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[Todd Sedmak <>]

Department of Energy’s ESnet Rolls Out World’s Fastest Science Network
For Data-Intensive Science, New 100 Gbps Network Will Serve as Instrument for 
Discovery

BERKELEY, Calif.—-(Nov. 13, 2012)--As scientific research becomes 
increasingly data-intensive and globally collaborative, the ability to 
quickly and reliably share enormous data sets is critical to challenges as 
diverse as finding cleaner energy technologies, understanding climate change 
and investigating the nature of our universe. 

To accelerate such discovery, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) ESnet 
(Energy Sciences Network) is now operating the world’s fastest science 
network, serving the entire national laboratory system, its supercomputing 
centers, and its major scientific instruments at 100 gigabits per second – 10 
times faster than its previous generation network. ESnet is managed by 
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab).

“In January, 1983, the Internet was launched into operation on a 50 Kb/s 
ARPANET backbone. 30 years later, ESnet backbone speeds are two million times 
faster,” said ESnet Policy Board member Vint Cerf, Google’s chief Internet 
evangelist and Internet pioneer. “Terabit speeds are in sight and faster 
aggregate speeds can be anticipated. Talk about riding a rocket!”

“The upgrade, funded by DOE’s Office of Science, comes just in time,” said 
ESnet Director Greg Bell, who also leads Berkeley Lab's Scientific Networking 
Division. “ESnet traffic doubles every 18 months, roughly twice as fast as 
the commercial Internet. Based on analysis of its traffic over the years and 
future plans, the amount of data carried by ESnet will reach over 100 
petabytes per month by 2016. That’s because we’re moving into a new era of 
extreme data, and scientific discovery in many fields depends on data 
mobility. ESnet is becoming something more than a network infrastructure - 
it’s now an extension of the experimental facilities it serves, and a vital 
component in the process of discovery.”

"Like many other scientific disciplines, cosmology is increasingly reliant on 
collecting, sharing and analyzing massive datasets, whether from instruments 
launched into space, from ground-based telescopes or detailed simulations," 
said Berkeley Lab cosmologist Peter Nugent and member of the team that won 
the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics. "Advanced networking, much like advanced 
computing, is a critical component for the broad collaborations that are 
behind many discoveries. ESnet's move to 100G connectivity is especially 
important as projects like the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey and 
Dark Energy Survey generate unprecedented amounts of data, which is stored at 
Berkeley Lab and then served up to the global research community."

ESnet partnered with Internet2, the advanced networking and technology 
community that connects America’s universities and research institutions and 
extends connectivity to research networks worldwide, to deploy its 100 Gbps 
network over a new, highly-scalable optical infrastructure that the two 
organizations share for the benefit of their respective communities.

“Big Data science and collaborative research are the current and future 
reality,” said Internet2 President and CEO Dave Lambert. “Through this key 
partnership, 100G technologies are extended throughout the national research 
infrastructure – creating a much richer and more robust national and global 
scientific collaboration environment – from which new innovations will be 
born, great challenges facing all of society will be confronted, and 
discovery will be accelerated.”

To pave the way for the production network, last year ESnet announced the 
completion of a 100 Gbps prototype network—funded by the American Recovery 
and Reinvestment Act—which connected the three leading DOE Office of Science 
supercomputing sites as a proof of concept. With the 100 Gbps national 
network now in full production across its entire footprint, the ESnet team is 
moving to upgrade individual lab connections to enable them to take even 
greater advantage of the speed and capacity of the backbone.  

“100 Gbps is just the beginning,” Bell said. “Because we can scale far beyond 
that capacity on the underlying optical platform we have invested in with 
Internet2, ESnet will continue to serve DOE science for years to come.”

Media contact: Jon Bashor, 510-501-2230

# # #

About ESnet
ESnet provides the high-bandwidth, reliable connections that link scientists 
at national laboratories, universities and other research institutions, 
enabling them to collaborate on some of the world's most important scientific 
challenges including energy, climate science, and the origins of the 
universe. Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Science 
and located within the Scientific Networking Division at Lawrence Berkeley 
National Laboratory, ESnet provides scientists with access to unique DOE 
research facilities and computing resources.

About Berkeley Lab
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory addresses the world’s most urgent 
scientific challenges by advancing sustainable energy, protecting human 
health, creating new materials, and revealing the origin and fate of the 
universe. Founded in 1931, Berkeley Lab’s scientific expertise has been 
recognized with 13 Nobel prizes. The University of California manages 
Berkeley Lab for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science. For more, 
visit http://www.lbl.gov.

About the DOE Office of Science
DOE’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in 
the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of 
the most pressing challenges of our time.  For more information, please visit 
science.energy.gov.


Todd Sedmak
Internet2
PR and Media Relations Manager
202-331-5373 (w) or 


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