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Current Testbed Research

The following projects are currently using one of the ESnet Testbeds. Previous testbed projects descriptions are located here.

Evaluation of Distributed Acoustic Sensing for Seismic Event Detection and Imaging Using ESnet 100G and Dark Fiber Testbed, J. Ajo-Franklin, T.M. Daley, B. Freifeld (Berkeley National Lab/EGD)

Recent advances in Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS), the detection of vibration through rapid recording of distributed Rayleigh scattering, has enabled the recording of seismic wavefields using telecom-grade single mode fiber-optic cables (Daley et.al. 2013). This is a proof-of-concept experiment to explore the suitability of telecom fiber installations within ESnet’s testbed hierarchy for regional seismic event detection and ambient noise interferometry using DAS.

NASA Network Testing: Mark Foster, NASA

NASA has a virtual circuit from NASA GSFC to NASA Ames on an ongoing basis, for network research purposes. These tests allow NASA to investigate and adjust network, host, and application tuning parameters for long distance high bandwidth circuits. Aside from the ESNet virtual path, the networking components in use for these efforts also support high performance computing researchers both inside and outside NASA. The engagement enables direct use of research results to enhance data transfer for computing researchers and scientists.

The Multicore-Aware Data Transfer Middleware Project: Wenji Wu, FNAL

Multicore and manycore have become the norm for high-performance computing. These new architectures provide advanced features that can be exploited to design and implement a new generation of high-performance data movement tools. To date, numerous efforts have been made to exploit multicore parallelism in order to speed up data transfer performance.  Resolving performance issues within end systems is now becoming the critical element within the end-to-end loop of distributed extreme-scale data movement. Terabit networks need terabit-capable end systems to efficiently move data on and off of the network. To address these inefficiencies and limitations, DOE’s Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) office has funded Fermilab and Brookhaven National Laboratory to collaboratively work on the Multicore-Aware Data Transfer Middleware (MDTM) project (http://mdtm.fnal.gov). MDTM aims to accelerate data movement toolkits on multicore systems. Testing and evaluating MDTM software packages need to conduct bulk data movement over wide area networks. It requires high-end DTNs located at physically dispersed sites, and high-speed WAN links (e.g., 40/100 Gbps) to connect them. ESNET 100G testbed supports such capabilities and provides an ideal test environment for the MDTM project. The MDTM research team plans to use the ESNET 100G testbed to test and evaluate MDTM software packages.

Next Generation CPP Hardware, Mitch Kutzko, PNNL

This experiment will enable Cooperative Protection Program (CPP) staff to assess observed server backplane data transmission rates in order to determine the optimal hardware configuration required to allow promiscuous traffic monitoring at 100Gb/s line rates while simultaneously avoiding packet loss due to server NIC saturation, which will facilitate smooth CPP Sensor deployments in the future as more DOE sites move to 100Gb/s backbone network infrastructure to support Big Science.