In September, Networking Systems completed the upgrade of the Stanford University network (SUNet) backbone to use higher speed links, with a data rate of ten-gigabits per second. In addition, an upgrade to the link to national research networks is underway.
Details of the Upgrade
During the past year, the equipment in the backbone has been either replaced or upgraded to support the goal of having all major backbone links running at this new standard speed. The number of routers was also increased not only to spread the load but also to provide a second router for every network, improving the reliability and availability of network service.
Most local networks are now connected to one of the new "operational zones". The initial topology has eight zones, six for the main campus and two for student residences. The design provides for dual routers for each local network, improving reliability along with the increased capacity. Each zone has two switch/routers, which are located in physically separate facilities to limit the impact of a failure in any single facility. Each switch also has a connected firewall to support local network migration by the departmental firewall project. (See also Departmental Firewall Project: A Campus-wide Security Initiative in this issue.)
The firewalls are being operated in their "high availability" mode, meaning only one is active at a time. The firewalls get their network connections through their local zone (as a switch, at the new standard ten-gigabits per second data rate), but they are otherwise operated as independent routers for those networks that are connected to them.
The backbone is still composed of two switch/routers located in diverse facilities. Each operational zone has connections at ten-gigabits per second to each of the backbone routers.
Upgrade for Link to National Research Networks Coming
Now that the backbone capacity upgrade has been completed, work is underway to upgrade the link to the national research networks by getting a ten-gigabit per second link to the high-performance research (HPR) network, part of the CalREN networks run by the Corporation for Educational Networks in California (CENIC).
Stanford currently has two one-gigabit per second links to the CENIC HPR network. Several researchers have been asking for bandwidth in excess of one-gigabit per second, so one of these will be upgraded to run at ten-gigabits per second, like the SUNet backbone. Networking Systems is planning to have the additional capacity available by the end of the 2007 calendar year.
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