VIOLA Network Devices Installed and Put into Operation

Ursula Eisenbltter, Ferdinand Hommes, Fraunhofer Institute for Media Communication

During the last months the network components were installed and connected via dark fiber.
The corresponding management systems were installed and put into operation. Since the end
of the last year users are able to test their applications on the VIOLA testbed.

RWTH
Wendl.weg

Aachen
Heizwerk

Aachen
Accom

Jlich, Haus
Knigskamp

FZJ

RWTH

FZJ
Aachen
Waldschenke

16.3-001

GasLINE
Porz
Uni Bonn
N220
Hangelar
tram stop

Uni Bonn
U1

Uni Bonn
U3

UniBn
U5

GasLINE
Dernbach

GasLINE

SWB
Chlodw.

SWB
Welschn. SWB FhG

GasLINE
Naurod

GANT
Frankfurt

street
near FhG

FhG
C5-T19

ISAR
FhG

Tiefgarage

FH

FH
A136

Uni Bonn
caesar

Uni Bonn
U2
Legend :

caesar
A.OG1
caesar
B.UG2
caesar
B.OG1

fiber leased from

FhG
SWB
University of Bonn
caesar
GasLINE
FZJ
RWTH Aachen
FH BRS
TSI

FhG-SCAI
C3-T6

FhG
C3-T35

FhG-IMK
B3-207
TSI

TSI
Cologne

TSI
Nuremberg

TSI

Uni
Erlangen

cable splice

Figure 1: Overview of the single-mode optical fiber cabling

Besides the private optical fiber cables of the participating research facilities, optical fiber
cables from the commercial vendors GasLINE, Stadtwerke Bonn (SWB) and the German
Telekom (TSI) are being used. Usually only maintenance costs apply for the optical fiber
cables because the vendors do not charge any usage fees in favor of the VIOLA project. In
this context GasLINE has been very obliging and has therefore become an associated partner
of the VIOLA consortium.
In order to cut expenses on the optical fiber cabling the WDM technique is used on some
routes. Between Bonn and Sankt Augustin two ADVA FSP 3000 systems are being used
which have been delivered, installed and taken into operation by the consortial member
Siemens. Between Sankt Augustin and Jlich two Alcatel 1696 Metro Spans are being used.
On the routes which are leased by TSI, WDM technique is being used too, but the
wavelengths are used by different customers.
The national and international connection to the VIOLA network takes place in Frankfurt. On
behalf of cost savings, this route and the route between Jlich and Aachen are realized with a
capacity of 2.5 Gbps. ADVA FSP 1500 systems are being used, which allow transmitting 2 x
Gigabit Ethernet over 2.5 Gbps SDH. All other connections are 10 Gigabit Ethernet or 10
Gbps SDH.

10 x
GE

10 x
MM

3 x MM
1 x MM 12 x
GE

ADVA 2 x
FSP1500 GE 2 x MM

57 km

Legend :

Alcatel
7750 SR

10 Gbps coloured
10 Gbps SDH
10 GE
n x 10 Gbps (WDM)
2,5 Gbps SDH
1 GE (with number and type of interface - TP, MM and/or SM)

SDH
Alcatel
1678

backbone node and user node

FZ

8x
MM

user node

Jlich

other node

1 x MM
3 km

RWTH
Aachen

2x
SM

2 x ADVA
GE FSP1500

15 x MM

24 x
GE

10GE
Riverstone
15008

Naurod
ADVA
FSP1500

Dernbach

2 x MM
Alcatel
1696

ADVA
FSP1500

ADVA 2 x
FSP1500 GE

ADVA
FSP1500

2x
MM

GANT

2 x MM

Frankfurt

ADVA
FSP1500
ca. 200 km

caesar
Bonn
4 x MM
44 x TP

10GE
48 x Riverstone
15008
GE

7,8 km
116,2 km
ADVA 2 x
FSP1500 GE

17 km

12 x
10GE
Riverstone GE
15008

12 x
TP

FH Bonn -Rhine-Sieg

2 x MM
6x
MM

optical
amplifier

10GE
Riverstone
24 x
15008
GE

Porz
Alcatel
1696

27,2 km

18 x
MM
20 x
2 x GE
MM

10 x
10 x GE
MM

Cologne

IMK
10GE
Riverstone 24 x
15008
GE
10 x
MM
12 x
MM

10GE
SCAI
Riverstone 24 x
15008
GE
2 x MM
22 x TP

14,6 km

SDH

ADVA
FSP
3000

Alcatel
1678

ADVA
FSP
3000

16 x
GE

4x
MM

x
Alcatel 10
GE
10 x
7750 SR

8x
MM

SDH
Siemens
hiT 7070

temporary locations

24 km

ca. 400 km

SDH
Sycamore
SN 16000

DWDM

Sankt Augustin

MM

8x
GE

FhG
SCAI

TSI Nuremberg

FhG IMK

Uni Bonn

Alcatel
7750 SR

SDH
Alcatel
1678

DWDM

536 m

SDH 8 x
Siemens GE 8 x
MM
hiT 7070

16 km

10 Gbit /s SDH
8 x MM

SDH 8 x GE 1 x 2,5
Siemens
Gbit/s
hiT 7070

Uni Erlangen

Figure 2: VIOLA network technology

During the VIOLA project different transmission techniques will be implemented and tested
to provide different services for the users. The parallel deployment of SDH Cross-Connects
and 10 Gigabit Ethernet switches in the backbone allows the testing of the currently most
advanced methods for the setup of VPNs on the one hand and dynamical bandwidth requests
through signalization on the other hand:

Setup of Layer 2 VPNs via VPLS and H-VPLS on the 10 GE transport switches of
Alcatel and Riverstone
Setup of Layer 3 VPNs via virtual routers on the Alcatel switch routers
Signalization of dynamic bandwidths via different protocols (e.g. GMPLS, UNI, INNI, E-NNI) on the SDH Cross-Connects of Alcatel, Sycamore and Siemens
Provision of Ethernet services over SDH via GFP and LCAS with bandwidths
matching the requirements of the applications.

Figure 2 shows the connections between the installed network components inside and outside
the backbone nodes and user nodes. As the network components at one backbone node are
mounted into different racks and equipped with heterogeneous connector types the physical
ports of all devices were attached to patch panels using the same connector. This makes it
possible to change the optical fiber connections between the devices by simply rearranging
the cables attached to the patch panel. After a rearranging often a complex reconfiguration of
the involved devices might become necessary.
DFN has assigned to VIOLA a public IP address space for the clusters and workstations. This
allows a direct connection to the G-WiN and the European backbone GANT and, later on,

GANT2. The VIOLA partners may use this connection for cooperations with other national
and international research institutions without having to use their own G-WiN connection
which is normally overloaded and has a much lower bandwidth capacity.
Since the end of the last year, users can use the VIOLA testbed for their applications. In a first
configuration the Riverstone systems are deployed as Layer 2 switches and L2 switches/L3
routers. (see Figure 3).
RWTH

L2+L3

VLAN 73 (Cluster)
Port: Gi0/0/0 Gi3/0/3

.10
FZJ

VLAN 53 (Cluster)
Port: Gi0/0/9 Gi1/0/5

VLAN 54 (Application)
Port: Gi1/0/6 Gi1/0/9

G-WiN
GEANT

VLAN 74 (Application)
Port: Gi3/0/4 Gi3/0/11

L2

L2
VLAN 253 (VPLS)
Port: Gi1/0/10 Gi1/0/11

caesar

FhG
SCAI

VLAN 33 (Cluster)
Port: Gi0/0/0 Gi1/0/7
Trunk (VLAN 73 + 74)
LOADSHARING

Trunk
(VLAN 33 + 344)
L2+L3

Uni
Bonn

L2+L3

VLAN 344 (Application)

Port: Gi1/0/8 Gi1/0/11

FhG
IMK
Trunk
(VLAN 63 + 64)

VLAN 44 (Application)
Port: Gi1/0/6 Gi1/0/7

VLAN 34 (Application)
Port: Gi1/0/2 Gi1/0/5

VLAN 253 (VPLS)

Port: Gi1/0/8 Gi1/0/11

VLAN 253 (VPLS)

Port: Gi1/0/6 Gi1/0/11

L2

FH
BRS

VLAN 63 (Cluster)
Port: Gi0/0/0 Gi0/0/9

VLAN 64 (Application)
Port: Gi0/0/10 - Gi0/0/11

Figure 3: Basic configuration based on Riverstone equipment (configured VLANs and Ports)

The other network components are actually used for testing purposes. Within the next months
there will be a configuration including all devices and allowing tests of the different
transmission methods and services mentioned above.
For the management of the network components a separate management network (DCN
network) is established by TSI. The management is done at the TSI locations Nuremberg and
Bamberg. At Nuremberg the Ethernet switches and the routers are controlled while the
management of SDH and WDM equipment takes place at Bamberg. The management sub
networks of the different locations are linked through encrypted connections via the G-WiN.
Special clients at the different locations grant access to the management platforms at TSI.

Abbreviations:
WDM
SDH
L2 VPN
L3 VPN
VPLS
H-VPLS
MPLS
GMPLS
UNI
I-NNI
E-NNI
GFP
LCAS
DCN

Wavelength Division Multiplexer

Transmission of multiple signals at different wavelengths over one optical fiber
Synchronous Digital Hierarchy
Widely-used transmission technique for speech and data communication
Layer 2 Virtual Private Network
Virtual private network, based on Ethernet
Layer 3 Virtual Private Network
Virtual routed private networks
Virtual Private LAN Service
Provision of Ethernet services through an IP/MPLS network
Hierarchical Virtual Private LAN Service
Hierarchical version of VPLS
Multi-Protocol Label Switching
Protocol for traffic engineering in IP networks
Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching
Protocol for setting up network connections (paths) with a desired bandwidth
over different transmission routes
User-to-Network Interface
User interface for setting up network connections
Internal Network-to-Network Interface
Interface between network components in a internal network, not standardized
External Network-to-Network Interface
Interface between networks of different service providers, standardized
Generic Framing Procedure (ITU-T G.7042)
Procedure for transmission of data packets (e.g. Ethernet) over SDH
Link Capacity Adjustment Scheme (ITU-T G.7041)
Dynamical bandwidth adaptation of SDH connections
Data Communication Network
IP-/OSI network for the management of network components