Activities

The purpose of this activity in the PHOSPHORUS project is to define the architecture, design and implement the Grid-enabled GMPLS (G²MPLS) Network Control Plane.

 G²MPLS is an enhancement of the ASON/GMPLS Control Plane architecture that implements the concept of Grid Network Services (GNS). In the PHOSPHORUS framework, GNS is a service that allows the provisioning of network and Grid resources in a single-step, through a set of seamlessly integrated procedures.

G²MPLS results in a more powerful Control Plane solution than the standard ASON/GMPLS, because it will comply with the needs for enhanced network and Grid services required by network "power" users/applications (i.e. the Grids). Nevertheless, G2MPLS is not conceived to be an application-specific architecture, and it will support any kind of endpoint applications by providing network "legacy" ASON/GMPLS transport services and procedures. This compliance fosters the possible integration of Grids in operational/commercial networks, by overcoming the limitation of Grids operating on dedicated, stand-alone network infrastructures.

• Because it's a dual approach with regard to Grid brokers working with and configuring network resources
• Because grid nodes can be modelled as network nodes with node-level grid resources to be advertised and configured, and this is a native task for GMPLS
• Because it's possible to inherit useful GMPLS native features, e.g. crankback and recovery

G²MPLS extends ASON/GMPLS in order to provide part of the functionalities related to the selection, co-allocation and maintenance of both Grid and network resources, by exposing upgraded interfaces at the UNI and E-NNI network reference points (i.e. G.OUNI and G.E-NNI).

The Grid extensions to GMPLS include the following procedures:

• Discovery and advertisement of Grid capabilities and resources of the participating Grid sites
• Service setup and maintenance
  • Coordination, co-allocation and configuration of grid and network resources associated with a Grid job
  • Recovery of the installed network services and possible escalation of procedures
  • Advance reservations of Grid and network resources
• Service monitoring: retrieving of the status of a Grid job and the related network connections

The G²MPLS Network Control Plane can bring to an innovation in the field of co-allocation of Grid and network resources, because of its

• faster dynamics for service setup
• adoption of well-established procedures for traffic engineering, resiliency and crankback
• uniform interface for the Grid-user to trigger Grid & network transactions

From a user's perspective, G²MPLS enables a real node-to-node deployment of on-demand Grid services. Part of the middleware functionalities related to selection, co-allocation and maintenance of both Grid and network resources are provided through the G.OUNI. From a network operator perspective, G²MPLS enables the integration of Grids and automated network control plane technologies in real operational and commercial networks.

Figure 1 - G²MPLS Network Control Plane

In PHOSPHORUS, the G²MPLS will interface to a number of existing Network Resources Provisioning Systems (UCLP, ARGON, DRAC), and to the Inter-Domain Management system defined by the GÉANT2 project, in order to provide as seamless as possible operations for Grid resources provisioning.

• ADVA AG Optical Networking
• Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung
• Fundació i2CAT
• Nextworks s.r.l.
• Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center
• Research and Education Society in Information Technologies
• University of Essex
• University of Leeds

Figure 2 - Enhancements to the GMPLS Control Plane - brochures

Figure 3 - Enhancements to the GMPLS Control Plane for Grid Network Services (GNS) - brochure (TNC'09)

Figure 4 - Interoperability between Harmony and G²MPLS - brochure (TNC'09)

• "G²MPLS in a nutshell" - presentation
  Nicola Ciulli, Gino Carrozzo - NeXtworks