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RNP2's virtual paths are updated

The increase in traffic demand in RNP2 backbone has made RNP's Engineering and Operation Center (EOC) elevate the capacity of several virtual paths (VP) in the network.

When the backbone RNP2 started being implanted, in May 2000, updatings of the virtual paths had already been predicted according to the growth in demand in each Point of Presence (PoP). The capacity of the access ports installed in each PoP is higher than the sum of the VPs leaving the PoPs, which permits updatings in the speed of the VPs without the need to change hardware or the physical environment.

What are Virtual Paths and Access Ports?

Let's take as an example an optical fiber with an access of 155 Mbps in ATM: the fiber (physical environment) is made available by Embratel and connected to the switch (hardware) of RNP's PoP by means of a WAN port (hardware) with a capacity of 155 Mbps. This WAN port is called an Access Port. This "input port" is a physical interface and has to be of the same kind as the "output port" existing at Embratel. In other words, if the capacity of the port at Embratel is of 34 Mbps, that of the switch located in the PoP will also be of 34 Mbps and so on. If RNP and Embratel decide to have an access of higher capacity, they will have to change the WAN ports on both sides: the outlet at Embratel and the inlet in the PoP. The Virtual Paths are virtual because they are logical configurations (program modifications - software) in the switch; that is to say, they do not imply changes in the hardware nor the physical environment. The only limitation of the Virtual Paths is that their sum must not exceed the capacity of the WAN port.

Therefore, we have, for instance, an access port of 155 Mbps in the PoP in Rio de Janeiro, where 11 VPs with several capacities are configurated. The sum of these VPs reaches 86 Mbps. Consequently, the installed infrastructure still allows an increase of almost 70 Mbps in the virtual lines leaving Rio de Janeiro. With this prospect, the EOC believes that the physical structure installed is still capable of meeting the traffic demand for a long time. Should it be necessary, new updatings will be made in the virtual paths.

A new network for changing times

The evolution of Internet networks happens at great speed. At the end of the 60s the Defense Department of the government of the United States created the ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), a network for military purposes which would later become the Internet. Afterwards, several universities started creating their networks and integrating research centers, principally in the USA. From the 70s to the 80s, the networks started expanding themselves very fast, and they turned into what is now known as the Internet. With the reduction in the price of equipment, the Internet, which was restricted to the academic sphere, ended up reaching people's homes, forming the great general use network it is nowadays.

In 1988, the first embryos of the network appeared in Brazil, connecting universities and research centers in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Porto Alegre to institutions in the United States. In order to link all these embryonic networks and form a backbone of national range, the Ministry of Science and Technology (MCT) created the National Research Network (RNP) project, in 1989.

In 1992, while RNP was implanting the first Brazilian backbone, Tim Berners-Lee created the World Wide Web, in the Swiss laboratory CERN (European Laboratory of Physical Particles Studies). The World Wide Web permitted the communication by means of the Internet with the use of the hipertext, giving great impulse to the commercial use of the network. In 1995, the MCT opened the Brazilian network to private servers.

The opening of the Internet overloaded it, making the academic sector begin to consider creating a new infrastructure or new technologies so as to carry on its studies effectively. At the same time, new demands also arose. At the end of 1996, a group of 34 universities in the United States created the Internet2 project.

RNP's network went through the same process. From 1992 to 1999 RNP's backbone was updated several times, in order to meet the growing demand of its users and expand the network . In 1997, the High Performance Metropolitan Networks in Brazil (ReMAVs) project was created with the aim of testing and making available an infrastructure of high technology networks. Three years later, with the commercial Internet already consolidated, RNP took a great step to improve the national academic network, implanting RNP2 backbone. With the new network, it is possible for the academic community to develop projects of advanced applications such as videoconference, voice transmission over IP and digital libraries to be used in areas such as telemedicine, distance education, georeferential systems, etc.

Parallelly, RNP stopped being a priority project of the MCT and became an organization of private nature and public interest called National Teaching and Research Network. With this new juridical status, RNP continues its work operating the academic backbone and spreading knowledge in the network area, and it can also look for partnerships in the private sector so as to reach its goals.

The updating of the virtual paths is part of this initiative to maintain an effective network operating with service quality. Still in 2000, the updating of the points of traffic exchange with Embratel's backbone was another step taken with this purpose. The international lines have also been renovated, being exchanged for a connection of 155 Mbps on February 16, 2001, which will permit access to other Internet2 networks in the world.

[RNP, 03.11.2001]