Content about Networks

Feature - Identifying network bottlenecks Internet2 and the Open Science Grid have formed a partnership to deploy advanced network monitoring and diagnostic tools on the grid. Image courtesy of invoice-factoring.com.au. Network performance problems bedevil scientists and network operators alike.  Troubleshooting requires a multi-pronged approach, and problem resolution often drags – holding back scientific progress. To address this in the grid community, Internet2, the leading U.S. networking consortium in the research and education community, has formed a partnership with the Open Science Grid to deploy a set of advanced network monitoring and diagnostic tools on the grid.Network users and operators solve problems most quickly when given transparent access to the entire network path involved. Typically, however, separate organizations operate different segments along a full network path and each so-called “domain” controls access to its own diagnostic and p

Feature - Grid sails to the aid of shipbuilding New FSG ships anchored next to the factory building where they were constructed. Image courtesy of FSG Shipyards in Europe cannot compete on price alone against overseas competitors, especially those based in the Far East.Consequently, European shipbuilders must  concentrate on high-quality construction projects that are specially tailored to their customer's requirements. Each ship is a unique product, produced only once or in a very small run. To improve their competitive position, modern European shipyards must harness the most advanced simulation and design tools to produce complex structures cost effectively, in order to reduce the technical and economic risks at a time when orders for new ships are down worldwide.The goal? The complete, virtual design of a ship. The solution: the grid. At the Flensburger Schiffbau Gesellschaft (FSG) shipyard, managers wanted to find ways to design their ships so that they used less of costly materials such as steel — while r

Announcement - Call for posters: TERENA networking conference 2009 Málaga, Spain Image courtesy of ercim.lcc.uma.es   Proposals for poster presentations for this year's TERENA Networking Conference are cordially requested by the Program Committee.Conference venue: University of Málaga, Málaga, SpainConference dates: 8-11 June 2009Early registration ends: 10 April Poster proposal submission deadline: 24 April Poster proposal submission: send 100-250 word abstract to [email protected]. Please include your full name, address and affiliation.Conference Web site and registration Poster presentations on all subjects relevant to the spirit and objectives of the conference are welcome: to present, discuss and learn about the latest developments in networking technology for the research and education community and their use by the community. Selected posters will be displayed in an area close to the parallel sessions and also on the conference website.The full preliminary programme is now available.&

Feature - Help create an earthbound sun A view of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), showing its main components, with a person for size reference. One of the pilot applications running in Ibercivis is devoted to ITER simulations. Image courtesy of ITER The dream of fusion power sounds so fantastic that one’s initial reaction might be to dismiss it as science fiction. Yet  scientists hope to bring the power that emblazons the sun, fusion, to earthbound reactors. In this type of reaction two atomic nuclei bind — or fuse — together to form a heavier atom, triggering a monumental release of energy. The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) is a joint international research and development project seeking to build a prototype fusion power plant. (The finished machine will be located in the south of France.) Aiding ITER in its computational load is Ibercivis, a volunteer computing project centered in Spain, which allows computer users citizens to donate unused computing

Feature - G-eclipse: easier interface to both grids and clouds The g-Eclipse interface in action.Image courtesy of g- Eclipse Consortium The g- Eclipse Consortium released the g- Eclipse framework, which developers claim will provide an easy-to-use workbench for accessing both grid and cloud infrastructures. The software provides a graphical workbench that enables seamless access with the same simplicity as accessing the Internet from a browser. "This enables interoperabilty between different grid and cloud infrastructures on the client side," said Harald Kornmayer, a researcher at NEC Laboratories Europe, who led the project.It currently supports EGEE's gLite grid middleware (aimed for scientific domains), and the GRIA middleware (used by industry and commerce), as well as AmazonWeb Services' cloud computing and storage offerings.A key feature of the g- Eclipse workbench is its independence from the underlying grid and cloud technology. "We started with the goal of accessing available scientific grid infra

Feature - Zero-carbon data centers for green computing “There are a number of companies (and universities) deploying zero carbon data centers in Canada and USA,” says St. Arnaud. “These data centers are solely powered by renewable resources.”   Canadian sites—powered by water and wind—are shown here along with leased wavelength connections (red) and networks (blue and grey).Image courtesy of CANARIE. Information and communication technology (ICT), the fifth largest consumer of power in the world, currently contributes 3-4% of the world’s CO2 emissions—and is doubling every three to four years. To reduce its carbon footprint, the ICT industry has started relocating computing facilities to zero-carbon data centers at renewable energy sites.Most of the energy used for ICT is supplied by coal, which is very dirty, explains Bill St. Arnaud of the Canadian Advanced Network and Research for Industry and Education (CANARIE). In a year, one medium sized server generates as much CO2

Image of the week - Fostering conditions to leverage the rich and evolving CI that surround us  Image courtesy of Patricia Hilton and GSA OIS.This mural by Patricia Hilton represents what she heard at a preparatory discussion for the 16 September workshop Strategic Leadership For Networking and Information Technology Education , sponsored by the GSA Office of Intergovernmental Solutions.The office leads monthly Collaborative Expedition workshops to advance the quality of citizen-government dialogue and intergovernmental collaborations. This workshop aimed to create the basis for a broad and successful coordination effort to build leadership in Networking and Information Technology (NIT) education.  It addressed fundamental workforce and educational goals that must be met in order to preserve U.S. leadership in NIT and ensure growth and prosperity: ensure the current generation is prepared to employ NIT capabilities effectively empower the next generation to create new technologies and concepts promote the innovative use

  Announcement - ESCC Joint Techs Workshop, 20-24 July, Nebraska Events in the "Praire Capital" will be held at the Nebraska Union in Lincoln. Image courtesy of University of Nebraska Registration is open for the ESnet Site Coordinating Committee (ESCC) and Internet2 Summer Joint Techs Workshop on 20-24 July, hosted by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.The upcoming workshop will have four main focus areas including: 1) The Coming Crisis in Routing and Networking, 2) Campus Networking, 3) Wide Area Networking Issues, and 4) Security. A general schedule of events surrounding this workshop is available, as is registration information. *Note that there is a city-wide event taking place in Lincoln, NE concurrent with the Joint Techs workshop; this means hotel space will be very tight. Please secure your room reservation as soon as possible. Date RemindersThe cutoff for the Holiday Inn Hotel block is 7 July, 2008 at midnight CST. While the room block for the Embassy Suites is currently sold out for Monday, 21 July a

Feature - CMS readies network links for LHC data CMS data transfer rate in MB/s during the data transer debugging task, from September through November 2007.Image courtesy of CMS. Transfer 300 thousand million bytes (300 Gigabytes) per day for six out of seven consecutive days and move a total of 2.3 Terabytes during that same seven-day period—that’s 2.3 million million bytes—these are the criteria that each major network link in the Compact Muon Solenoid’s computing structure must satisfy when the Large Hadron Collider turns on this summer. Together they will transfer tens of Terabytes a day.The CMS computing structure comprises an internationally distributed system of services and resources that interact over the network through the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG). The three-tiered architecture, fetchingly illustrated in a Flash animation from the GridCafe, functions as a single coherent system. Data collected at CERN, the top tier (dubbed Tier-0), is distributed to a set of seven

  Image of the week - LHC data transport at SC07 From the SC07 exhibition floor: Rick Summerhill (left) and John Vollbrecht of Internet2 were part of the collaborative high-speed networking effort to move LHC data from Fermilab’s Tier-1 computer center to a Tier-2 infrastructure in the Caltech booth at SC07.Images courtesy of iSGTW The ultimate success of the Worldwide Large Hadron Collider (LHC) Computing Grid, and in turn of multi-billion dollar Large Hadron Collider, will heavily depend on an ability to move large volumes of data around the world at rates significantly in excess of 10 gigabits-per-second.Paving the way for this success is a collaboration of research and industry technology leaders, who combined forces at last week’s SC07 Conference in Reno, Nevada, U.S. to demonstrate their leading-edge capabilities in supporting the high-bandwidth needs of the worldwide research community. Each member of the collaboration—involving Caltech, ESnet, Fermilab, Infinera, Internet2, Juniper Networks and Le

Announcement - New Internet2 IDEA award for revolutionary uses of advanced networking The “Wave of the Future” IDEA Award will recognize innovators who are developing and deploying advanced applications that require a dedicated optical circuit with capacities up to 10 gigabits per second.Image courtesy of Internet2Internet2 and Level 3 Communications have announced a new “Wave of the Future” category for the Internet2 Driving Exemplary Applications (IDEA) Awards program. The award will recognize innovators who are developing and deploying advanced applications that specifically require or make use of a dedicated optical circuit with capacities up to 10 gigabits per second.Open to existing or proposed applications, the Internet2 IDEA awards are designed to showcase projects that apply the latest in advanced networking capabilities to enable transformational progress in research, to enhance teaching and learning, and to potentially increase the impact of next-generation networks around the world.Through spo