Addressing the challenges that new and inexperienced network operators face when dealing with internet BGP routing, the NBONE project provides one of the most accurate simulations of the internet routing as it happens in the real world.

In the technical side of the internet, there are countless numbers of bright network operators who are playing important roles in the successful growth of their company's network infrastructure. The Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), which routes the Internet, is something in which any network operator is pretty much aware of. In fact, many operators have been forced to train themselves on how to configure BGP on their network, in order to get multihomed to the Internet.

For most people, when they get their first-hand experience in BGP, it all seems so easy and quite intriguing. However, the reality of truth is, BGP provides a lot of options where an average network operator only uses less than 25% of all BGP features. This becomes very apparent when a single-POP, single-rack network suddenly grows into a multi-POP, inter-city spanning backbone infrastructure, where the complexity of BGP increases drastically.

Many first-timers who have gone through the pain of expanding their network under the pressure of guaranteeing minimal impact to customers would tell you, they probably wanted an environment where they could practice everything they wanted to know about internet routing beforehand.

The NBONE project is an experimental internet, consisting of participating member networks. Unlike many BGP training platforms, NBONE is not intended to teach its participants how BGP routing works. NBONE's target membership is in fact designated for network engineers who already possess a working level of BGP knowledge. In NBONE's experimental Internet, there are networks that provide transit service to reach other networks just like in the real Internet, and there are networks that globally span multiple countries to provide reachability around the globe.

This unique model of providing an experimental internet infrastructure allows NBONE participants to experiment, test, and share the knowledge of best practice inter-AS routing policies surrounding the use of BGP, including peering procedures and routing economics. By providing this thorough and diverse architecture, NBONE aims to promote the best practices of Internet routing to its participants and the general public.

Outline and Diagrams

To read more about the NBONE architecture, an outline is available at the URL below.

NBONE Outline

The NBONE community will also provide regional peering points, where participants can interconnect and peer with other networks by means of the internet exchange. More information about the NBONE-IX (NBIX) exchange is at the URL below.

NBIX Overview

Implementation Schedule and Project Funding

The NBONE project will be an OCCAID funded program (Contract Number #DS1012), to be supported under the Membership Programs Budget in 2006. Working with OCCAID's membership and partners, NBIX experimental internet exchange points and base infrastructure will be fully opened for public participation by Q2-2006.

New updates to the NBONE project will be posted on this web page. If you wish to inquire more information about NBONE or would like to participate, please email nbone-admin [at] occaid.org.