Western-Hemisphere Research and Education Networks Links
Interconnecting Latin America (WHREN-LILA):
The NSF International Research Network Connections (IRNC) program, Award #0441095, to the
Western-Hemisphere Research and Education Links Interconnecting
Latin America (WHREN-LILA) proposal from Florida International University (FIU), coupled
with the financial support from Brazil, through the State of Sao Paulo's FAPESP award to the
Academic Network of Sao Paulo, Award #2003/13708-0, have been able to sustain the bandwidth
capacity at 2.5Gbps to support U.S.-Latin American science research and education activities
Western-Hemisphere Research and Education Networks Links
Interconnecting Latin America (WHREN-LILA):
U.S. researchers and their Latin American partners are undertaking experiments that require
improved network services throughout the western hemisphere. The Western-Hemisphere
Research and Education Networks Links Interconnecting Latin America (WHREN-LILA)
project was funded by the National Science Foundation International Research Network
Connections program, award# 0441095, to address this need. Supported for 5 years through a
cooperative agreement with FIU, the award, WHREN, established two new communications
network links, called LILA, that connect Miami to Sao Paulo, and San Diego to Tijuana. Figure
87 below shows the LILA links on the east and west coasts and how they interconnect with the
research and education networks in the western hemisphere. These high-performance
communications network links support CHEPREO, Ultralight and other U.S. science and
engineering research and education collaborations between the U.S. and Latin America.
Miami Sao Paulo WHREN-LILA Link:
The WHREN-LILA East link is a 2.5Gbps SDH circuit between Miami and Sao Paulo. It
provides a physical layer transport service over which Ethernet services are provisioned. In
Miami, the WHREN-LILA link connects at AMPATH, where it interconnects with UltraLight,
Abilene, Florida LambdaRail, National Lambda Rail and AtlanticWave (described below). In
Sao Paulo, the WHREN-LILA link connects at the Sao Paulo exchange point, where it
interconnects with RedCLARA, the Academic Network of Sao Paulo (ANSP) and RNP. Network
traffic from the National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) of Latin American
countries destined to the U.S. research and education community aggregate at the Sao Paulo
exchange point, to then transit across the LILA-East link.
Figure 87 shows how the Brazilian HEP clusters (HEPGrid in Rio and SPRACE in Sao Paulo)
reach the WHREN-LILA termination point in Sao Paulo, via RNP and ANSP respectively. To
fully utilize the upgraded WHREN-LILA circuit the Brazilian partners have made upgrades to
their networks. SPRACE now has a 1 GbE dedicated bandwidth (which can burst up to 1.5 Gbps)
over a pair of CWDM connecting its cluster and the WHREN-LILA Cisco ONS 15454. HEPgrid
has a dedicated 1GbE connection traversing RNP backbone to reach WHREN-LILA ONS switch
in Sao Paulo.
Limitations with the Cisco ONS bandwidth management functions have not facilitated all
research traffic flows to achieve full port speed. HEPGrid in Rio, while connected at 1 Gbps port
speed, has not been able to achieve more than 600Mbps. A workaround is being implemented to
augment the capabilities of the Cisco ONS that should allow HEPGrid to transmit flows at port
speed. A series of tests will be conducted by the CHEPREO collaboration to validate this
workaround solution until a permanent solution is implemented that removes the limitations of
the current optical equipment.
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