UCLP Version 1

The first UCLP initiative investigated the development of software solutions for enabling users to control and manage their own network elements for the purposes of establishing End-to-End (E2E) lightpaths across those networks.

The UCLP Version 1 project was funded by CANARIE and performed in collaboration between the University of Ottawa and the Communications Research Centre (CRC).

Following the completion of the initial release of the software, Partnership agreements were signed with the I2cat Foundation from Barcelona Spain, and Inocybe Technologies Inc. from Montreal to help with the maintenance and further development of the software. With the great effort by our expanding team, we have been able to add new features, port UCLP to new network equipment and maintain a high level of quality for the software.

The software solution is based on services and technologies associated with the 3rd wave of the Internet. Web services and Jini technologies were combined in a fashion compliant with the emerging OGSA/OGSI standards being developed by the Grid community. The focus has been on the transport layer and the resulting solution is a working product that allows users to control, manage, partition and advertise their lightpaths across an optical network.

This project has been possible because of funding from CANARIE's Directed Research Program. The objective of the program is to act as a catalyst to Canada's becoming a world leader in the design, development, delivery, and use of technology for user control of lightpaths on high-speed networks. CANARIE is Canada's advanced Internet organization and is supported by the Federal Government of Canada. For more information about CANARIE, please visit www.canarie.ca.

UCLP Version 2

CANARIE provided a second round of funding via their Directed Research Program to provide extended functionality to UCLP.

UCLPv2 is extending UCLP with the use of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and workflow technologies. These new technologies of web services workflow and/or orchestration, that were originally conceived for eBusiness applications were be used as the underpinning architectural framework for extending UCLP to allow the interconnection of instruments, time slices and sensors and for incorporating virtual routers and switches. Specifically, Web Services Description Language (WSDL) and Work flow languages such as Business Process Engineering Language (BPEL) are the implementation tools for such a reference framework.

The goal of the project it to create a set of virtualized network resources that can be orchestrated into BPEL workflows to create Articulated Private Networks (APNs). End users will be able to control and managed their APNs using a Graphical User Interface built on Eclipse RCP technology that is both familiar and very easy to use and will never have to see or write any BPEL workflow source code.

Once again, the project was performed in collaboration with the Communications Research Centre, the I2cat Foundation in Barcelona, Inocybe Technologies Inc., and the University of Ottawa.

UCLP Community Edition

The final installment of UCLP is referred to as the UCLP Community Edition. This version was initiated by Inocybe Technologies Inc., in collaboration with the Communications Research Centre and the I2cat Foundation.

The goal of the UCLP CE was to improve robustness and scalablility and installation of the existing UCLPv2. Robustness and scalability were improved by adding new services to poll and synchronize the resources at the different layers as well as tightening the exiting services. Installation was drastically improved by turning UCLP into a software appliance. A Software appliance combines the software application (UCLP) and a stream lined version of an operating system (Rpath Linux) that readily installs on a server or PC in the same way that a standard distribution of Linux is installed.

Future of UCLP

With the completion of UCLP CE, and the end of research funding such as CANARIE's Directed Research Program, UCLP must start paying it's own way. Inocybe Technologies Inc., the Communications Research Centre and I2cat Foundation are creating a commercial version of UCLP called Argia^tm. The aim of Argia^tm is to create a Resource Management System (RMS) to help Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) providers manage their shared infrastructures. Argia^tm is once again based on a software appliance provided by Rpath Linux but will also offer support and maintenance and automatic update capabilities. To separate Argia^tm from the research oriented UCLP, the grid services are being re-developed to provide an even more stable, functional and scalable platform to manage and control optical networks. Although the full Argia^tm system will be sold for a fee, research and education licenses are available at no cost for valid research projects. For more information on Argia^tm, please visit www.inocybe.ca.