The mission of the Interoperability Lab is to build flexible and interconnected nodal configurations consisting of multi-vendor ATM, IP, TDM, SDH, and DWDM equipment including fixed and mobile access points. It allows the user to systematically assess the impact of nodal and access configurations and hardware/software elements on users.

The Lab design is based on a five-island configuration: Internet Protocol (IP), Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), Legacy, Optical Networking and Wireless. These networking islands encompass all the possible base telecommunications technologies and include a Photonic Lab in which students, faculty, equipment manufacturers, and network operators can reliably test new theories and methodologies without impacting production networks and facilities. Within the lab, we are developing base methodologies for testing between heterogeneous networks, network application testing and configuration, plus a myriad of other design and security related projects.

Interoperability Lab Islands

• IP-Islands - Cabletron, Cisco, Entrasys, Foundry
  • GigE (SM, MM)
  • 100BaseT
  • 10BaseT
  • R11 (Telephone set)
• ATM Island - Cabletron, Cisco, Riverstone, Stratacom
  • ATM OC3 (MM)
  • ATM DS1, DS-3
  • Frame Relay DS1
  • Circuit Emulation DS1
• Interconnection
  • Optical (MM, SM)
  • Wired (CAT5, CAT5E, CAT6)
• Legacy Island - Lucent, Nortel
  • Nortel DMS-10
  • Nortel Meridian PBX
  • Carrier Access TDM
• Optics-Island - Ciena K2, Lucent WaveStar OLS-40G, DACSII, Notrel OC192
  • Optical DWDM Link Simulators
  • Optical DWDM Net Simulators
  • DS0, DS1, DS3, OC3 (SM, MM), OC12 (SM), OC192 (SM, OLS), NextGen SONET/SDH, Gig-E, 10Gig-E
• Photonics Lab
  • Component Level Resrach
• Wireless Island - Cisco, TeraBeam
  • GigE (FSO)
  • OC3 (FSO)
  • 802.11x

Major Reserach Capabilities and Instruments

     Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP)
          Research Goals and Objectives
               Interoperability Testing of VoIP protocols and equipment
                    Develop
                    • Applications over VoIP
                    Evaluate
                    • CODEC Performance
                    • Networks and Protocols
                    • QoS, NAT implications
                    Test
                    • VoIP over wireless
                    • Traffic volume impacts

     Legacy Time Division Switches
          Research Goals and Objectives
               Interoperability Testing of VoIP protocols and equipment
                    Develop
                    • Test techniques
                    Evaluate
                    • Evaluate SS7 capabilities
                    Test
                    • Interoperability

     Optical Test Bed
          Research Goals and Objectives
               Net dynamic traffic balancing and reconfiguration
               Net protection (link, node, service)
               Physical layer studies and security
               Fault management (link, node, service)
               Network topologies
                    Develop
                    • Mesh Ring topologies
                    • Integrate with FSO and wireless
                    Evaluate
                    • Traffic, switching, protection
                    Test
                    • Efficiency and performance

     Photonics Area
          Research Goals and Objectives
               Photonic devices, components, and sub-systems for optical communications and information processing.
                    Develop
                    • Free-space optical communiations
                    • Advanced display technologies, analog fiber optics for avionics applications, and optical security techniques.
                    Evaluate
                    • Effects of optial interference on free-space optical communications
                    • Suitability of wavelength-divisioin-multiplexing techniques for high-bandwidth analog signal transmission.
                    Test
                    • RF & optical spectrum analysis; optical polarization analysis; optical power measurement; waveform analysis.