The process of building ESnet4 is well underway.

By way of summary, recall that ESnet has formed a partnership
with Internet2 for use of waves on its new optical network.
This optical network consists of a dedicated fiber pair provided
by Level3 Communications on a substantially expanded
national footprint. The fiber is provisioned with advanced
optical multiplexing equipment provided by Infinera. The fiber
and optical equipment that form the optical network
infrastructure are all maintained by Level3 as part of their
production network. This will ensure that the quality of the
infrastructure underlying ESnet4 will be equal to what it has
been in the past.

ESnet will use a collection of 10Gb/s waves/circuits on this
optical infrastructure that are dedicated to ESnet in the same
way that ESnet currently uses waves on the Qwest network.
ESnet will build and operate its own network hubs that consist
of the ESnet core routers (for the IP network), switches (for the
new Science Data Network), and supporting equipment.

Compared with today’s network, ESnet4 is substantially larger
(17 hubs vs. 9 in the current network) and substantially higher
bandwidth (starting with about 21,000 miles of 10Gb/s circuits
in 2007 and going to more than 70,000 miles of 10Gb/s circuits
in 2011, compared with today’s less than 7,000 miles of
10Gb/s circuits).

The current ESnet4 rollout plan is located at
www.es.net/ESnet4. The first optical nodes have been installed
by Level3 and the optical infrastructure is operational between
Washington, New York, and Chicago. The remainder of the
optical nodes will be installed working from east to west over
the next four months.

ESnet has ordered new IP routers and SDN switches for the
expansion hubs and to facilitate the transition from ESnet3 to
ESnet4. (There is considerable complexity in the transition
from Qwest infrastructure to Internet2/Level3 infrastructure.
The transition will be done in such a way that the redundancy
provided by the ESnet backbone ring architecture remains in
tact throughout the transition. .)

The complete ESnet4 IP core and the initial deployment of the
SDN network from Atlanta, across the north to Seattle and
Sunnyvale, will be installed between January, 2007 and August,
2007. This initial phase of ESnet4 is currently scheduled to be
complete by September, 2007. A new Metro Area Network
ring will be built in Atlanta to provide connectivity between the
several telecommunication points of presence that are of
interest to the ESnet community (e.g. the Level3 PoP where the
new ESnet hub will be located, an R&E community PoP where
R&E regional networks have hubs, the Qwest PoP, and a
second Level3 PoP). The West Chicago MAN will be
completed and connected in this time frame, and a new hub in
Nashville will be built for a new ESnet connection for ORNL.

In 2008 a few redundancy circuits will be added to the IP
network, the SDN network will be completed on the full
footprint across the country, and a second 10Gb/s SDN route
will be added across the north. See the maps in the
presentations at www.es.net/ESnet4.

In 2009-2011 the SDN network will be increased by adding
roughly 1x 10Gb/s circuit per year, reaching 5 x 10Gb/s
circuits in 2011. (See the rollout presentation on the web.) In
the 2010 time frame we anticipate that the optical infrastructure
will be upgraded from 10Gb/s per circuit to 100Gb/s per circuit.
ESnet is planning for an equipment upgrade at that time which
will result in SDN becoming a 500Gb/s backbone.

The transition from ESnet3 to ESnet4 is will be carried out so
that there will not be any service interruptions – this is an
exercise that the ESnet engineering staff has successfully
accomplished several times before in the history of ESnet.

Please note that the rollout schedule given above and in the
presentation on the Web is our current best estimate. Schedule
risks include equipment delivery delays, the impact of no
Federal budget for 2007 (that is, a flat budget profile carried
over from 2006), and unexpected delays in the build out of the
optical infrastructure. We know that there will be some impact
from the Federal budget situation, but at this point we believe that
it will not impact the plans for FY07 – that is, the new IP
network and a start on SDN. It is not clear yet, but it is possible
that the budget situation could slow the deployment of the SDN
links in 2008, however I believe that the worst case is that the
deployment is pushed back by 9 months, or so.

If you have questions about any of this feel free to send me
email. I will post any resulting clarifications, as well as new
information as it becomes available, on the ESnet4 web site.

--
William E. Johnston
ESnet Dept. Head and Senior Scientist
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory