MUPBED - Testing New Network Technologies

The huge growth in the Internet, and in projects that rely on fast, reliable network connectivity for their research, has led to an increased interest in the further development of the technologies necessary for both commercial and academic networks to keep pace with customer demand.

One of the most notable network testbed projects using GÉANT2 today is MUPBED (Multi-Partner European Testbeds for Research Networking). Network testbeds such as those created by the MUPBED project allow researchers to test new technologies and techniques on a truly pan-continental scale. MUPBED is a consortium of telecommunications equipment manufacturers, commercial and research network operators, and networking research centres from eight European countries.

MUPBED intends to use large-scale testbeds to test new network technologies such as ASON (Architecture for Automatically Switched Optical Networks) and GMPLS (Generalised MPLS) (ITU initiatives aimed at addressing the problem of managing optical networks with network elements and equipment supplied by multiple vendors). It is hoped that the unique opportunities presented by GÉANT2 and its NREN partners to support such a testbed will allow MUPBED to contribute to the shaping of features and services of the next-generation Internet.

Engineers from DANTE, the operator of GÉANT2, and from the NRENs are already working with MUPBED to set up the specialised infrastructure needed for testing to begin. Five MUPBED partner sites in Germany, Italy, Poland, Sweden and Spain have been linked by stitching together a mesh of MPLS paths across the NREN and GÉANT2 network domains. As a result, network traffic between MUPBED sites is directed over particular paths through the various network domains.

Setting up a separate MPLS path for each network, rather than a single path through all of the networks, allows for greater ease of troubleshooting and accurate monitoring. An additional Layer 2 virtual private network (VPN) covering each complete path between partner sites ensures that end-to-end control is maintained.

The smooth implementation of this service, ahead of the scheduled timeframe, is an excellent example of the customer-focussed emphasis at the heart of the GÉANT2 project.