CC* Networking Infrastructure: Building a Science DMZ for Data-intensive Research and Computation at the University of South Carolina

University Of South Carolina At Columbia, Columbia SC

Investigators

Abstract

The University of South Carolina (UofSC) is establishing a new network, namely a Science DMZ, operating at 100 Gbps. The Science DMZ supports current research moving terabyte-scale data between UofSC and national laboratories (e.g., Argonne, Fermi, Oak Ridge, Savannah River, Los Alamos), university collaborators, and the national network of supercomputer centers (XSEDE). The project serves the national interest, as it addresses the need to connect UofSC to the national "cyber-highway" system to share big science data, hence promoting collaboration and national competitiveness, aligned with NSF's mission. The new cyberinfrastructure also permits researchers to exchange large datasets with collaborators geographically distributed across the world. Examples include nuclear physics results from the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland and observation files from the Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) in Italy. The elements of UofSC's Science DMZ include: i) data transfer nodes (DTNs), built for sending/receiving data at a high speed over wide area networks; ii) high-throughput, friction-free paths connecting DTNs, instruments, storage devices, and computing systems; iii) measurement devices to monitor end-to-end paths; and iv) security policies tailored for high-performance environments. The proposed Science DMZ substantially increases the bandwidth to compute and XSEDE resources, permitting their use on digital image correlation, semiconductor material development, DNA/RNA sequencing, and other areas. Additionally, UofSC hosts key national resources and centers including the first U.S. deployed Time of Flight-Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometer, NOAA's National Estuarine Research Reserves database, McNair Aerospace Center, and Baruch Institute. These resources are now more efficiently used by researchers and collaborators. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.