Gigabit network testbeds

Abstract

A description is given of five testbeds developed to examine gigabit applications and network technologies: Aurora, Blanca, Casa, Nectar, and Vistanet. Aurora is an experimental wide-area network testbed whose main objective is to explore and evaluate technologies for phase three of the proposed gigabit National Research and Education Network. The goals of the Blanca network research program are to develop technologies supporting gigabit/second networks, to develop programming tools supporting advanced network-based applications, and to explore the relationships between network technology paradigms and application requirements. The intent of the Casa testbed is to demonstrate that distributed supercomputing using wide-area high-speed networks can provide new levels of computational resources for leading-edge scientific problems. For the Nectar testbed project, a gigabit/second or higher experimental network will be developed to connect a variety of high-performance hosts. The Vistanet research project is intended to help determine whether networks based on emerging public-network standards will satisfy the goals of the National Research and Education Network and to provide information on specifications for those standards.