Bandwidth on Demand
Co-provisioned by GÉANT and participating NRENs, GÉANT Bandwidth-on-Demand (BoD) is a service for dynamic bandwidth provisioning across multiple networks, enabling users to instantly create dynamic point-to-point circuits of a required capacity for a required time only, through a web-based user interface without the longer implementation lead-times of traditional static point-to-point circuits.
Whilst numerous Research and Education Networks around the world are implementing their own Bandwidth-on-Demand services, the tools and technologies used are varied and typically not interoperable with each other. Consequently, GÉANT participates in efforts to ensure that the different BoD tools and technologies are made interoperable so that users in any world region can implement a BoD circuit to any other participating network.
Interoperability with North America
The tools used by GÉANT and its counterparts in the United States are different and not interoperable with each other of themselves. The GÉANT community has therefore worked with its US partners (Internet2, ESnet, Indiana University) to ensure the interoperability of European BoD service (which uses AutoBAHN dynamic circuit provisioning tool) with the US OSCARS tool. This collaborative work led, in 2011, to the launch of a pilot bandwidth-on-demand service between Europe and the United States.
BoD Testing with Latin America
The Latin American Research and Education Networking organisation, RedCLARA, has started work to implement a Bandwidth-on-Demand service on the RedCLARA backbone, using the AutoBAHN provisioning tool. The Brazilian NREN, RNP, has implemented its service based on a tool which is of itself incompatible with the GÉANT BoD service. GÉANT is therefore working with RedCLARA and RNP towards interoperability and interoperability testing in the near future.
Collaboration towards Global BoD Interoperability
NSI is a new protocol being developed within the OpenGridForum (OGF) that will ensure the seamless delivery of dynamic circuit provisioning around the world. It will do this by enabling full interoperability between the different technologies behind operators’ services.
Whereas interoperability currently exists between some operators (for instance between GÉANT, Internet2 and ESnet as described above), NSI seeks to replace that to provide a common global standard supported by the OGF body. To ensure full global interoperability and a seamless user experience, providers of these provisioning technologies and dynamic services are working together to become NSI-compliant. As part of this collaboration, GÉANT is contributing to refining the detail of the NSI protocol and documenting implementation best practices.
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