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These three NETS research projects investigate wide area networking issues.
Web100 project
The Web100 project is a major project. The Web100 project is an initiative proposed by NCAR, PSC, and NCSA to fix some well-known problems with the Unix (and other) operating systems that are currently inhibiting effective utilization of national high-performance networks such as vBNS and Abilene. One of the biggest problems is the current need to manually calculate the optimal bandwidth delay product to specify a TCP window size that is large enough to avoid prematurely halting data transmission between TCP acknowledgment packets.This issue generally isn't important for LANs, but it is important for high-performance WANs. It is difficult to determine the "bandwidth" part of the product, and right now the only effective way to obtain this is to have knowledge of the network topology, which usually means consulting with a network engineer. Furthermore, most applications don't provide a means for the user to specify this information even if it was available. The Web100 Project is seeking to solve this problem and some other related ones and has received funding from the NSF for a three-year research proposal.
For more information on Web100: http://www.web100.org
Virtual Host Interface Project (VHIP)
A significant and long-standing problem with individual high-performance computing systems has been their inability to effectively and simultaneously attach to multiple networks. Simultaneous attachment to multiple networks is often referred to as "multi-homing," and is desirable both from the standpoint of increasing bandwidth and improved robustness in the face of potential network failure. However, limitations in the networking implementations of current operating systems prevent the additional interfaces from improving the reliability of the system. In many cases the multiple interfaces actually have a negative effect on the system as they introduce a complexity that induces additional modes of failure, several of which involve subtle interactions with the Domain Name System (DNS).The VHIP project's purpose is to correct this situation by adding a new virtual host IP (VHIP) interface onto multi-homed servers, which will allow multi-homed servers to finally realize the full potential of their additional interfaces. The VHIP project will also explore other applications of the VHIP interface in the areas of redundant distributed services and client mobility.
NETS is in the process of writing a proposal to perform this work.
Earth Systems Grid project
NETS is providing network engineering support to the DOE Earth Systems Grid project. For more information on this project, see: http://www.scd.ucar.edu/css/esg/
SCD ASR - Table of contents