CC*IIE Networking Infrastructure: Network Expansion to Support Data Intensive Research and Computation at the University of New Mexico

University Of New Mexico, Albuquerque NM

Investigators

Abstract

The University of New Mexico (UNM) is establishing a new, dedicated Research Network, entirely separate from the existing campus production network. While the production network supports diverse activities such as registration, grades, purchasing, wireless and broadband downloads to student dormitories, the 10-100x-faster Research Network is designed exclusively for the rapid and reliable transfer of ultra-large research datasets originating in UNM faculty labs and projects. Advanced switches and fast connections to Internet2 enable the transfer of research data: to labs within UNM and other universities, statewide, nationally, and internationally. Fourteen UNM faculty spanning eight departments, working in "big data" fields ranging from radio astronomy to genomics, are collaborating with UNM Information Technologies to establish, test, and utilize the Research Network as a next-generation instrument for accelerating and enhancing research and scientific collaborations. Fast and "lossless" connections to the UNM supercomputer center enable large-scale computational analyses and access to mass storage. UNM is a Minority-Serving Institution and one of the only Carnegie "very high research activity" Institutions in the U.S. that is also a Hispanic-Serving Institution. The new Research Network will serve as a campus-wide resource, enabling cutting-edge research unhindered by data transfer barriers. It will link UNM with the other New Mexico research universities to establish the beginnings of a statewide network; support access to NSF's national network of supercomputer centers (XSEDE); enable fast access to cloud-based computing; and link the statewide network to emerging university research networks throughout the U.S.