The Nile Collboration (affiliated with CLEO)
Kenneth Birman, David Cassel, Ray Helmke, David Kreinick, Dan Riley,
Mark Rondinaro
Cornell University, Ithaca NY
Andy Calkins, Keith Marzullo
University of California at San Diego
Michael Athanas, Paul Avery, Wade Hong, Theodore Johnson
University of Florida, Gainesville
Chun Chan, Michael Ogg, Aleta Ricciardi, Eric Rothfus
University of Texas at Austin
AbstractNILE is a multi-disciplinary project building a distributed computing environment for HEP. Nile will provide fault-tolerant, integrated access to processing and data resources for collaborators of the CLEO experiment, though the goals and principles are applicable to many domains. Nile currently has three main objectives: a realistic distributed system architecture design, the design of a robust data model, and a Fast-Track implementation providing a prototype design environment which will also be used by CLEO physicists.The focus of this talk is the use of a commercial network modeling package as an integral part of the design phase for the entire Nile system. We will discuss our need for network modeling and simulation, the technology underlying various offerings, and compare the products we evaluated.
Modeling and simulation packages are fast becoming indispensable tools in every planner's toolkit. Network designers and systems architects are no exception. Network modeling packages allow the designer to test designs about network and protocol behavior without having to commit resources and build the actual system. Modeling allows the designer to make protocol and architecture decisions based on simulated experiments rather than feelings or guesses about how the software will perform.
A successful modeling package which is applicable to fault-tolerant HEP distributed computing must be capable of simulating various multi-domain transfer mechanisms in a "lossy" and "bursty" environment. A network simulation allows us to gain insight into the behavior of the Nile architecture and data model over a realistic (i.e. lossy and bursty) wide-area network. It allows us to experiment with the number and location of distributed data sites, the appropriate granularity of data movement, the effect of local caching policies, and the tradeoffs in job scheduling algorithms that favor proximity to data versus processor power. It will also allow us to examine the granularity and distribution of various types and sizes of switching fabrics.
We evaluate three network modeling packages: COMNET III from CACI Products Company, BONeS Designer from the Alta Group of Cadence Design, and OPNET Modeler from MIL 3 Inc. Our initial efforts are directed at modeling a switched Ethernet network of workstations, currently in use as the Nile Fast-Track test bed. We will present results of this study as well as relevant lessons and observations learned about our network modeling tools.
Speaker: Paul Avery Contact: Michael Ogg University of Texas at Austin Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, C0803 Austin, TX 78712-1084 ogg@ece.utexas.edu tel: 512-471-2328 fax: 512-471-5532 The Nile Collboration (affiliated with CLEO) Kenneth Birman, David Cassel, Ray Helmke, David Kreinick, Dan Riley, Mark Rondinaro (Cornell University, Ithaca NY) Andy Calkins, Keith Marzullo (University of California at San Diego) Michael Athanas, Paul Avery, Wade Hong, Theodore Johnson (University of Florida, Gainesville) Chun Chan, Michael Ogg, Aleta Ricciardi, Eric Rothfus (University of Texas at Austin)