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A successful service-oriented community must establish current and
future user requirements and effectively satisfy those requirements
within the operative funding and administrative constraints. In
the case of ESnet, the processes of determining and satisfying requirements
entail the most widespread collaborative efforts within the Department
of Energy. Descriptions of current and future user requirements
must be obtained from DOE-supported principal investigators who
are located at national laboratories and universities across the
U.S. and at other research sites throughout the world. The work
of satisfying these requirements is concentrated at the National
Energy Research Supercomputing Center at Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory, although this work also requires the efforts of network
specialists at all major DOE sites and at other sites where important
collaborators do their work.
The breadth of services provided by ESnet--from basic bandwidth
to directory services to e-mail and videoconferencing support--requires
a technically diverse support staff. The complex interactions
of these technical experts are overseen by an effective, efficient
committee structure whose hallmarks are cooperation and synergy.
Figure 4-1. Relationships among DOE networking committees
Figure 4-1 represents an ESnet-centered view of the many collaborating
networking committees within DOE. It should be noted that several
of the committees represented in this chart (SAC, CCIRDA, EXERSUG,
ERSUG, and SCIE) are shown only to give the reader a sense of
ESnet community interactions. These committees have major responsibilities
that are only briefly explained in this document.
ESnet is sponsored by the Office of Scientific Computing of DOE's
Office of Energy Research. The OSC is therefore responsible for
funding the network and overseeing its management. OSC's general
charter is to improve DOE's ability to solve critical scientific
and engineering problems by supporting research in the advanced
mathematical, computer, and computational sciences and by fostering
applications derived from the results of such research. As a significant
component of this charter, OSC is responsible for managing the Energy
Research supercomputer facilities and the Energy Sciences network.
The ESnet Steering Committee was originally formed in 1986 with
representation from the ER program offices. As ESnet has extended
its service to the EM (Environmental Waste and Restoration Management)
and HR (Human Resources and Administration) communities, the ESSC
has expanded to ensure adequate breadth of program representation.
The ESSC is charged to:
- Document, review, and prioritize network requirements for
all ER programs
- Review the ESnet budget as presented by the Office of Scientific
Computing, evaluating that budget with respect to the prioritized
network requirements.
- Identify network requirements that require further research
- Establish performance objectives for ESnet
- Propose innovative techniques for enhancing ESnet's capabilities
- Advise the ESnet management personnel at NERSC
Members of the ESSC represent specific DOE program offices, and
they are appointed by their Division Directors, at whose pleasure
they serve. There are no firm guidelines as to length of service
of an ESSC member. Experience has shown that the committee benefits
equally from the consistency of purpose and direction provided by
long-term members and the innovations fostered by new representatives.
The OSC nominates an ESSC member to serve as committee chairperson,
and the selection becomes final upon approval by a vote of the entire
ESSC.
The ESSC has codified the criteria by which priorities can be
set for major network improvements, including major new network
connections as well as upgrades of existing facilities. These
criteria include such factors as the importance of the facilities
in question to DOE's mission and the ability of the requesting
site to utilize and/or support the new or expanded network connectivity.
The ESSC has also formalized the process by which network requirements
are prioritized and has documented these procedures in the minutes
of its meetings.[1] This documentation defines the role of the
OSC as the program office with oversight authority, the role of
the ESSC as the representative of ESnet's users, and the role
of ESnet management in implementation.
The ESnet Steering Committee continually addresses issues of
significance for the future of DOE networking. Recently, these
issues have included:
- Telecommuting
- Conference room and desktop videoconferencing services
- A significant upgrade of ESnet's bandwidth and services
- The development of an Acceptable Usage Policy for ESnet
- Increased coordination with SCIE and EXERSUG
- The need for DOE-wide coordination of distributed computing
services
- An integrated approach to DOE's international connectivity
- The future effects of other networks on the ER community
- The contributions ESnet can make to the National Research
and Education Network and the National Information Infrastructure,
and the benefits of such participation
- The effects of related Federal activities, such as the Federal
Networking Advisory Committee and the Federal Internetworking
Requirements Panel
- The role of ESnet in education
The ESSC is also considering a number of strategic issues, such
as:
- The development of performance metrics
- Increased connectivity to other network providers, both federal
and commercial
- The importance of an improved public awareness strategy
- Network development as a key element in DOE's Strategic Plan
- Increased documentation of strategic and operating plans
The ESnet Site Coordinating Committee is composed of representatives
from each of the major ESnet backbone sites. Established in 1987,
the ESCC serves as:
- An advisory body to the ESnet Steering Committee, providing
a forum for the consideration of a broad range of technical
issues
- A forum for information interchange about ESnet-wide activities
and plans and site-specific requirements and plans
- A forum for interactions with the ESnet manager and staff
- A forum for interactions with ER programs that use or would
like to use ESnet facilities.
The ESCC is a standing committee whose members are appointed by
the individual ESnet site organizations. Current membership represents
22 Energy Research sites. The ESCC chairperson is appointed by OSC
from among the members of that committee, with the advice and consent
of both the ESSC and the ESCC.
To carry out the functions listed above, the ESCC appoints various
working groups and task forces as the need arises. A working group
generally exists for an extended period of time to address issues
within a general category (e.g., ESnet/DECnet issues or security
issues). A task force, on the other hand, exists for only a short
term to accomplish a narrow, well-defined goal (e.g., DECnet routing
or TCP/IP routing). The membership of working groups is subject
to ESCC approval. Working groups choose their own chairperson,
subject again to ESSC approval. Task forces may have a more flexible
structure, depending on the issue, but their leadership and membership
are subject to ESCC approval.
Many of the activities associated with DOE programs have become
global in scale, encompassing research, development, and construction
around the world. A ubiquitous distributed computing environment
has become a necessity to effectively manage and operate these global
enterprises. The functioning of such an environment requires more
than simply a robust physical network. It also demands that all
layers of the network structure--from the physical layer to the
application layer--be organized and managed properly. The DCCC was
formed to address the problems associated with the higher levels
of this structure.
To assure the necessary full range of implementation, three
computer- and network-related committees--the ESSC, EXERSUG, and
SCIE--have joined to charter the DCCC. Through the DCCC, these
committees will actively work to facilitate the development of
a functional distributed computing environment for the sciences
associated with DOE research.
In addition to networking, the Office of Energy Research is responsible
for providing the distributed technological infrastructure that
underlies DOE's mission in computation and information delivery.
The Coordinating Committee for Informatics Research, Development,
and Application (CCIRDA) is charged with planning and coordinating
efforts to satisfy informational, computational, and communications
requirements throughout ER. In carrying out this mission, CCIRDA
coordinates ER-wide Information Technology Infrastructure activities
and assists in coordinating the plans, policies, and issues of Information
Resource Management (IRM) with those of Management and Operating
(M&O) Contractors within ER. These coordination responsibilities
entail such tasks as helping to provide feedback and direction for
DOE's Information Technology programmatic mission. These efforts
are intended to support the development of an integrated long-range
IRM science and technology plan and to contribute to the identification
of issues and emerging technologies that will be critical to all
DOE programmatic missions.
The ESSC chairperson serves as liaison with CCIRDA and attends
the meetings of that committee. The members of CCIRDA have standing
invitations to attend ESSC meetings.
The Energy Research Supercomputer Users Group (ERSUG) consists of
all investigators who use the supercomputing facilities provided
by the Office of Energy Research. The mission of ERSUG is to promote
the effective use of supercomputing facilities by sharing information
about notable accomplishments, the capabilities and limitations
of the supercomputer facilities, and new opportunities arising from
hardware and software advances. ERSUG monitors the computational
needs of the Energy Research community and communicates this information
to its membership, to service providers, and to appropriate DOE
officers. ERSUG also participates in developing multiprogram requirements
for shared facilities. These requirements are coordinated with the
end-to-end computing plans of individual programs. ERSUG also documents
the progress afforded by the supercomputing resources and the future
opportunities for research that require enhancements to these resources.
The organizational body for ERSUG is its executive committee
(EXERSUG). Membership in EXERSUG is defined by programmatic constituency
and by professional specialty. The Supercomputer Access Committee
(SAC) determines the allocation of constituencies to be represented
on EXERSUG. An ESERSUG member can be nominated by any ERSUG member
from his or her own programmatic constituency, by the program
office, or by an active member who wishes to be replaced. New
nominees are elected or rejected by a vote of the current EXERSUG
membership. Members usually serve for a period of three years
or until a replacement is determined. EXERSUG may spawn subcommittees
of appropriate experts and interested parties to address specific
problems or issues.
The Scientific Computing Information Exchange was begun in the early
1960s as a means of helping the directors of national lab computer
centers resolve common problems by sharing information. Today SCIE
remains a forum without a formal charter but with a keen interest
in dealing with Information Resource Management issues. SCIE is
currently taking the lead in addressing such issues as Information
Technology Resource Planning and the privacy of electronic mail.
The Supercomputer Access Committee is composed of representatives
of each of the ER Program Offices. Operating under guidelines provided
by the OER, SAC is responsible for allocating the resources of the
ER-funded supercomputer access centers to ER-funded investigators.
SAC meetings provide a forum in which ER program managers can address
issues related to the use of the supercomputer access centers, for
example, assessing the computing capabilities that will be required
to fulfill ER programmatic missions in the future.
- Minutes of ESSC meetings are available on the World Wide Web
at the following universal resource locator (URL): http://www.es.net/hypertext/essc.html
Go to the next section, Collaborations
and Liaisons
Go to the preceding section, ESnet Processes
Go to the Table of Contents
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