As Q4 2012 ends and 2013 begins, the UNH-IOL will enter its 25th year. In 1988, the needs of two competitive companies to work together to their mutual benefit helped form the InterOperability Laboratory. Since then, the thousands of companies partnering with the UNH-IOL all have benefited from this collaborative experiment between industry and academia. Our members in 1988 would easily recognize the UNH-IOL today as the same student-powered phenomena, fueled by the support of industry leaders to support the development of interoperable standards; of services to validate the conformance and interoperability of such standards; and, equally importantly, helping to apprentice the next generation of industry professionals.
The InterOp Insider
Fibre Channel: A Quarter Century of Reliable Storage
By Jamie Bilodeau - January 23, 2013
For just under a year I have been working for the UNH-IOL within the Fibre Channel Consortium. Fibre Channel (FC) is a high-speed network technology for transferring data. Fibre channel is considered to be fast (most commonly at 2, 4 and 8 gigabit per second speeds) and highly reliable, making it ideal for Storage Area Networks (SANs). The storage components that make up an FC system are invisible to the servers, which simply enjoy direct access to a pool of storage.
Wanted: High School Students Interested in Technology
By - January 14, 2013
Part of the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Lab's (UNH-IOL) mission is to attract students to, and educate them for, future employment in cutting-edge technologies. We believe that this process should start early before students even enter college. Each summer the UNH-IOL recruits bright, ambitious high school students entering their senior year for a seven week paid internship at our state-of-the-art networking facility.
Big Shoes to Fill
By Jeremy Hochschwender - January 4, 2013
My name is Jeremy Hochschwender, and I work in the Mobile Industry Processor Interface (MIPI) consortium at the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Lab (UNH-IOL). I'm a freshman at UNH, pursuing a degree in Electrical Engineering. My experience with the UNH-IOL started before I came to UNH. As a senior in high school, I looked at a lot of schools; the key thing I looked for was real world experience. I originally had no intention of going to UNH, as I didn't think that they had any programs that could compete with the co-ops that many other engineering schools offer today. One can imagine my surprise when I discovered the UNH-IOL. It was the perfect setup for me, as it would allow me to gain work experience within the industry just down the street from campus.
Stay Calm it's Only IPv6
By Timothy Winters - December 13, 2012
The amount of devices connecting to the global internet is growing on a daily basis. New products are constantly communicating with each other to provide a better user experience. Running shoes connect to a wireless network to upload speed and distance. Automated temperature and light controls communicate with a central system of a building to keep the cost of energy down. Virtual machines allow for several operating systems to run on the same piece of hardware, thus driving down maintenance costs.
Remotely Testing iSCSI Targets
By - December 7, 2012
Test tool innovation is one of the major reasons for the success of the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Lab (UNH-IOL). Many consortia use some form of automation in their testing procedures, as intern Boo Strachan discussed in a previous blog post . In the Internet Small Computer Systems Interface (iSCSI) consortium, automation has been heavily emphasized throughout the test plan and test tool development process. Automated testing scripts have been written to emulate the behavior of an iSCSI initiator and iSCSI target device. Detailed results from tests are automatically formatted and written to file to later be reviewed by lab technicians. As the iSCSI standard is updated, test plans and test tools are also subsequently updated and new features are added in order to keep testing simple, effective, and up to date. Many of the tools developed and maintained in house are used exclusively by student technicians who perform daily tests within their group. It is becoming increasingly common, however, for consortia to make these tools available to their members. In the last couple of years, the iSCSI consortium has developed a remote testing tool that allows members to test an iSCSI Target, at their location, between normal testing reservations. While the majority of testing happens within the walls of the UNH-IOL facility, the iSCSI consortium's IP-based remote test tool offers a unique opportunity to allow companies to perform our two most popular target test suites without ever having to leave the comfort of their own facility.
Utilizing the USGv6 Test Program to meet IPv6 goals
By Timothy Winters - November 27, 2012
The need for IPv6 has been recognized since the early '90's, but the transition has proved to be much easier said than done. The United States Government (USG) aimed to make all of their external services - websites, email, DNS, etc. - accessible over IPv6 by September 2012. The Federal IPv6 Working Group has aided many agencies in their efforts to plan the transition. This required analysis of the new servers and the functions necessary to turn them on, as well as discussion about whether the current load balancer supported IPv6, and whether firewalls could still protect the new network after a simple firmware upgrade.
Interested in touring the UNH-IOL but not sure where to start?
By Samantha Martell - November 19, 2012
The University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL) staff is always open to providing a tour for visitors. We encourage you to make an appointment in advance. If you find you are here for a plugfest or just in the area visiting the lovely UNH campus, we do welcome walk-in visitors so don't hesitate to stop by, we will do our best to accommodate you. Read more....
NVMe - Removing the Performance Bottleneck on SSDs
By Raju Mishra - November 9, 2012
SATA has served the PC industry well for a long time, and is a great solution for spinning media storage. As the industry moves to hybrid and solid-state storage however, SATA is stressed to provide the same value. With SATA Express entering the market, it appears that PCIe will become the dominant physical layer transport for storage. Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) is a technology that streamlines access to SSDs. Today, SSD performance is hampered by the 6G SATA PHY and the SATA protocol, which was designed for spinning media. NVMe takes advantages of the multi-lane PCIe PHY, and defines an interface designed with SSDs in mind. In this article NVM Express and SATA are compared, along with the involvement of PCIe with NVMe.
Preparing for Growth in the Digital Home...
By Suzanne Snow - October 9, 2012
Hello, My name is Suzanne Snow and I am the Marketing and Communications Manager at the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL). Recently, Tim Sheehan and I had the experience of attending the Digital Home Summit, co-located at the FTTH Conference in Dallas, Texas. This was the UNH-IOL's first year attending the summit. Tim Sheehan, Operations Manager of Broadband Technologies presented on a panel along with Brain Henrichs, VP of Business Development at Actiontec. They discussed the newest tools for the next generation of home networking, specifically the Broadband Forums BBF.069 certification program and the IPv6 Ready CE Router Logo program. These programs are critical tools for operators and users in order to ensure conformance to standards and interoperability. The TR-069 protocol enables service providers to communicate with customer premises equipment to better manage and troubleshoot within the digital home.