CC*DNI Campus Design: Networking Upgrades for Colorado State University Pueblo

Colorado State University-Pueblo, Pueblo CO

Investigators

Abstract

This project provides networking infrastructure upgrades to support research and education particularly in STEM disciplines, by implementing a research-level high-speed subnetwork DMZ for the local area network (LAN); adding a data transfer node; deploying the multidomain network measurement/monitoring toolkit known as perfSONAR to improve the ability to identity and isolate network problems and increase productivity; implementing the globus toolkit (software infrastructure for distributed computing, including large file storage and transfer); and installing fiber optic cable to the CSU-Pueblo observatory, providing increased bandwidth for telescope images and video. The research DMZ connects via a 10 Gbps wide area network (WAN) connection to the Front Range GigaPop (FRGP) network, which provides access to multiple research networks including Intra-FRGP, Western Regional Network, Internet2, and ESnet. Upgraded equipment is primarily at Colorado State University - Pueblo (CSU-P) in Pueblo, CO; some optical equipment is housed in Colorado Springs, Monument Hill, and Denver, CO. The upgrade improves networking for CSU-P, allowing high-speed research to be centralized and supported with networking resources (relieving congestion on CSU-P's existing LAN and WAN). Nine particular research projects benefit from this project. Broader community impacts include computer science courses incorporating details about this next-generation network, along with transporting, storing, preserving, manipulating, processing and analyzing big data; and the entire community participating remotely in imaging of astronomical events through CSU-P's observatory telescope. Large datasets generated on campus are preserved regionally on the shared digital repository, and then made accessible and reusable for others.