[2483] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: T-3 Backbone: How Do you Define Completed?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (mak@merit.edu)
Wed Mar 11 01:05:53 1992
From: mak@merit.edu
To: cook@tmn.com (Gordon Cook)
Cc: com-priv@psi.com
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Thu, 05 Mar 92 17:00:07 EST."
Date: Wed, 11 Mar 92 01:03:03 -0500
Gordon,
Jordan Becker and I have been writing detailed backbone engineering
reports for the regional technical liasons describing the progress on T3. We
have not copied this list since there are many technical details that seem a
bit off the topic of com-priv, however I will send you a separate copy of the
latest report. These also appear regularly in the Internet Monthly Reports
published by ISI. We have moved over traffic from T3->T1 during the last couple
of months following the stabilization of T3. We continue to move traffic over
at a rate of about 1 regional per week.
The order for the transition of the regional networks to T3 was
designed so that the network (autonomous system) pairs with the most
cross traffic would be cut over first. Most of these have been east
coast regionals since this also alleviates many of the T1 network
problems we have observed recently. The dates for several sites west
and east of the Mississippi are coincidental to your message, as they
follow our pre-planned cutover schedule. Note that the traffic cutover
process consisted of a "stability period" after an intensive round of
debugging and software upgrades to bring the network to a reliable
state. This stability period took place in December, and was followed
by another round of software upgrades to address routing problems
observed during our observations on the production and test backbones.
The following schedule reflects the regional networks cutover in
February, and the proposed schedule for March-April. These cutovers
involve Merit staff working with the folks at each regional network, to
develop a routing plan for the migration. Also note that several other
regionals have been cut over to the T3 backbone previously (eg.
BARRnet, NEARnet, etc.). As of the end of February the T3 network was
carrying 30% of total traffic.
Cutovers completed During February:
==================================
Feb 11: Suranet AS 86 College Park
Feb 19: PSI AS 174 Ithaca
SURAnet AS 279 Georgia Tech (Atlanta)
Feb 20: OARnet AS 690 Columbus
Feb 25: Sesquinet AS 280 and 114 Houston
San Diego AS 195
Proposed Cutovers scheduled for March-April
===========================================
Mar 11: JVNC AS 97 Princeton
Mar 18: UIUC AS 38
Mar 25: Midnet AS 93 Lincoln
Apr 1: Westnet-E AS 209 Boulder
Apr 7: CICnet 267 Champaign, Ann Arbor
Mid-April is the target timeframe for deployment of the new RS/960 DS3
cards and DSUs on the T3 backbone. These cards support a higher packet
forwarding rate, utilizing a card-to-card transfer method across the router
system bus, and are more reliable. They also incorporate many changes based
on what we have learned about T3. This deployment will take about 6-8 weeks,
after which network stability will again be re-assessed, and we will migrate
any remaining T1 network IP traffic to T3. We will continue to support the T1
network for backup throughout this period.
I'd be happy to discuss these issues with you. Why not visit Merit
and get a closer look at our networking activities?
Mark Knopper
Manager, Internet Engineering
Merit Network, Inc.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 05 Mar 92 17:00:07 EST
To: com-priv@psi.com
>From: cook@tmn.com (Gordon Cook)
Subject: T-3 Backbone: How Do you Define Completed?
<<MESSAGE from>> Gordon Cook 05-MAR-92 17:00
cook@tmn
Glad to see the announcement of progress on the T-3 network. I am
confused however about what being fully implemented means. As of
christmas time I was told by two of the 16 backbone nodal sites that
although they had DS-3 routers installed and T-3 bit pipes open, their
nodes were essentially DUMB because Merit/ANS had not connected the local
ethernet that would allow traffic incoming or out going from their t-1
backbones or from the old t-1 national backbone to pass through them. One
site I have not checked since Jan1 first and may be fully operational by
now. The other site tells me that as of last weekend they were still not
hooked up and that essentially no research or education data was passing
through their t-3 which had been delivered and "installed" last October.
Am I missing something?? Is there only one such site or are there more?
