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NLANR/DAST FAQ

1. What is the National Laboratory for Applied Network Research (NLANR)?
2. What is the Distributed Applications Support Team (DAST)?
3. What is Internet2?
4. What is Abilene?
5. What is the vBNS?

6. What organizations does NLANR provide support to?
7. Who does NLANR support?
8. What kind of support can NLANR provide?
9. What types of applications does DAST work on?
10. Where can I get a list of current NLANR/DAST projects?

11. How can I tell if I'm at a high performance connection site?
12. What kind of performance can I expect from my network?
13. Are there tools to measure my network performance?
14. Are there guidelines I should keep in mind as I write high-performance network applications?

15. Where can I get a list of both previous and upcoming NLANR/DAST training events?
16. Is there an overall calendar of upcoming NLANR events? (NLANR Packets)

17. Where can I find more information about NLANR and related activities and organizations?
18. Are there funding opportunities available for high-performance networking?

1. What is the National Laboratory for Applied Network Research (NLANR)?

   The National Laboratory for Applied Network Research provides application, engineering and traffic analysis support for the NSF high performance connections sites and high performance network providers. Funded by the National Science Foundation's Computer and Information Science Directorate, NLANR is a distributed organization composed of three parts:

   • Applications/User Support
     The Distributed Applications Support team, located at UIUC/NCSA, provides support for researchers working with high-performance network applications.
   • Engineering Services
     The Engineering Services team, located at CMU/PSC, provides in-depth information and technical support for connecting to and effectively using high-performance wide-area networks to campus network engineers, gigapop operators and other high-performance networking professionals.
   • Measurement and Analysis
     The Measurement and Network Analysis team, located at UCSD/SDSC, conducts performance and flow measurements for HPC sites.
   
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2. What is the Distributed Applications Support Team (DAST)?

   The Distributed Applications Support Team is one of the three groups comprising the National Laboratory of Applied Network Research. Located at UIUC/NCSA, DAST focuses on providing support for researchers working with high-performance network applications such as the vBNS or Abilene, and in assisting with the development of high-performance network applications and tools.

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3. What is Internet2?

   Internet2 is a consortium being led by over 190 universities working in partnership with industry and government to develop and deploy advanced network applications and technologies, accelerating the creation of tomorrow's Internet. Internet2 is recreating the partnership among academia, industry and government that fostered today´s Internet in its infancy. [ Back to Top ]

4. What is Abilene?

   Abilene is an advanced backbone network that connects regional network aggregation points, called gigaPoPs, to support the work of Internet2 Universities as they develop advanced Internet applications. Abilene complements other high-performance research networks.

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5. What is the vBNS?

   The very-high-performance Backbone Network Service (vBNS) is an important part of ongoing efforts by government, industry, and academia to push the state of the art in Internet technologies and academic research applications. It is dedicated to serving research and education institutions whose scientific endeavors require networking performance not possible or not practical with commercial network services.

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6. What organizations does NLANR provide support to?

   The National Laboratory for Applied Network Research provides support and services to institutions who are qualified to use HPNSPs -- high performance network service providers -- such as Internet 2, Next Generation Internet, and STAR TAP.

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7. Who does NLANR support?

   The NLANR Applications Support team supports:

   • Individual researchers, application developers or vBNS/Abilene users working on an NSF-awarded high-speed research network application project who need information or advice on making an application run over the network or who have questions about available resources, or have a specific problem using the network. NLANR Staff will work with the user to diagnose the problem and coordinate its resolution.
   • Advanced distributed application development teams who are working together -- often at multiple sites -- to build an advanced prototype application may require a more hands-on support function to help with networking issues and with communications software and application design strategies.
   
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8. What kind of support can NLANR provide?

   Depending on your interest and research in using high performnce networks, NLANR can provide you with a wide variety of technical information ranging from the hardware / infrastructure layer of the network to building applications and monitoring network performance.

   the Engineering Services Team (EST). is likely to answer questions involving TCP/IP, raw ATM, Routing, QoS, router and switch equipment, and other network issues.

   The Distributed Applications Suport Team (DAST) is committed to providing support at every level of an application developer's project. DAST supports tools and maintains information about measuring network performance, and building distributed applications. Team members are also available for in-depth consultation and project development to any NSF approved institution connected to a high performance network.

   The Measurement and Network Analysis Group (MNA) can provide all manners of data, graphs and information pertaining to passive and active network monitoring, routing andaddressing as well as additional vBNS monitoring information.

   Contact Engineering Services
   Contact Distributed Applications Support Team
   Contact Measurement and Network Analysis Group
   

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9. What types of applications does DAST work on?

   The range of expertise within the DAST group ranges from networking using raw sockets and TCP/IP to using the Globus toolkit to provide security and remote process management capabilities to applications. DAST is also prepared to lend a hand with supporting distributed applications using other technologies developed for distributed computing, such as CORBA, Java RMI or Jini.

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10. Where can I get a list of current NLANR/DAST projects?

    A list of current NLANR/DAST projects is available here.

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11. How can I tell if I'm at a high performance connection site?

    Your university or college may have received an award from the NSF permitting it to connect to one two high-speed networks: the vBNS, a joint venture between MCI and the NSF, or the Abilene network, a project of the University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development (UCAID). You can check out the UCAID site for a list of particpants connected to the Abilene network.

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12. What kind of performance can I expect from my network?

    The performance of your network connection depends on several factors including your connection to the vBNS or Abilene, the number of people sharing the bandwidth, and your local organization connectivity. See the previous question for pointers to some of the logical network maps for discovering your network connectivity. These sites also maintain updated statistics on network usage. Typically, most academic institutions are connected via DS-3 (45 Mbs) or OC-3 (155 Mbs) to the backbone, and it's not uncommon to utilize half of the bandwidth during very large data transfer.

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13. Are there tools to measure my network performance?

    Several utilities exist to measure network performance, some of the most popular include netperf and ttcp. Mark Gates has developed a much improved bandwidth testing tool called Iperf. Click here for a list of additional tools developed by DAST as well as links to other measurement tools.

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14. Are there guidelines I should keep in mind as I write high-performance network applications?

    Yes. Here are the guidelines for writing high-performance network applications we have found to be useful.

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15. Where can I get a list of both previous and upcoming NLANR/DAST training events?

    Here is the list of previous and upcoming NLANR/DAST Training currently planned.

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16. Is there an overall calendar of upcoming NLANR events? (NLANR Packets)

    Yes. Here is the current list of upcoming NLANR events.

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17. Where can I find more information about NLANR and related activities and organizations?

    We recommend that you see the following sites for more information:

    NLANR

    Its primary goal is to provide technical, engineering and traffic analysis support of NSF's very high-performance Backbone Network Service (vBNS) connections

    NLANR engineering services

    Located at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center in Pennsylvania, this team provides network engineering support services for university and research sites connected to the high-performance research network infrastructure

    NLANR distributed applications support team

    Located at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, in Illinois, this team provides applications support for high-performance research network users and projects

    NLANR measurement and network analysis group

    Located at the University of California, San Diego, in California, this team provide tools and analysis of network traffic

    Internet2

    Internet2 is a consortium being led by over 190 universities working in partnership with industry and government to develop and deploy advanced network applications and technologies, accelerating the creation of tomorrow's Internet. Internet2 is recreating the partnership among academia, industry and government that fostered today´s Internet in its infancy.

    NSF Advanced Networking Infrastructure and Research (ANIR) Division

    ANIR is NLANR's sponsoring division of the National Science Foundation, and provides a broader overall view on the state of high performance networking projects within the NSF.

    Abilene

    Abilene is a project of the University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development (UCAID) together with several major telecommunications corporations.

    Both the UCAID and the Internet2 project web sites offer a wide variety of information on various technologies such as Quality of Service (QoS), Digital Video, and the Distributed Storage Initiative.

    Please see the Abilene web site for more information about the high performance networks being used.

    MCI and vBNS

    vBNS is the product of a five-year cooperative agreement between MCI and the National Science Foundation

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18. Are there funding opportunities available for high-performance networking?

    Yes. Here is a list of funding opportunities currently available for high-performance networking.

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