ESLEA - Exploitation of Switched Lightpaths for eScience Applications

This resource provides information about the processes and procedures for connecting to a high speed network. It focuses on connecting to UKLight, but much of the information provided is equally applicable to other high speed networks, such as SuperJANET 5 (due for roll out across the UK from the end of 2006 onwards). It has been published in order to facilitate knowledge transfer from individuals with experience of connecting to high speed networks to those who intend to do so for the first time.

The knowledge base has been compiled by researchers working on the ESLEA project who have combined experience of setting up more than a dozen connections to UKLight. In a number of cases, experience includes establishing onward connections to the international optical test bed via UKLight circuits to StarLight (USA) and NetherLight (NL). This resource comprises papers, presentations and case studies produced by ESLEA researchers, supplemented by results of literature surveys conducted during course of the project.

‘Connecting to UKLight’ has been broken down into nine stages, as shown in Table 1; each stage has a ‘Stage Champion’ who can be contacted for further information and support. The target audience for this resource includes all stakeholders involved in higher education research projects intending to connect to a high speed network. Stakeholders will include some or all of the following groups: applications researchers, network researchers in Computing Science groups, network engineers, systems administrators, IT support personnel, project/team leaders, industrial collaborators and Regional Networks.

Stage	Topic	Champion
1	Introduction	Clive Davenhall, NeSC
2	Applying for a connection	Colin Greenwood, NeSC
3	Getting connected	Barney Garrett, University of Edinburgh
4	Hardware requirements	Barney Garrett, University of Edinburgh
5	Protocol tuning	Robin Tasker, CCLRC
6	Diagnostics	Richard Hughes-Jones, University of Manchester
7	Disk performance	Richard Hughes-Jones, University of Manchester
8	Next Steps	Robin Tasker, CCLRC
9	ESLEA Case Studies	Colin Greenwood, NeSC

Table 1. Structure of ‘Connecting to UKLight’ Knowledge Base

The following document is recommended reading for people who are new to networks, but who need to use them and to obtain good performance from them:

An Introduction to Computer Network Monitoring and Performance…pdf

If you require further introductory information, or wish to submit resources to be considered for inclusion in this section, then please contact Clive Davenhall.