This week, Inder Monga is representing ESnet at the 11th Annual Global LambdaGrid Workshop. The GLIF hosts a meeting of research & education (R&E) network operators, network vendors and researchers that support the paradigm of lambda networking. The GLIF worldwide network is based around a number of lambdas–dedicated high-capacity circuits based on optical wavelengths, and which terminate at exchange points known as GOLEs (GLIF Open Lightpath Exchanges). On Monday, a smaller subset of GLIF members, GLIF Americas, will meet to share the various developments in their own R&E networks. ESnet will present the exciting new developments in the Advanced Networking Initiative, including leading work on measuring and sharing network power consumption. 

On Tuesday, September 13, at the Museum of Modern Art, ESnet participates in a Network Services Interface (NSI) protocol “plugfest” with OSCARS, its award-winning On-Demand Secure Circuits and Advance Reservation System software, testing it against other bandwidth reservation software to determine its level of interoperability and find any issues with specifications. It is encouraging to note that seven independent implementations of NSI are participating in the “plugfest.” OSCARS currently implements the Inter-Domain Control protocol (IDCP) developed jointly with the DICE working group to accomplish inter-domain connections today. Converging on a standard NSI protocol will enable the larger GLIF community to participate in federated, multi-domain virtual circuits. For more information on OSCARS and NSI, you can reach Chin Guok, technical lead of OSCARS software development within ESnet, Evangelos Chaniotakis, developer of NSI protocol for the plugfest or Inder himself who is co-chair of the NSI working group in OGF.

On Wednesday September 14th, NSI session at GLIF will discuss the state of network services interface (NSI) 1.0 standards specifications today, and the work ahead to be tackled by the community in getting production instances of the protocol deployed. Up until now, NSI has been purely an academic exercise. But that is changing now with the plugfest. 

Also that day, Inder will be giving a talk titled “Networks & Power–ESnet’s Initiatives towards Green.” The talk will focus on the recent design and prototype of a network power measurement tool that was developed by Baris Aksanli, a UCSD summer intern, under Inder’s mentorship. It will also give a preview of joint theoretical network energy efficiency research with Baris and his advisor Tajana Rosing at UCSD that is currently being submitted as a conference paper. Research into energy-efficient networking is important to ESnet. Energy efficiency is an issue that will assume international importance as the volume of data carried by scientific networks is relentlessly expanding, putting greater demands on networks in an era of rising energy costs.