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CENIC Recognizes USC-Caltech Team for Record-Breaking Data Transfer Rates

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CENIC announces recipient of 2019 Innovations in Networking Award for Experimental Applications


La Mirada, CA & Berkeley, CA -- March 11, 2019 -- For setting a new record for data transfer rates that will enable researchers to tackle massive datasets faster and satisfy unprecedented scientific needs, a team of computer scientists and network engineers led by the University of Southern California in collaboration with California Institute of Technology is being recognized with CENIC’s 2019 Innovations in Networking Award for Experimental Applications.

Project leaders being recognized are: Azher Mughal, University of Southern California; Harvey Newman, California Institute of Technology; Shashwitha Puttaswamy, California Institute of Technology; Joseph Chiu, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California; and Celeste Anderson, University of Southern California.

The USC-Caltech team, in collaboration with Arista Networks and SCinet, conducted a record-breaking demonstration using 400 gigabits per second (Gbps) network links at the 2018 Supercomputing Conference (SC18) in November. Using three 400-Gbps links established in a triangle between the USC, Caltech, and SCinet booths, the exhibit reached sustained transfer rates of 800 Gbps. The team demonstrated large-scale disk-to-disk data transfers using highly optimized data transfer nodes (DTN) using remote direct memory access (RDMA) over an Internet Protocol (IP) network. The USC-Caltech exhibit was part of the SCinet experimental network program XNET.

“This first demonstration of a 400 Gigabit Ethernet network with full 800 Gbps throughput exchanged among a small set of servers represents a major step toward meeting the exponentially growing needs of science programs over the next decade, from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) to Large Synoptic Space Telescope (LSST), and other programs in many fields of data-intensive science,” said award recipient Harvey Newman, Goldberger Professor of Physics at Caltech.

This latest development in global-scale computer networks will improve the speed and efficiency of data flows between far-flung computing facilities located in different world regions. The USC-Caltech team intends to deploy the next-generation data networks at the USC campus to support experimental applications and eventually use the knowledge to better connect researchers across CENIC’s California Research and Education Network as well as the Pacific Research Platform, which is a partnership of more than 50 institutions. The lessons learned are widely applicable to any science program trying to achieve transfers of large data flows. Scientific discovery in data-intensive fields such as cancer genomics, biomedical science, climate modeling, and unique instrument studies such as LHC, which involves more than 170 computing and storage facilities worldwide, are among those that will benefit from the process.

The CENIC Innovations in Networking Awards are presented each year at CENIC’s annual conference to highlight exemplary people, projects, and organizations that leverage high-bandwidth networking. The CENIC conference will be held March 18 – 20, 2018, in San Diego, California. Learn more and register to attend.

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