CC*IIE Networking Infrastructure: Cyberinfrastructure - Creation of Science DMZ at UL Lafayette

University Of Louisiana At Lafayette, Lafayette LA

Investigators

Abstract

The University of Louisiana at Lafayette is creating a dedicated high-speed science DMZ network infrastructure to support science and engineering faculty on campus. Various current and future research projects within the university have computational and data transfer needs that dramatically exceed beyond what existing infrastructure can support. The science DMZ delivers a next-generation packet transport service with better traffic identification, security, and application controls, and offers a 40Gbps data transfer capacity that connects all major research laboratories on campus. The infrastructure also links this campus wide connectivity to the statewide Louisiana Optical Network Initiative (LONI), and Internet2. This infrastructure addresses major bottlenecks to scientific discovery, and provides researchers with better access to visualization venues at Louisiana Immersive Technology Enterprise (LITE), and High Performance Computing (HPC) systems available on both LONI and XSEDE. This upgraded next-generation network infrastructure also provides increased capacity for remote visualization, telepresence, and bandwidth-intensive data transfers between computational clusters. This will be of great benefit to multiple science and engineering programs across campus in the areas of computational biology, bioinformatics, computer vision, cybersecurity, and data science. The infrastructure also supports research areas such as coastal wetland loss, epidemiology, alternative energy, and medicine that have high economic and societal impact. The project also creates exposure for students at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette to leverage this network infrastructure.