News for and about the Internet2 community

["Lauren Rotman" <>]

Industry and Research Heavyweights Collaborate to Demonstrate Data Transport
Capability at SC07

High-Performance Computing and Communications Organizations Pool
Capabilities to Support Vast Bandwidth Needs for Particle Physics and Other
Applications 

RENO, Nev., November 12, 2007 - A group of research and industry technology
leaders today announced two demonstrations at the SC07 Conference in Reno,
Nev. to show leading-edge capabilities designed for the high-bandwidth needs
of the research community worldwide. The demonstrations involve the
transport of large volumes of data at rates significantly in excess of 10
gigabits-per-second (Gbps) by infrastructure built to support the Large
Hadron Collider (LHC), over a 40 Gbps network and the use of Generalized
Multi Protocol Label Switching (GMPLS) User to Network Interface (UNI)
signaling between routers and optical systems to provision bandwidth on
demand.

"The cooperation between these leading technology organizations is a model
of collaboration that propels innovation. Our members from industry and the
research community are working together to push the technology boundaries so
scientific researchers can do things that would have been unimaginable ten
years ago," said Rick Summerhill, chief technology officer, Internet2.
"These demonstrations are exemplary of the benefits resulting from sharing
knowledge and resources to usher in the next wave of technological
advancements."

The first demonstration involves high-volume data transmission between Fermi
National Accelerator Laboratory's (Fermilab) LHC Tier 1 mass storage system
and the SC07 show floor over a wide-area 40 Gbps network infrastructure, the
highest-speed networking service available today.  The LHC Tier 1 will
transfer data at speeds significantly in excess of 10 Gbps to the LHC Tier 2
computational infrastructure in the Caltech booth on the SC07 show floor.

The second demonstration involves the use of Generalized Multi Protocol
Label Switching (GMPLS) User-to-Network Interface (UNI) signaling between
routers and optical systems to enable the optical and IP layers in the
network to work together for maximum intelligence, providing flexibility to
network users. 

Over the course of the two-day SC07 exhibition session, each participating
organization - Caltech, ESnet, Fermilab, Infinera, Internet2, Juniper
Networks, and Level 3 Communications - is leveraging its unique networking,
computation, and storage capabilities to support the demonstration. 

Demonstration participants include: 
- California Institute of Technology, a leading institution of higher
education and home to the first LHC Tier-2 center at Caltech's Center for
Advanced Computing Research, is using its latest computing cluster to
receive and  store multi-Terabyte volumes of data. The Caltech high energy
physics and network engineering teams, funded by the U.S. Department of
Energy and the National Science Foundation in the U.S. LHCNet and UltraLight
projects, are leading developers of high speed data transfers over long
distances and managing transatlantic networking in support of the LHC
physics program in conjunction with CERN and ESnet. The Caltech team will
deploy an open source Java application to allow stable reading and writing
of data with Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) at disk read/write speeds
over long distance networks. 

- ESnet, the Department of Energy's high-speed network providing
interoperable communications infrastructure to the U.S. national
laboratories and enabling the work thousands of scientists and collaborators
worldwide, is providing domestic connectivity for the demonstration through
its Chicago Area MAN, built in partnership with IWIRE (Illinois Wired
Infrastructure for Research and Education). Its new network, ESnet4, is
built specifically to support the requirements of large-scale scientific
research while improving the reliability of IP connectivity.

- Fermilab, a national laboratory funded by the Office of Science of the
U.S. Department of Energy and operated by the Fermi Research Alliance, LLC,
is the prime host site in the U.S. for data gathered by the CMS experiment
at the LHC in Geneva. The lab is simulating LHC CMS Tier-1 to Tier-2 data
movement by sending multiple 10 Gbps streams of data to the Chicago POP in
the Internet2 network to demonstrate the high bandwidth requirements and
capabilities of the facility. 

- Infinera, a leading provider of digital optical communications systems, is
deploying its optical systems to carry the data across the nationwide
Internet2 network. Infinera's Digital Optical Networking systems use
bandwidth virtualization to enable 40 Gbps services to travel over existing
optical infrastructures, including those designed for 10 Gbps services. With
integrated bandwidth management and GMPLS-powered service intelligence,
Infinera systems are able to provide a wide range of GMPLS features and
interoperability with Juniper routers.

- Internet2, focused largely on the investigation and implementation of
leading edge network technology including 40 Gbps to support its members'
future bandwidth needs, is providing the flexible, scalable network to
enable the large scale data transfer. By implementing the 40 Gbps solution
on its backbone for the demonstration, Internet2's network will act as a
test bed to drive the development of new bandwidth services and improve
general knowledge surrounding emerging technologies. 

- Juniper Networks, the leader in high performance networking, is providing
the Juniper Networks T640 and new T1600 multi-terabit routers to handle the
Fermi Lab LHC traffic on either side of the optical transport network. The
traffic will initially pass to the Infinera optical transport gear in
Chicago before arriving at SC07. The data transfer will use 40 Gbps-capable
OC-768 interfaces designed to address the increased bandwidth and
collaboration demands of the research and multimedia communities.

- Level 3 Communications, an international communications company operating
one of the largest Internet backbones in the world, is offering supporting
services for the high bandwidth demonstrations. As an active member of the
research and education community, Level 3 provides connectivity solutions
that are highly focused on enabling innovation and collaboration across the
community.

Media Contacts:
California Institute of Technology
Jill Perry
626 395 3226


ESnet
Jon Bashor
510 501 2230

 

Infinera
Jeff Ferry 
650 273 2100


Internet2
Lauren Rotman
202 331 5345

 

Juniper Networks
Cindy Ta
408 936 6131


For additional information about participating demonstration organizations,
please visit:

http://www.caltech.edu/ 
http://www.es.net/ 
http://www.fnal.gov/
http://www.infinera.com
http://www.internet2.edu/
http://www.juniper.net/
http://www.level3.com/ 

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