects ones of common interest
• Coordinated by Technical Manager
• Possible Examples
• Caching parameters and experiences
• Use of Receive-only earth stations
• IPv6
• Voice/IP
• Planning for EU Framework 6 projects

44
SILK User Groups

• SILK User Groups
• Normally started by NRENs or Users
• Subjects of common interest
• Coordinated by Service Manager
• Possible examples
• Authentication for digital library access
• Distance Education
• Facilities for multimedia conferencing

45
SPONGE Voice/IP

• Telephones normally digital
• Must register with server
• Others cannot use service
• Can be multi-party
• Must be connected to LAN unless a Gateway is
  installed
• Can have problems with speaker phones
• SPONGE may extend it to multimedia

46
VoIP Services
47
Summary

• SILK System providing 25-50 Mbps for 8 countries
  
• Investment 2.5M from NATO, but already 1.1M
  additional from others
• System will grow with third-party investment
• Now getting into interesting phase as operations
  start
• To get most from SILK, you must do technical
  activity
• There are excellent opportunities for technical
  work