The LLNL Advanced Telecommunications Program (ATP)
Last updated March 18, 1995.
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See Topics
below for more information about LLNL's ATP.
Gigabit Communications
The gigabit communications efforts at LLNL will provide the very
high-speed and cost-effective communications infrastructure needed by
scientists and engineers to more effectively complete their R&D
projects. We are tightly coupled with industry and standards
organizations to ensure that the necessary components and systems
are developed and widely available.
These efforts will enable more effective methods of scientific
computing at LLNL and elsewhere. File transfer times will be greatly
reduced, visualization of high-resolution color movies will be possible,
and distributed computing on many applications will become possible.
As with other enabling technologies, it is likely that paradigm shifts
will occur, and other applications will become feasible as this
technology is applied.
The ability of scientists and engineers to effectively utilize the
computing, storage, and visualization capabilities of available
technology is limited by the performance of current network and I/O
technologies. The advent of massively parallel processors (MPPs),
cluster computing, RAID storage systems, and powerful workstation
technology requires us to reevaluate our previous approaches to
network and peripheral interconnections. The shared media architectures
existing networks do not provide the performance needed by these systems.
This has motivated us to develop a switched network that will provide
Gbit/s serial link speeds and an aggregate capacity over a Tbit/s.
Such an architecture will minimize the network and peripheral
interconnections as a productivity bottleneck in our computing
environment.
Our gigabit communication efforts have several thrusts: development
of a prototype gigabit switched local area network (LAN),
participation in Fibre Channel standards definition, interoperability
testing of Fibre Channel equipment/computers, network modeling and
simulation, and participation in R&D of very high-speed ATM wide area networks
(WANs) and metropolitan area networks (MANs), including gateways
to Fibre Channel and application demonstrations. In all of our activities,
collaboration with industry, universities, and other laboratories
is the key to success.
There is a great deal of ferment in the area of high speed digital
communications. This ferment is fueled to some extent by the
High Performance Computing and Communications Act
(HPCC) and by the well publicized
push toward a National Information Infrastructure (NII).
From a technical viewpoint, this ferment can be seen as an
interaction of cultures:
One or more leading communications standards has come out of
and is still being championed by
each of these major communication cultures:
- Bus - Scalable Coherent Interface (IEEE)
- I/O - HIPPI and Fibre Channel (ANSI X3T11)
- Network - TCP/IP and other network protocols (IETF) over FDDI and Ethernets
(10, 20, and 100Mb/sec)
- Telephony - Asychronous Transfer Mode (ATM Forum) and Broadband ISDN (CCITT)
LLNL is playing a leadership role in blending these cultures and
technologies to meet the internal needs of its scientists
and in support of U.S. industry to meet the needs
of the developing National
Information Infrastructure.
We are developing a switched LAN with Gbit/s optical channels based on
the Fibre Channel standards that are being defined by the ANSI X3T11
committee. An initial 32-port prototype system is being built by Ancor
Communications based on our specifications. This prototype system will
demonstrate the performance and scalability of the
Ancor non-blocking switch architecture
(figure)
and the use of
Fibre Channel
as the basis for high-performance
LANs and peripheral interconnects. Host adapters to VME, HIPPI, NuBus, and
MCA will be used initially to interface computer systems to the switch;
adapters interfacing to other busses and networks will also be available in
the near future. Our initial prototype operates at 266 Mbit/s and will be
upgraded to 1 Gbit/s later this year (1994).
To ensure the widespread development of compatible and cost effective
components and products, it is critical that they be based on standards.
For this reason we are very active in the ANSI X3T11 committee, which
is defining the Fibre Channel standards. These standards define the
underlying communication layers that support IP/ARP, HIPPI-FP,
SCSI-3, IPI-3, and other protocols (some Fibre Channel
standards information is available
online). They will allow high-performance
and low-cost networks and peripheral interfaces to be built that
support the interconnection of a broad range of computer, storage,
and other systems. These new standards are gaining wide acceptance.
Initial components and products are now available, and many other
Fibre Channel based designs are under development.
Because many LLNL scientists and engineers also collaborate closely with
others outside LLNL, it is important that we have access from our
gigabit switched LAN to very high-speed WANs and MANs. To foster
this access, we are involved in several R&D activities. We are attached
to the AT&T
XUNET
test bed WAN, which connects to
Sandia National Laboratory
(SNL),
U.C. Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory
(LBL), the
University of Illinois, the
University of Wisconsin at Madison,
Rutgers University,
and AT&T Bell Laboratories.
We are also participating in the development
of a high-speed MAN test bed interconnecting many high-technology
organizations in the Bay Area
(
Bagnet). In addition, our development of
initial gateways from Fibre Channel to SONET and ATM will provide
WAN/MAN connectivity and allow us to study the performance and
cost issues related to various applications.
We recognize that collaboration with industry, universities, and
other laboratories is the key to success. We encourage involvement
with other organizations. The organizations supporting our
efforts in numerous ways include 3M,
Ancor Communications,
AT&T,
Bellcore,
Cray Research,
Finisar,
Hewlett Packard,
IBM,
Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory,
Los Alamos National Laboratory,
Pacific Bell,
Sandia National Laboratory,
Silicon Graphics Inc., and
Sun Microsystems.
Advanced Telecommunications Program,
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
For more information, contact:
Bob Bryant: (510) 422-4241, rbryant@llnl.gov
Bill Lennon: (510) 422-1091, wjlennon@llnl.gov
Tim Voss: (510) 422-0452, timvoss@llnl.gov
or anyone else on the
ATP staff.
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