Southern Partnership in
Advanced Networking Workshop
Southern Crossroads (SoX)
Cas D’Angelo
[email protected]
http://www.sox.net
Agenda
•What is the Southern Crossroads (SoX)
•How to connect to SoX
•SDN at SoX
•Other services
What is SoX?
•The Southern Crossroads started as a Gigapop
operating as part of the Southeastern Universities
Research Association (SURA) attaching universities
to the Very high-speed Backbone Network Service
(vBNS)
•Migrated to Abilene (the Internet2 network) within
2 years
•Southern Light Rail (SLR) [501(c)(3)] was formed to
manage National Lambda Rail (NLR) connectivity
•SoX was eventually moved to SLR to be managed
as a project
What is SoX
•SoX is a participant organization
•20 Current participants from 6 states
•Universities: Auburn University, University of Alabama, University of
Alabama at Birmingham, University of Alabama in Huntsville, Emory
University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia State University,
Morehouse School of Medicine, University of Georgia, Clemson
University, Medical University of South Carolina, University of South
Carolina, University of Tennessee, Vanderbilt Univeristy
•Federal Labs: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Oak Ridge
National Laboratory
•State networks: Georgia Board of Regents (Peachnet), Alabama
Supercomputer Authority
•Network peers: Florida Lambda Rail (FLR), Mid-Atlantic Research
Infrastructure Alliance (MARIA)
What is SoX
•Connectivity between POPs includes
connections from Internet2, MREN, and ORNL
•Research and Education (R&E) national
backbones: Internet2 and ESNet
•R&E global peerings: GLORIAD, RedClara,
AtlanticWave
•Regional peerings: ONEnet, LEARN, 3ROX,
MREN
How to connect to SoX
•SoX has low participation fees (currently $75k
annual)
•Our participants meet us at one or more of our
points of presence (POPs)
•Atlanta: 56 Marietta, 55 Marietta, 345 Courtland
•Nashville: 460 Metroplex Dr, 2990 Sidco Dr
•Dallas: 1950 N. Stemmons Fwy (Infomart), 400 S. Akard St
(Databank)
•SoX can help with middle mile and last mile
connectivity through partnerships with
participants and vendors
How to connect to SoX
•Connect through one of our participants:
•Georgia: Peachnet
•Florida: FLR
•Alabama: Alabama Supercomputer Authority
•Virginia: MARIA
•Other R&E networks:
•Mississippi: Mission
•Louisiana: LONI
•Texas: LEARN
How to connect to SoX
•Commercial providers
•AT&T, CenturyLink, Earthlink, Level3,
PalmettoNet, SCANA, Southern Light,
Sunesys, TowerCloud, TSIC, Windstream, Zayo
SDN at SoX
•GENI
•InstaGENI rack at 55 Marietta
•GENI switch at 56 Marietta
•Connects to Georgia Tech, Clemson, and
UT Chattanooga
SDN at SoX
•SDX IRNC project
•AtlanticWave – SDX
•Florida International University (FIU) and
Georgia Tech (GT)
•Distributed experimental Software-Defined
Exchange (SDX)
•Openflow focused exchange with
connectivity to South America for R&E
communities
Other services
•Commodity Internet
•Pricing arrangements with TSIC, CenturyLink,
Cogent, NTT, and Zayo
•Others by request (Level3)
•Commodity Peering
•TR-CPS
•Private peering: Akamai, Apple, Comcast,
Cox, Earthlink, Google, Netflix
•TIEX
•Backup ISP