News for and about the Internet2 community

[Lauren Rotman <>]

U.S. Research Networks Link Scientists to Large Hadron Collider

ESnet, Internet2 and USLHCNet Provide Critical Link For Petabits Per  
Day of Data to U.S. Scientists Participating in the Large Hadron  
Collider Research

ANN ARBOR, Mich; PASADENA, Calif.; BERKELEY, Calif. — September 10,  
2008 — Today marked the first-ever attempt to circulate a beam of  
subatomic particles around the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a gigantic  
particle accelerator spanning the French-Swiss border. The event  
represents a major milestone along the path towards a new  
understanding of the fundamental nature and origins of the universe.

When the LHC officially begins its experiments, multiple terabytes of  
data per second will flow out of Europe via fiber optic cables to  
thousands of researchers spread across the globe, including over 1700  
in the United States. This experiment will significantly increase the  
amount of data that the U.S. scientific community must transport and  
manage.

Fortunately, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Energy Sciences  
Network (ESnet), Internet2, the country’s leading research and  
education network, and USLHCNet, which provides transatlantic network  
connectivity from the LHC facility to the United States have prepared  
for moving the massive amounts of data to U.S. sites where scientists  
can analyze the information.

These organizations have worked closely together to aggressively  
deploy the most advanced networks with enough bandwidth and  
capabilities to reliably transport multiple streams of 10 Gigabits of  
information per second – the equivalent of transmitting 500 hours of  
digital music per second for each 10 Gigabit line. The LHC will be the  
first experiment to fully utilize the advanced capabilities of these  
networks, which will connect DOE national laboratories and university  
researchers across the country to the LHC data.

“The science environment of today is very different from that of a few  
years ago. The advanced networks of ESnet, Internet2 and USLHCNet will  
provide the high-speed, extremely reliable connectivity between U.S.  
laboratories, universities and the international research institutions  
required to support the inherently collaborative, global nature of  
modern large-scale science,” said Steve Cotter, department head for  
ESnet.

Initially, the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN), which  
manages the LHC, will store the experiments’ data. The information  
will then traverse the GÉANT2 network and migrate across the Atlantic  
Ocean via fiber optics, on a network called USLHCNet, which was  
developed and deployed by the researchers at the California Institute  
of Technology in Pasadena, California. The LHC will generate many  
petabytes of data during each year of operation, and will accumulate  
an exabyte of real and simulated data within the first decade of its  
estimated 20 years of operation. The data will be distributed for  
processing among 150 computing and data storage facilities around the  
world, and will be analyzed intensively, and repeatedly as physicists  
and students refine their analysis methods and respond to any emerging  
discoveries.

“As a physicist who has been preparing for the LHC for nearly fifteen  
years, I am extremely excited about the milestone we have reached  
today in circulating the first beams at the LHC,” said Harvey Newman,  
Professor of Physics at the California Institute of Technology. “The  
advanced networking and cyberinfrastructure resources created through  
partnerships among ESnet, Internet2 and USLHCNet make it possible for  
myself and my colleagues across the country to participate in the LHC  
experiments – which we believe will change scientific history.”

Like virtual Ellis Islands, two high-performance exchange points, MAN  
LAN in New York City and Starlight in Chicago, will be the U.S. entry  
points for LHC data. From there, ESnet will deliver data from the  
LHC’s ATLAS detector to The Brookhaven National Laboratory, in Upton,  
New York where it will be processed and stored. Meanwhile, data from  
the LHC’s CMS detector will go to the Fermi National Accelerator  
Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois, for processing and storage. From  
these laboratories, ESnet and Internet2 together with its regional  
network partners will distribute the data among 1700 U.S. scientists  
at 94 institutions throughout the country participating in this  
massive project, many of whom are supported by the DOE’s Office of  
Science and the National Science Foundation. Internet2 and ESnet  
officially launched a partnership in 2006 to develop and deploy the  
next-generation ESnet4 just in time for the LHC.

”Advanced networking is a critical part of the global infrastructure  
supporting the Large Hadron Collider, which represents the largest  
scientific experiment in history. Just as the World Wide Web was begun  
to promote information sharing among scientists, our advanced IP  
network and new networking technologies such as dynamic circuit  
networking that have been deployed by Internet2, ESnet and its partner  
networks ensures U.S. researchers have the most sophisticated  
resources to access the data from the most sophisticated scientific  
device in the world," said Rob Vietzke, executive director of network  
services for Internet2.

The LHC has been nicknamed the “Big Bang Machine” because scientists  
will use it to recreate the cosmic conditions one trillionth of a  
second after the big bang, in hopes of finding insights into the  
origins of matter. It consists of a 27 kilometer tunnel and cathedral- 
sized caverns 100 meters underground. The accelerator magnets that  
guide the beams on their circular orbit are supercooled to a  
temperature just slightly above absolute zero, which is colder than  
outer space. It will accelerate matter to 99.999999% the speed of  
light, and recreate conditions a trillionth of a second after the big  
bang.

On October 15, 2008, Internet2 will provide a special peek behind the  
scenes at the LHC during its upcoming Fall 2008 Internet2 Member  
Meeting being held in New Orleans, LA—just a week before the expected  
first atomic collisions are anticipated at the LHC. The event will be  
netcast live for worldwide viewing. For more information, visit: http://events.internet2.edu/2008/fall-mm/

About ESnet and Berkeley Lab
ESnet is funded by the DOE Office of Science to provide network and  
collaboration services in support of the agency's research missions. A  
pioneer in providing high-bandwidth, reliable connections, ESnet  
enables researchers at national laboratories, universities and other  
institutions to communicate with each other using the collaborative  
capabilities needed to address some of the world's most important  
scientific challenges. The ESnet Department is part of the  
Computational Research Division at Berkeley Lab. For more information  
about ESnet visit: http://www.es.net/
Berkeley Lab is a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory  
located in Berkeley, California. It conducts unclassified scientific  
research and is managed by the University of California. Visit our  
Website at www.lbl.gov/

About Internet2
Internet2 is the foremost U.S. advanced networking consortium. Led by  
the research and education community since 1996, Internet2 promotes  
the missions of its members by providing both leading-edge network  
capabilities and unique partnership opportunities that together  
facilitate the development, deployment and use of revolutionary  
Internet technologies. Internet2 brings the U.S. research and academic  
community together with technology leaders from industry, government  
and the international community to undertake collaborative efforts  
that have a fundamental impact on tomorrow's Internet. For more  
information: http://www.internet2.edu

About USLHCNet
USLHCNet provides transatlantic connections of the Tier1 computing  
facilities at Fermilab and Brookhaven with the Tier0 and Tier1  
facilities at CERN as well as Tier1s elsewhere in Europe and Asia.  
Together with ESnet, Internet2, the GEANT pan-European network, and  
NSF’s UltraLight project, US LHCNet also supports connections between  
the Tier2 centers (where most of the analysis of the data will take  
place, starting this year) and the Tier1s as needed.

Media contacts:
Lauren Rotman
Internet2


Linda Vu
LBNL Computing Sciences Directorate
Phone: 510.495.2402
E-mail: