Figure 1: OCARNet Topology
Sponsor: Ohio Board of Regents Investment Fund
Amount: $1,721,730+ to be distributed among various organizations
Start Date: March 1, 1996
End Date: February 28, 1999
The Ohio Computing and Communication ATM Research Network (OCARnet) is a wide-area ATM testbed connecting nine Ohio Institutions: The Ohio State University (OSU), The Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC), OARnet, Cleveland State University, University of Dayton, University of Cincinnati, Kent State University, Write State University, and University of Toledo.
This state-wide ATM testbed will be used for conducting state-of-art research in the areas of networking and its applications. This testbed is targeted to benefit multiple research directions along the strategic High Performance Communications and Computing (HPCC) research program. These directions inlcude performance testing, parallel/distributed computing, and network management. This project proposes to boost the dominance of the State of Ohio in the emerging ATM networking technology.
A detailed map of the testbed is shown in Figure 1. Most inter-city links are T1 (1.5 Mbps) links mainly due to their cost. The links between OSC/OARnet and OSU were originally OC-3 (155 Mbps). These links are now being upgraded to OC-12 (622 Mbps) with additional instrumentation funding from NSF. This funding also allows OCARnet to be connected to NASA Lewis Research Center at Cleveland with a OC-3 (155 Mbps) link and to NSF's vBNS network with a T3 (45 Mbps) link.
OARnet will act as the central hub for the network. It will also provide points of presence (POPs) at various cities for connection to different universities. Stratacom/Cisco switches are being used for telecommunication links. FORE switches are being used inside the campuses for workgroups. Such a network, unlike a production network, provides flexibility to experiment and validate our proposed research and demonstrate the significance of our solutions.
Figure 1: OCARNet Topology
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