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MREN has its primary connectivity site at the StarLight facility, which
has been designed and developed as the next generation Science, Technology and
Research Transit Access Point (STAR TAP).
The following information focuses on connectivity to Abilene at
StarLight.
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MREN has announced new
routers that are in place and operational, along with a new Gigabit
Ethernet link for MREN to Abilene.
MREN's equipment is now co-located at the new StarLight (http://www.startap.net/starlight) facility at
710 North Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, Illinois.
As of 1 January 2002 this new MREN Gigabit Ethernet link to Abilene became
functional. This link is part of the new advanced network service that was
designed by the MREN community in 2001. In 2002, MREN and Abilene
eliminated the existing direct ATM peering.
MREN's Autonomous System 22335 acts as an Abilene
"Connector." See http://www.internet2.edu/abilene/html/connecting.html
for the detailed background information. In summary, MREN's
AS 22335 aggregates the BGP sessions of all MREN participants and
presenting them as a unified set of advertisements to Abilene. This model is
the standard one for GigaPOps followed by other regional Abilene connections.
In addition, MREN's AS 22335 is tightly coupled to the StarLight (http://www.startap.net/starlight) international exchange service.
Appropriate StarLight routes are advertised by MREN, and vice versa. MREN
members that already have a peering with Starlight (AS 10764) are being asked to
transition that peering over to MREN (AS 22335) at 710 North Lake Shore Drive.
MREN already peers with StarLight.
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How to Establish a New Peering with
MREN's AS 22335
Here is information on how to establish a new peering with MREN's AS 22335:
1) Allocate a /30 address block from your existing address space. The low
address will be used on your router, and the high address will be used on the
MREN router. For example, if you allocate 192.5.170.208/30. The first usable
address in that block is 192.5.170.209, and that address will be used on your router. The second usable address in
that block is 192.5.170.210, and that address will be used on the MREN router.
2) Configure your border router with an ATM subinterface for use with MREN. That subinterface should run PIM
Sparse Mode and have an MTU of 9180 bytes. The AADS NAP ATM VPI/VCI is 4/62.
3) Compose an email note and send it to to
noc@mren.org .
The Subject: line should be "MREN Peering with <Institution> (AS
<AS Number>)" [Example: "MREN Peering with Argonne (AS
683)"]. That email should include:
- the ATM VPI/VCI that you normally tell AADS NAP peers to use
-
to peer with you (this to cross-check our information and, in
some cases, to be sure we're using your preferred AADS NAP
connection),
-
the IP prefixes you expect to advertise to MREN,
-
the /30 address space you allocated in step 1 above,
-
the IP address of your PIM Rendezvous Point for MSDP peering,
any changes/updates to http://www.mren.org/mrentech.htm
for your
institution,
and a statement that you've set up your router (and ATM switch(es)
if necessary).
4) Within 2 business days we will respond to your email reporting whether we can ping your side of the AADS
NAP ATM PVC. That email will have information added to the subject line so
responses go
directly to the trouble ticket tracking system. If necessary we will work with
you to debug this part of the configuration.
5) Set up MSDP and BGP peerings with the MREN router. The MREN router's
MSDP address is 206.220.241.254. The MREN router's BGP Autonomous System number
is 22335. You should prefer the MREN routes over any commercial ISP service, probably using BGP Local Preference settings.
6) Email noc@abilene.iu.edu and request that Abilene pad the AS PATH for routes
advertised to you on the direct ATM peering. This will cause your router to
prefer MREN rather than the direct path, but to fall back to the direct Abilene
ATM peering if MREN breaks.
7) Wait a couple of weeks to make sure everything works as expected.
8) Send email to noc@abilene.iu.edu telling Abilene that you're finished
with the direct ATM PVC peering. Abilene will then turn off their side of the
peering and you can remove that configuration from your
border router (and ATM switch(es) if necessary).
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