Networking Research Projects and Technology Tracking

The Quilt, a consortium of Regional Optical Networks (RONs), provides a forum for collaboration and technical development amongst RONs. This diagram shows the rapid expansion of fiber optics owned and operated by the RONs throughout the country. The FRGP is an active participant in the Quilt and owns an operates hundreds of miles of fiber as well, which enables high-speed, easily expandible, and flexible networking to our users. View large image.

NETS is a principal collaborator in several nationally recognized networking and data communications research and development projects. NETS hosts and presents at national and regional meetings on a variety of networking projects. NETS continued work on an NSF STI award for the Network Path and Applications Diagnosis (NPAD) project, and NETS contributed to the NIH BRIN (National Institutes of Health) (Biomedical Research Infrastructure Network) Lariat project.

NETS staff serve on the board and the executive committee of the National LambdaRail, Inc. (NLR), a consortium of leading U.S. research universities and private-sector technology companies building and operating a network infrastructure for new forms and methods for research in science, engineering, health care, and education as well as for research and development of new Internet technologies, protocols, applications, and services. NETS has completed network connections between the NCAR computing facility and the TeraGrid, an open scientific discovery infrastructure combining leadership-class resources at partner sites to create an integrated, persistent computational resource. NETS participates in the Hybrid Optical and Packet Infrastructure Project (HOPI) that will provide dedicated bandwidth for specialized applications and an experimental platform for testing future architectures.

NETS staff serve in a number of leadership roles in the Quilt including the Steering Committee, Executive Committee, the Peering Committee, and the Regional Optical Network Committee. The Quilt's specific purposes and objectives are to promote the delivery and geographical aggregation of advanced network services to the broadest possible research and educational community; promote end-to-end continuity, consistency, reliability interoperability, efficiency and cost-effectiveness in the development and delivery of advanced network services by means which, at the same time, reflect the diversity of its participants and foster innovation; and represent the participants' common interests to national advanced research and educational networking organizations, backbone network service providers, industry, government, standard-setting organizations, and other organizations involved in or influencing the development and delivery of advanced network services. Through NETS involvement in the Quilt, we are able to effect and track technology trends in networking equipment, fiber optic technologies and implementation methods, regulation, and commodity Internet services and technologies.

NETS will continue their leadership roles in these areas in FY 2007 and use the experience and knowledge gained to advance UCAR and the FRGP networking technology and infrastructure.

NETS' research activities support NCAR's strategic priority of "Developing and providing advanced services and tools." This work has many funding sources: NSF Core funds, FRGP, and UCAR Communications Pool indirect funds.