Publications

Abstract not provided.

Sandia networks consist of nearly nine hundred routers and switches and nearly one million lines of command code, and each line ideally contributes to the capabilities of the network to convey information from one location to another. Sandia's Cyber Infrastructure Development and Deployment organizations recognize that it is therefore essential to standardize network configurations and enforce conformance to industry best business practices and documented internal configuration standards to provide a network that is agile, adaptable, and highly available. This is especially important in times of constrained budgets as members of the workforce are called upon to improve efficiency, effectiveness, and customer focus. Best business practices recommend using the standardized configurations in the enforcement process so that when root cause analysis results in recommended configuration changes, subsequent configuration auditing will improve compliance to the standard. Ultimately, this minimizes mean time to repair, maintains the network security posture, improves network availability, and enables efficient transition to new technologies. Network standardization brings improved network agility, which in turn enables enterprise agility, because the network touches all facets of corporate business. Improved network agility improves the business enterprise as a whole.

Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) has been a mainstay of the both the Internet and corporate networks for delivering network packets to the desired destination. However, rapid proliferation of network appliances, evolution of corporate networks, and the expanding Internet has begun to stress the limitations of the protocol. Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is the replacement protocol that overcomes the constraints of IPv4. As the emerging Internet network protocol, SNL needs to prepare for its eventual deployment in international, national, customer, and local networks. Additionally, the United States Office of Management and Budget has mandated that IPv6 deployment in government network backbones occurs by 2008. This paper explores the readiness of the Sandia National Laboratories network backbone to support IPv6, the issues that must be addressed before a deployment begins, and recommends the next steps to take to comply with government mandates. The paper describes a joint work effort of the Sandia National Laboratories ASC WAN project team and members of the System Analysis & Trouble Resolution, the Communication & Network Systems, and Network System Design & Implementation Departments.

Telecommunication services customers at the Radioactive Waste and Nuclear Material Disposition Facility (RWNMDF) have endured regular service outages that seem to be associated with a custom Microsoft Access Database. In addition, the same customers have noticed periods when application response times are noticeably worse than at others. To the customers, the two events appear to be correlated. Although many network design activities can be accomplished using trial-and-error methods, there are as many, if not more occasions where computerized analysis is necessary to verify the benefits of implementing one design alternative versus another. This is particularly true when network design is performed with application flows and response times in mind. More times than not, it is unclear whether upgrading certain aspects of the network will provide sufficient benefit to justify the corresponding costs, and network modeling tools can be used to help staff make these decisions. This report summarizes our analysis of the situation at the RWNMDF, in which computerized analysis was used to accomplish four objectives: (1) identify the source of the problem; (2) identify areas where improvements make the most sense; (3) evaluate various scenarios ranging from upgrading the network infrastructure, installing an additional fiber trunk as a way to improve local network performance, and re-locating the RWNMDF database onto corporate servers; and (4) demonstrate a methodology for network design using actual application response times to predict, select, and implement the design alternatives that provide the best performance and cost benefits.

Abstract not provided.