Other

The other week the Department of Veterans Affairs sponsored the 2010 InterAgency IPv6 Information Exchange. As a pioneer in IPv6, the most fundamental protocol of the Internet, ESnet was invited to present on how it uses and implements IPv6. Over 120 agencies were invited to attend but only a handful showed, almost all from various parts of the Department of Defense, the National Institute for Standards and Technology and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

This lacklustre attendance is curious, given that IPv6 is critical to everyone. It is slated to replace IPv4, the current protocol, lock, stock, and barrel. The question is when. What we do know is that address space for existing IP will be exhausted next year. According to Geoff Huston, Adjunct Research Fellow at the Centre for Advanced Internet Architectures, we are literally running out of IPv4 Internet addresses.

fig30d — Supply of IPv4 Internet Addresses Drying Up, http://www.potaroo.com

The commercial world was in denial of the need for IPv6 until a year ago. Now they are scrambling. But how is the government doing? The level of interest seems to vary by agency.

At this particular conference, presentations ranged from technical discussion of IPv6 implementation from governmental representatives, commercial IPv6 networking providers, and companies selling IPv6 management tools. The VA is implementing IPV6 to facilitate communications between nurses and patients. While ESnet has been using IPv6 for years to link DOE scientists together, some of the other applied uses of this technology, such as improving medical care, are exciting.

It was very encouraging to see the progress the Department of Defense in transitioning to IPv6 while maintaining strict controls for security and reliability. It appears that the DOD is on target for completion of the transition by 2013.

The other area of discussion was in the area of procurement requirements and the approval of new requirements for more complete IPv6 capabilities in new gear.

On the whole, the agencies present seem to be moving on a well organized plan to get to IPv6. The low response from agencies does leave one hoping it was a result of their confidence in their ability to transition in a timely manner that led to so many not participating.

–Kevin Oberman

While we have been busy working towards a 100G ANI prototype wide area network (WAN), researchers at Intel are making sure that we have plenty to do in the future. Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal article (http://on.wsj.com/dcf5ko) on Intel demonstrating 50Gbps communication between chips with silicon-based lasers, is just the tip of the iceberg of competitive research looming in the arena of photon-electron integration.

50Gbps Silicon Photonics communication — 50G Silicon Photonics Link (image from Intel white paper)

This demonstration from Intel (Kudos to them!) is a great reminder of how such innovations can revolutionize the computing model by making it easier to move large amounts of data between the chips on a motherboard or between thousands of multi-core processors, leading the way towards exascale computing. Just imagine the multi-terabit fire hose of capacity ESnet would have to turn on to keep those chips satisfied! This seamless transition from electronics to photonics without dependence on expensive sets of photonic components has the potential to transform the entire computing industry and give an additional boost to the “Cloud” industry. Thomas J. Watson has been credited with saying “The world needs only five computers”. We look to be collecting the innovations to just prove him right one day.

While we do get excited about the fantastic future of silicon integration, I would like to point out the PIC (Photonic Integrated Chip) has been a great innovation by a company, Infinera, just down the Silicon Valley – they are actually mass-producing integrated lasers on a chip for a different application – long distance communication, by using a substrate material different than silicon. This technology is for real. You can get to play with the Infinera’s in our ANI testbed – you just need to come up with a cool research problem and write a proposal by October 1st, 2010.

Fire away!

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August 4th, 2010

Computing at the Speed of Light – Read MIT Technology Review’s take on the same topic.