A
dynamic circuit network (
DCN) is an advanced computer networking technology that combines traditional packet-switched communication based on the
Internet ProtocolThe Internet Protocol is the principal communications protocol used for relaying datagrams across an internetwork using the Internet Protocol Suite...
, as used in the
InternetThe Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
, with circuit-switched technologies that are characteristic of traditional
telephone networkA telephone network is a telecommunications network used for telephone calls between two or more parties.There are a number of different types of telephone network:...
systems. This combination allows user-initiated ad-hoc dedicated allocation of network bandwidth for high-demand, real-time applications and network services, delivered over an
optical fiberAn optical fiber is a flexible, transparent fiber made of a pure glass not much wider than a human hair. It functions as a waveguide, or "light pipe", to transmit light between the two ends of the fiber. The field of applied science and engineering concerned with the design and application of...
infrastructure.
Implementation
Dynamic circuit networks were pioneered by the
Internet2Internet2 is an advanced not-for-profit US networking consortium led by members from the research and education communities, industry, and government....
advanced networking consortium. The experimental Internet2 HOPI infrastructure, decommissioned in 2007, was a forerunner to the current
SONETSonet may refer to:* Sonet Records, European record label* Synchronous optical networking * Saab Sonett...
-based Ciena Network underlying the Internet2 DCN. The Internet2 DCN began operation in late 2007 as part of the larger Internet2 network. It provides advanced networking capabilities and resources to the scientific and research communities, such as the
Large Hadron ColliderThe Large Hadron Collider is the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator. It is expected to address some of the most fundamental questions of physics, advancing the understanding of the deepest laws of nature....
(LHC) project.
The Internet2 DCN is based on open-source, standards-based software, the Inter-domain Controller (IDC) protocol, developed in cooperation with ESnet and
GÉANT2GÉANT2 is the seventh generation of pan-European research and education network, successor to the pan-European multi-gigabit research network GÉANT. The project within which the network is funded began officially on 1 September 2004, and is due to run for four years.The GÉANT2 network provides...
. The entire software set is known as the Dynamic Circuit Network Software Suite (DCN SS).
Inter-domain Controller protocol
The Inter-domain Controller protocol manages the dynamic provisioning of network resources participating in a dynamic circuit network across multiple administrative domain boundaries. It is a
SOAPSOAP, originally defined as Simple Object Access Protocol, is a protocol specification for exchanging structured information in the implementation of Web Services in computer networks...
-based
XMLExtensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
messaging protocol, secured by
Web Services SecurityWS-Security is a flexible and feature-rich extension to SOAP to apply security to web services. It is a member of the WS-* family of web service specifications and was published by OASIS....
(v1.1) using the XML Digital Signature standard. It is transported over HTTP Secure (HTTPS) connections.
External links