Challenges
Data on the flow of flue gases in an
industrial boiler are shown as streamlines in the CAVE
(Cave Automatic Virtual Environment) at Argonne National
Laboratory. High-speed telecommunications allow scientists
from different parts of the nation to remotely collaborate
on this research. http://www.mcs.anl.gov/home/freitag/
SC94demo/project/nalco.html |
The program must overcome a number of challenges to successfully
implement this strategic plan. These challenges are not insurmountable,
but overcoming them will require a dedicated effort, support
by management, and funding if ESnet is to continue as DOE's
premiere network for enabling scientific research.
Technological and Operational Challenges
Enabling Technology
| SecureNet, which uses ESnet for Wide Area
Networking, will enable DOE scientists at one laboratory
to use ASCI teraflop classified computing resources at other
DOE laboratories. Even before these machines are running,
SecureNet enables DOE researchers to work together on classified
subjects in new and productive ways. Previously, in classified
code development with researchers at Los Alamos National
Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories, we had to travel
and mail classified tapes. With SecureNet I can telnet to
a secure LAN at Sandia, and examine and run test problems
in the Sandia environment.
Bing Young, Physicist, Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory
|
The program supports the DOE research community and its partners
by providing leading-edge, production-quality, service-based
support. As the pace and complexity of technology development
continues to accelerate, program managers must select and make
available appropriate enabling technologies. In making decisions
regarding these new technologies, managers must balance the
need to match and facilitate program support requirements in
a production-quality service environment with the need to provide
a high return on investment and maintain consistency with ongoing
commercial development efforts.
Changing Environment
The program must continue to emphasize leading-edge, production-quality
service in the face of a changing environment characterized
by limited financial resources and downsized organizations.
This situation is becoming increasingly challenging because
of:
- increased interaction and cooperation with other DOE programs,
agencies, and commercial organizations that are also undergoing
substantial changes
- increased demand for short-term, quick-return solutions
rather than investments in long-term, more effective approaches
- the accelerating pace of technological evolution, coupled
with rapid growth of user requirements and expectations.
Improved Integration
The most effective approach for providing an advanced computing
and communication environment will involve a thorough integration
of program activities and requirements with computer science
research, computer security, emerging technologies, and commercially
available services and technology.
Balance
A major success of the ESnet Program has been achievement of
an effective balance of centralized and distributed service
components. As the environment continues to evolve rapidly,
maintaining the proper balance between these service components
will be important.
Compact muon solenoid (CMS) detector
being planned for construction at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland.
ESnet is already essential for connecting the U.S. collaborators
during the planning phase, expecially with regard to accessing
remote computing resources used in the large-scale simulations
needed for the detailed physics design of the detector.
http://cmsinfo.cern.ch/cmsinfo/Welcome.html |
Organizational Challenges
| Our high energy physicists use ESnet for
video teleconferences with worldwide collaborators who are
designing the next generation of elementary particle detectors
for experiments at Fermilab and CERN.
Edward May, Argonne National Laboratory
|
Improved Cooperation/Integration with Other DOE Programs
The need for substantially increased effectiveness in downsized
organizations will require additional effort to create synergism
with other program areas in DOE. A challenge will be to cooperate
effectively while maintaining the leading-edge, high performance
character of the program.
Improved Connections with the Scientific Research Community
The impact of the program on scientific research can be enhanced
by increased interaction with the user community. Although the
program has been effective to date, better coupling with the
user community will be required in the future.
Effective Interagency and International Coordination/Cooperation
With various federal agencies connecting to the Internet and
other high-speed domestic and international networks, the challenge
will be to make the best use of the increased connectivity among
various agencies without duplicating the connectivity to a particular
site. Because of the high cost of international links, coordination
becomes of significant importance when connecting internationally.
Interagency coordination and cooperation will be the key to
effective establishment and use of the connectivity.
Funding
| We are using ESnet systems to link the
Oak Ridge and Sandia National Laboratories' Paragon computers
to create a distributed computer capable of undertaking
computational problems that have been unapproachable until
now. ESnet's forward-thinking implementation of asynchronous
transfer mode technology is allowing us to make this connection
highly effective, scalable, and completely transparent to
the programmers and scientists at Oak Ridge and Sandia.
Ken Kliewer, Director of the Oak Ridge Center for
Computational Sciences
|
Demand for connectivity and bandwidth has been outstripping
decreases in cost of services, particularly for international
access. Alternate approaches to funding, such as shared support
of new capabilities, may be needed at the very time the ESnet
community is least able to absorb it.
