Overview
The Breakable Experimental Network promotes scientific discovery by providing North Carolina universities with world-class networking infrastructure and resources for experimentation with disruptive networking technologies. Located in Research Triangle Park, NC, this unique platform for network experimentation consists of several segments of dark fiber through the North Carolina Networking Initiative (NCNI), a time-shared resource that is available to the North Carolina research community. BEN also enables experiments with new transmission, modulation and coding formats as well as interaction between the optical plane and the packet forwarding plane in the network, network virtualization, and remote visualization of high-definition images on visualization walls using multiple optical wavelengths.
RENCI manages the BEN hardware and provides access through its engagement sites at UNC Chapel Hill, Duke University and NC State University. University researchers can test their software and hardware by placing equipment at BEN sites or attaching equipment from their labs. North Carolina’s MCNC, which manages the North Carolina Research and Education Network (NCREN) also collaborates with RENCI on BEN and plans to connect its offices in Research Triangle Park to the network.
BEN Projects
The following projects are currently using the BEN test bed:
- ORCA-BEN: a joint project of RENCI’s Network Research and Infrastructure Group and Duke University’s New Internet Computing Lab
- RENCI-P: a collaboration between RENCI’s Network Research and Infrastructure Group and Innovations Lab
- Multi-touch Interactive Network: a prototype of a multi-touch visual network monitoring and management system
- GENI IMF: a collaboration between RENCI, NC State, Columbia University and the University of Houston
- Geni Collaborative Interactive Infrastructure (GCii): a joint project of RENCI and Duke University
- Experiments in Fine-Scale Probing for Very High Speed Networks: a UNC department of computer science experiment aimed at dramatically improving the performance of TCP protocol
- Experiments in Controlled and Reproducible Cross Traffic for Network Experiments: a UNC department of computer science experiment aimed at ‘calibrating’ analytical models representing Internet traffic by running experiments generating large amounts of realistic Internet traffic and taking precise measurements
- NC State High Performance Digital Media Network (HPDMnet) collaboration: a project emphasizing research and education that will reinforce each other to take advantage of the next generation of networking and digital media technologies
Overview
The Breakable Experimental Network promotes scientific discovery by providing North Carolina universities with world-class networking infrastructure and resources for experimentation with disruptive networking technologies. Located in Research Triangle Park, NC, this unique platform for network experimentation consists of several segments of dark fiber through the North Carolina Networking Initiative (NCNI), a time-shared resource that is available to the North Carolina research community. BEN also enables experiments with new transmission, modulation and coding formats as well as interaction between the optical plane and the packet forwarding plane in the network, network virtualization, and remote visualization of high-definition images on visualization walls using multiple optical wavelengths.
RENCI manages the BEN hardware and provides access through its engagement sites at UNC Chapel Hill, Duke University and NC State University. University researchers can test their software and hardware by placing equipment at BEN sites or attaching equipment from their labs. North Carolina’s MCNC, which manages the North Carolina Research and Education Network (NCREN) also collaborates with RENCI on BEN and plans to connect its offices in Research Triangle Park to the network.
BEN Projects
The following projects are currently using the BEN test bed:
- ORCA-BEN: a joint project of RENCI’s Network Research and Infrastructure Group and Duke University’s New Internet Computing Lab
- RENCI-P: a collaboration between RENCI’s Network Research and Infrastructure Group and Innovations Lab
- Multi-touch Interactive Network: a prototype of a multi-touch visual network monitoring and management system
- GENI IMF: a collaboration between RENCI, NC State, Columbia University and the University of Houston
- Geni Collaborative Interactive Infrastructure (GCii): a joint project of RENCI and Duke University
- Experiments in Fine-Scale Probing for Very High Speed Networks: a UNC department of computer science experiment aimed at dramatically improving the performance of TCP protocol
- Experiments in Controlled and Reproducible Cross Traffic for Network Experiments: a UNC department of computer science experiment aimed at ‘calibrating’ analytical models representing Internet traffic by running experiments generating large amounts of realistic Internet traffic and taking precise measurements
- NC State High Performance Digital Media Network (HPDMnet) collaboration: a project emphasizing research and education that will reinforce each other to take advantage of the next generation of networking and digital media technologies
Funding
State of North Carolina
Partners
Duke University
Infinera
MCNC
North Carolina State University
UNC Chapel Hill
Project Team
Ilia Baldine, project leader
Chris Heerman
Bonnie Hurst
Papers and Presentations
See presentations from BEN Day 2008
At-scale experimentation with resource virtualization in a metro optical testbed. Presented at ICVCI 2008
More information
http://ben.renci.org
http://www.geni.net
Break this Network
RENCI and Duke demonstrate network futures at GEC7 conference
