News for and about the Internet2 community

["Debbie Montano" <>]

SC06 Bandwidth Challenge: End-to-End Achievement
Bridging the Hero Gap
Bandwidth Challenge Call for Participation

10 Gbps network links are becoming ever more prevalent; however,
achieving data rates close to 10 Gbps or even 1 Gbps across those high
bandwidth networks is still unattainable by most users.  

Bold, ingenious network engineers, via their heroic efforts, have
demonstrated creative applications utilizing exceptionally high data
rates across one and numerous 10 Gbps links, in past years Bandwidth
Challenge competitions.  These networking heroes can now accomplish
massive bandwidth utilization on a rather consistent basis, which is
quite impressive.

But what about all those scientist and researchers who do not have their
own personal networking hero handy to help them achieve high bandwidth
utilization?  What about all those important users who have vast amounts
of data they need to access and share, who can't get into the fast lane?


This year the Bandwidth Challenge will focus on Bridging the Hero Gap.
That is, bridging the gap between what can be achieved by networking
heroes and what can be achieved by the average researcher with access to
high speed networks.  We've put these great networks in place, now let's
make sure everyone can use them to the fullest extent.

This is a Call for Participation in the Bandwidth Challenge at SC06.
The intention is that your participation not only will benefit your home
institution, but that your example will serve as a model for other
institutions to follow.

To enter the Bandwidth Challenge, please submit your entry, by August
31, 2006, at: 
http://www.sc-submissions.org

The Challenge this year is: Can you fully utilize one 10 Gig path,
end-to-end, disk-to-disk, from SC06 in Tampa back to your home
institution, using the actual production network back home? Can you
realize, demonstrate and publish all the configuration, troubleshooting,
tuning and policies, not only to show off at SC06, but to leave a legacy
at your home institution whereby your scientists can achieve the same
results after you?

Bandwidth Challenge entries will be judged on a number of criteria,
including:

- Support of science mission:
   o    How important is the application to the scientific community it
supports?
   o    What is the potential impact of this application?
   o    How will this application enable or enhance the science?
- Use of production network at your home institution:
   o    To what degree are you using the normal production network at
your home institution, versus a specialized setup which bypasses your
normal network and security infrastructure?
   o    How much of the configuration and path will remain after SC06?
   o    To what extent do users at your home institution have access to
the same infrastructure and same bandwidth utilization results?
- Serving as a Model
   o    What lessons learned and advice can you share?
   o    What documentation and web pages did you create to communicate
how your success was achieved, how others can understand and emulate
your model.
- Efficient Bandwidth Utilization - maximum 1 x 10 Gbps
   o    How much total bandwidth utilizing can you achieve on a 1 x 10
Gbps link as compared to the bandwidth available to you?  Note that we
will make an effort to take into account (to a reasonable extent) the
background traffic on shared links/networks with which your application
must compete.
- Innovative use of protocols
   o    Use of innovative and fair TCP and non-TCP implementations.
   o    Use of emerging or underutilized technologies such as IPv6.
- End-to-end, disk-to-disk applications
   o    How well does your application put all the pieces together,
including going to/from disk?  The "disk-to-disk" criteria is not meant
to discourage or rule out applications where the natural endpoint for
data is not disk, as in visualization applications.

The data throughput amounts will be verified using high performance
monitoring gear provided by Spirent Communications(r), via network taps
provided by Net Optics(r). Qwest Communications(r) is sponsoring and
providing the award prize and Force10 Networks(r) is providing the
high-density 10GigE switch at the nexus of the Bandwidth Challenge for
SC06.

The deadline for submitting a full entry to the Bandwidth Challenge is
August 31, 2006. Please make all submissions through the following
website: www.sc-submissions.org

Prior to making your full submission, please communicate your intent to
participate in the Bandwidth Challenge as soon as you know your plans,
via an e-mail to 
.

Helps us Bridge the Hero Gap and make the Bandwidth Challenge a success
by having your heroes share their networking genius.   

For more information, please contact: 



Debbie Montano
SC06 Bandwidth Challenge Lead

Debbie Montano
Director of Research & Education Alliances
Force10 Networks, Inc.