NCIT*net

The NCIT*net2 is a cornerstone research, development and testing tool supporting NCIT research projects. It was launched in February 2001 as a Metropolitan Area Optical Network linking the sites of four of the NCIT Public Sector Founding Members: The University of Ottawa, Carleton University, the Communications Research Centre (CRC) and the National Research Council (NRC). The NCIT*net still provides a live state of the art optical connectivity to the NCIT research community. The NCIT*net was established with a CFI/OIT funding of $984k along with an inkind contribution valued at $1.6M from Bell Canada (5-year managed optical fibre donation).

Configuration of the NCIT*net

From the technology point of view, the NCIT*net is a live optical networking laboratory supporting research at the physical, networking and application layers. It provides unique opportunities for researchers to investigate network management and control issues. The NCIT*net is based on the use of dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) technology and is capable of operating up to 2.5 Gbit/s (OC 48). The NCIT*net allows access to the fibre infrastructure from any of the four sites and allows interfacing to the network at a variety of bandwidths and protocols to enable research in network operations, protection, remote testing and management.

At its onset, the NCIT*net went on line as a logical redundant SONET ring employing two wavelengths over a pair of fibres interconnecting the four sites through VLANs (Ethernet over SONET over Optical). An additional wavelength was lit in May 2002 to provide a direct Gigabit Ethernet link between the CRC and the NRC. During the past eighteen months, DIATEM’s NetPortal OSS package was donated to study Transparent LAN Services (TLS) on NCIT*net.

Major upgrades of the NCIT*net  implemented in the summer of 2004 achieved a total of eight wavelengths in two bands as well as multi-vendor routing, MPLS and VPLS capabilities at all four sites. These upgrades also linked additional laboratories at both the University of Ottawa and Carleton University sites. With these upgrades the NCIT*net is now connected through the network node at the Network Computing and Control Technologies (NCCT: www.ncct.uottawa.ca) Research Laboratory of the University of Ottawa to the Ottawa Regional Area Network (OttawaRAN) and Ontario Research and Innovation Optical Network (ORION). NCCT is the central control node of the whole NCIT network, undertaking leading research and experiments related to next generation networks and services. ORION provides the conduit to CA*net 4 and the international research networks. The upgraded network is now referred to as NCIT*net2.

The upgrades implemented in 2004 were supported by a CFI/OIT funding of $720k along with inkind support from NCIT Partners valued at $560k. A new 2.4M optical fiber donation from Telecom Ottawa obtained in 2005 expanded fiber connectivity to the four sites, added Algonquin College as a fifth site and will keep the network operational for 5 more years. This ensures that the research infrastructure enabled by NCIT*net2 will continue as an independent self-sustaining optical networking research tool till Dec 2010.

NCIT*net connectivity to world-wide research networks

The upgraded NCIT*net allows NCIT researchers and industrial partners to investigate research subjects related to next generation networks and services, from the technology layer up to the application layer, on a the live optical Metropolitan Area Network. New telecommunications and networks paradigms of optical network technologies and next generation services can be built and offered on this research network. NCIT*net represents a unique combination of the latest conquests of the telecommunications industry combining the ultra high bandwidth technology of the 10Gigabit Ethernet with MPLS VPNs over a DWDM network. The upgraded network will also enable wireless researchers at Carleton University and CRC to link two mesh network deployments over an optical backbone.

Activities on NCIT*net supported the “Learn Canada” and “Digital Table” projects between the CRC and the NRC and has figured prominently in demonstrations of research capabilities of NCIT members and partners. For example, Network Service Control at layer 2 implemented through Transparent LAN Services (TLS) over NCIT*net illustrating service control mechanisms (traffic admission control, real-time service provisioning, bandwidth management, traffic engineering, and Quality of Service) was shown. The live demonstrations were given locally and internationally from the University of Ottawa to the Internet 2 Meeting in Hawaii, in January 2004 and to CeBIT 2004 in Hanover with NCIT*net providing the laboratory as well as the connectivity. These live technology demonstrations were made possible by the NCIT*net and connection to partners, (e.g. Canarie, Abilene, DFN, GEANT) for international connectivity.

NCIT*net2 Industry Partners

Nortel
Bell Canada
Alcatel
Telecom Ottawa
Foundry Networks
Juniper Networks
US Computers