HPC 2014-15 | International cooperation At the Heart of Global Research Networking


GÉANT Coverage ALICE2-RedCLARA Network EUMEDCONNECT3 Network TEIN3 Network HP-SEE Project


AfricaConnect - UbuntuNet Alliance CAREN Network SILK-Afghanistan SARInet Network


Dark Shading: Connected to regional network Light Shading: Eligible to connect to regional network


10 Gbps 2x10 Gbps 3x10 Gbps


10 Gbps backup 5 Gbps 2.5 Gbps 1.4 Gbps 1.2 Gbps 1 Gbps


GÉANT and sister networks enabling user collaboration across the globe


April 2013


622 Mbps 155 Mbps 34-45 Mbps


Géant and its sister networks span much of the globe


has the headroom to cope with, for example, intermittent but very large data transmissions from the Large Hadron Collider at Cern. Given the complexity of the patterns of


usage, it is quite difficult to rank Dante’s users – apart from the fact that the high-energy physics community is far and away the biggest user – according to Chevers. But at SC14 in New Orleans, the organisation demonstrated how astronomy can benefit from the power of networking. Tis collaboration goes way beyond European boundaries, as the project is the Square Kilometre Array telescope. Tis is being built in the southern hemisphere, where the view of the Milky Way Galaxy is best and radio interference least, and it straddles the frontiers of several southern African counties, with cores in South Africa and Australia. ‘Tey will have networks within the instrument and international networks to transfer results in a computed form globally, so we can expect a lot of data. Dante is engaged as a consultant on the networking,’ he explained. A lot of the raw data in radio astronomy is in fact noise, so the data will be pre-computed before it is sent over the network (see Te future of HPC in Australia page 10), ‘but even aſter local processing, there will be enormous amounts of data.’ In commercial high-performance


computing, a lot of effort is currently going 16


GÉANT is co-funded by the European Union within its 7th R&D Framework Programme.


This document has been produced with the financial assistance of the European Union. The contents of this document are the sole responsibility of DANTE and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the European Union.


into bringing the compute to where the data is (see Why storage is as important as computation page 20). Tus soſtware is now available that will allow ‘compute at a distance’ – in the cloud, for example – and that offers users remote visualisation tools so that they can see the results of their computations locally without having to transfer the data back to their own machines (see Tools for efficient computing page


“Given the complexity of the patterns of usage, it is quite difficult to rank Dante’s users – apart from the fact that the high-energy physics community is far and away the biggest user”


24). Partly this is a result of poor bandwidth in some commercial networks and partly it is a function of the cost of data transmission in the commercial model. From Dante’s point of view, according to Chevers: ‘In Europe today, it shouldn’t be the network that is the constraint.’ Prace is an example of the diversity of users,


because it operates a dedicated point-to-point ‘private’ network, so to speak. ‘We provide the capacity, but how they use it is up to them’,


Co-funded by the European Union


Chevers continued. Prace has its own telecoms switch in Frankfurt and Géant provides 10Gbps bandwidth links from supercomputer sites to that switch. Tis ‘star’ formation allows Prace to connect up and share capacity. ‘At the moment, we’re in discussions to refresh that architecture and re-jig it for the current and future needs of Prace. It’s not static and it will evolve as usage patterns evolve. We are a provider of capacity, but we also provide expertise – that the average Telco could not provide – on large supercomputing projects using networks. Prace have very good network specialists and we provide as much or as little support as they need.’ Dante has its own points of presence –


about 20 of them in Europe where its optical equipment and routers are located. ‘Where possible we have leased our own fibre. In some cases, where fibre infrastructure is sparse we lease capacity from the Telcos.’ Its research work has led to several


developments that make the lives of researchers using the network much easier. Te eduGAIN service was developed within the Géant project and enables identity federations around the world to connect, simplifying access to content, services and resources for the global research and education community. ‘If you have a digital identity in London and want to access the


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