Improving Infrastructure for Data Access, Storage and Recovery, and Network Communication at Stroud Water Research Center

Stroud Water Research Center, Avondale PA

Investigators

Abstract

A significant challenge for independent biological field stations, such as Stroud Water Research Center (SWRC; http://www.stroudcenter.org/), is maintaining advanced facilities equivalent to the unique, innovative work those facilities support. This NSF-funded project allows SWRC to address a crucial aspect of maintaining this high level of support through a comprehensive upgrade of its network infrastructure. The improvements will dramatically increase SWRC's data storage capacity, data backup and recovery equipment, and improve the wireless network system. These upgrades will not only improve the current computing environment, but also allow for future expansion to accommodate additional users and data volume. Many recent projects at SWRC, including NSF-funded projects, reflect a larger commitment to environmental monitoring and data gathering. This generates huge datasets that tax the capacity of SWRC's data and network-computing environment. Unfortunately, the infrastructure needed to support these new areas of environmental research is generally not included in externally funded projects. Specific to SWRC, this project will enhance SWRC's decades ­long commitment to maintain data access and quality, while growing SWRC's historic,"foundational" datasets which are vital to other freshwater research organizations, and inform stream ecology education, environmental public policy and watershed restoration. This project seeks to transition SWRC's current digital data storage away from an ad hoc and reactive solution to a proactive approach that includes creating a 12 terabyte (TB) Storage Area Network (SAN) array that is easily expandable to 60 TB. The second part of the project is an upgrade of the existing tape backup system (single tape drive, 800 GB individual tape capacity, manual intervention to switch tapes) to a system that has much greater capacity (multiple tape drive; 2.5 TB individual tape capacity) and is automated. The third leg of the project includes an upgrade of the wireless communication network that currently cannot meet increasing user demands. This upgrade involves a new controller that will double the number of wireless access points, will allow for increased connection speeds, and will greatly enhance the ability of both staff and guests to wirelessly connect to internal and/or external networks. The wireless upgrade also includes an outdoor­compatible access point to allow wireless coverage well beyond indoor facilities and into the SWRC experimental watershed. Outdoor wireless connections are critical to support the increasing number of outdoor education and outreach events held at SWRC and the rapidly expanding use of wireless environmental sensor arrays that SWRC is deploying throughout the experimental watershed.