iCAIR Press
Releases
I-Wire Activation First Step to National Teragrid Network
From GRIDtoday, July 22, 2002
A new network infrastructure connecting the National Center for
Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) on the campus of the University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the StarLight facility on Northwestern
University's Chicago campus, and Argonne National Laboratory in
southwest suburban Chicago is the first connection in what will become
the TeraGrid network, the fastest dedicated optical research network
in the world.
The two 10 gigabit-per-second connections came online early this
summer with the activation of the state of Illinois' I-WIRE project.
The event positions Illinois as the leader in providing the bandwidth
needed to support high-performance information infrastructures, or
grids. I-WIRE (Illinois Wired/Wireless Infrastructure for Research and
Education) is a fiber optic data network funded by the state of
Illinois that connects research institutions in the state, including
Argonne, NCSA, University of Illinois campuses in Chicago and
Urbana-Champaign, the University of Chicago, the Illinois Institute of
Technology, and Northwestern University.
I-WIRE also connects to StarLight, a global experimental optical
network exchange facility, to the Metropolitan Research and Education
Network (MREN), and to the Illinois Century Network (ICN), which
provides Internet access to more than 5,600 Illinois schools,
libraries, and other public institutions.
By late summer, the NCSA-StarLight-Argonne links will be upgraded to
at least 30 gigagbits per second (Gb/s) as part of the National
Science Foundation's TeraGrid project. The TeraGrid will be the
largest, most comprehensive computing infrastructure ever created for
scientific research and will link more than 16 teraflops of computing
power, more than 1,000 terabytes (1 petabyte) of storage, and advanced
visualization environments, all integrated as a grid system. TeraGrid
sites include NCSA, Argonne, the San Diego Supercomputer Center at the
University of California, San Diego, the Center for Advanced Computing
Research at the California Institute of Technology, and the recently
added Pittsburgh Supercomputer Center.
Through a partnership with Qwest Communications, the TeraGrid sites
will connect to a central backbone network running at 40 Gb/s between
StarLight and the major Internet hub in Los Angeles. At 40 Gb/s, the
TeraGrid network will operate at four times the capacity of today's
fastest networks for research and education. Only a very few of these
networks operate at even 10 Gb/s.
"Through I-WIRE, we have taken the first step in deploying the network
that will connect the TeraGrid sites, creating an unparalleled
national capability for computational scientists," said Charlie
Catlett, a senior fellow in Argonne's mathematics and computer science
division, principal investigator for the I-WIRE project, and executive
director for the TeraGrid project. "At the same time, I-WIRE creates
opportunities for many projects, both via what we have recently
deployed and also through planned experiments with more advanced
systems capable of transmitting multiple terabits per second."
The new connections use Juniper Networks' recently released T640
high-speed Internet routers and dense wavelength division multiplexing
(DWDM) optical equipment from Ciena Corporation. DWDM technology
splits data carried on optical fibers into different wavelengths, or
channels, allowing the transmission of hundreds of channels on a
single fiber strand. The new NCSA-StarLight-Argonne links have the
ability to utilize 66 channels, which translates into 660 Gb/s of
network capacity. I-WIRE is now installing a second such system in the
Chicago area to connect other I-WIRE sites, using StarLight as the
hub.
"We are now well on our way to implementing the network infrastructure
that will transform the way scientists conduct research. It's a major
step forward for 21st century scientific research, and Illinois is
once again a leader." said Dan Reed, director of NCSA and principal
investigator for the TeraGrid project. "In the weeks ahead, we will
establish a similar connection between TeraGrid sites in Illinois and
California. As new resources become available, this network will be
the 'superhighway' used to access them."
"The development of I-WIRE keeps Illinois at the forefront of optical
networks," said Illinois Gov. George H. Ryan. "The state's investment
in this type of high-performance computing network allows TeraGrid and
other projects to benefit not only Illinois but the world in research
opportunities."
For more on I-WIRE, see http://www.i-wire.org.
For more on the TeraGrid project, see
http://www.teragrid.org.
For more on StarLight, see
http://www.startap.net/starlight.
The National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is a leader in developing
and deploying cutting-edge high-performance computing,
networking, and
information technologies. NCSA is a partner in the TeraGrid project,
a National Science Foundation initiative to build and
deploy the world's
largest, fastest, most comprehensive, distributed infrastructure for
open scientific research. NCSA also leads the National Computational
Science Alliance (Alliance), a partnership to prototype an advanced
computational infrastructure for the 21st century that includes more
than 50 academic, government, and industry research partners. The NSF
Partnerships for Advanced Computational Infrastructure (PACI) program
funds the Alliance. In addition to the NSF, NCSA receives
support from
the state of Illinois, the University of Illinois, private
sector partners,
and other federal agencies. For more information, see http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu.
The nation's first national laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory
conducts basic and applied scientific research across a wide spectrum
of disciplines, ranging from high-energy physics to climatology and
biotechnology. Since 1990, Argonne has worked with more
than 600 companies
and numerous federal agencies and other organizations to help advance
America's scientific leadership and prepare the nation for
the future.
Argonne is operated by the University of Chicago as part of the U.S.
Department of Energy's national laboratory system. For more
information,
see http://www.mcs.anl.gov.