Conference 7.286::fddi

24.0. "VERY LARGE extended LANs/Food for thought!" by DWOVAX::LICAUSE (Al Licause) Mon Jan 08 1990 17:30

I realise especially from the small number of entries in this conference
that FDDI implemention is very new and many questions of configurations,
load, and other related topics will be partial speculation partial theory
for a time, but I'd like to add something that one of our large customers
is about to do to stimulate some of this thinking!?

DuPont currently has several large data centers in the Wilmington, Delaware
area.  They also have a ring of single mode fiber, consisting of between
12 and 40 fiber strands per site, supplied by the local Telco, which they
collectivly call WIN (Wilmington Information Network).  It is currently
used as a data path for NET mux's to carry all forms of voice and data
traffic.

They are about to undergo a data center consolidation, such that three of
the major sites will be eliminated and all VAX equipment will be moved to
a single site.  Unfortunately, the users will remain where they are.

The first site to be moved this summer supports some 1200 registered ALL-IN-1
users, of which about 1/3 to 1/2 are concurrent.  Along with this traffic
include many MAC's using Alisa Talk, IBM PC's and clones using DECnet-DOS
and a hand full of VAX workstations.  One additional site is conciderably
larger, consisting of four departmental VAXclusters plus....!

For starters, they are looking at a Fibronics 8400 product to allow them
not only to bridge Ethernet to FDDI, but to convert the multimode to
single mode path, to allow they to use the existing fiber and to span
the distances.  Fibronics claims that this unit will allow supported
distances of up to 40Km.

There are many within DuPont that feel this move is not only premature, but
a bad idea altogether.  Others state that it worked well for IBM and thus
should work for DEC.  We have pointed out that the differences in terminal
I/O alone are causes for concern.

DuPont frowns upon using smaller (3xxx systems) for local boot and server
nodes.


Questions:

	Is this what FDDI was intended to do?

	What potential problems does anyone forsee in this scenario?

	Was FDDI meant to be the primary pipe for all traffic including LAT?

	With the introduction of FDDI, we now have a much greater potential
	for multi-area LANs!  How will this effect Phase IV?
			      How will this effect Phase IV/V transitions?

	From previous discussions, this appears to be an ideal situation
	for a nightmare in LAN managment!    COMMENTS?

	On further thought, what these folks are creating are multiple
    	management entities; the data center and the remote LAN left
    	to handle the users and their PC/workstations!  Remote management
    	tools of remote LANs will be critical!  Are the current products
    	robust enough to handle this?
    
    
This customer is looking to DEC for answers to these questions and they
are looking now!  I would assume other customers will be looking to us
for similar answers.

We will need guidelines for FDDI configurations....do's and don'ts!

			!!!!!!  HELP !!!!!!

Al

    Very timely note....Just met yesterday with a major semiconductor
    manufacturer who has a major campus in Austin.  They are looking to tie
    the buildings together with fiber because the traffic on the NI is
    getting to be a problem..  
    
    They dont want to build new computer rooms in each building and move
    the systems right now....they are asking us (DEC) what should they do.
    I know its may not be appropriate in the notes conference but we need
    to tell the customer when to expect product and then decide the best
    course of action.....They know a lot about FDDI because they make
    the chips....but they don't make the end product and are looking to us
    to help make decisions.
    
    Any direction would help.
    
    Richard