CC*IIE Networking Infrastructure: CHARMED -- Campus High-Availability Scientific Research Environment and DMZ

Old Dominion University Research Foundation, Norfolk VA

Investigators

Abstract

The project builds a full featured "scienceDMZ" that leverages the Old Dominion University's investment in operational high availability resources in the existing data centers routing and switching fabric, incorporates an enhanced and scalable High Performance Computing (HPC) model, and facilitates data intensive research while precluding the need for science projects to create their own stand alone environments. This high performance and high availability computing and networking environment accelerates scientific discovery by increasing the rate at which data can be transferred between collaborators, and by facilitating the creation of communities focused on the data. This project represents a significant shift in promoting and facilitating greater scientific research through collaboration by accommodating the needs of data driven discovery in Physics, Oceanography, Computer Science and Engineering, along with researchers from across campus. Three scientific domains are selected as first users to show the impact of the developed enhanced scientific research environment. The developed environment will have a broad impact on scientific discovery by being a common reliable infrastructure for scientists to host collaboration environments in support of their works. It is envisioned that this infrastructure could be more broadly utilized to accommodate further "Big Data" science in social sciences, biomedical research and public health. This project provides opportunities for enriching the undergraduate and graduate curricula and for exposing students to cutting-edge research in different science domains. Moreover, all of the designs, documentation, and developed tools are made available for other institutions.