Collaborative Research: IRNC: Testbed: BRIDGES - Binding Research Infrastructures for the Deployment of Global Experimental Science

East Carolina University, Greenville NC

Investigators

Abstract

The BRIDGES project is developing an innovative, dynamic, high-performance trans-Atlantic network testbed that interconnects research communities and their resources in the US with collaborating partners and facilities in Europe. It explores advanced virtualized network architectures enabling rapidly reconfigurable global cyber-infrastructure to address changing research requirements of the collaborators to explore new concepts and to create new project workflows securely and with consistent, predictable performance. The BRIDGES facility consists of two geographically separate optical links spanning the North Atlantic and terrestrial optical links in US and Europe to form an intercontinental optical network ring topology, capable of carrying up to 200 Gbps of science data between major nodes in Washington, New York, Paris, and Amsterdam. The BRIDGES facility is a binding platform for research projects, providing a flexible research-oriented infrastructure connecting laboratories and universities in the US to their counterparts in Europe. Science applications in high energy physics, deep space communications, and even biomedical programs are collaborating with BRIDGES to leverage them investment in this technology to reach digital resources such as globally distributed or remote sensors and instruments, distributed data storage, analytical processing resources, to create new global applications tailored to the science at hand. BRIDGES is led by George Mason University and East Carolina University and is working with and connecting an initial community of nearly 40 networking and science research projects across the US and Europe. The project is expected to have a far-reaching impact beyond the testbed or interconnect facility and lead to innovative use of cyber-infrastructures. 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.