SC18: ESnet demos SDN for End-to-end Networked Science

At this week's SC18 in Dallas, the Department of Energy’s Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) is demonstrating its Software-defined network for End-to-end Networked Science at Exascale (SENSE) research project.

SENSE is building smart network services to accelerate scientific discovery in the era of ‘big data’ driven by exascale computing, cloud computing, machine learning and AI.

The SENSE SC18 demonstration in the Caltech and University of Maryland booths (1413 and 4211) showcases a comprehensive approach to request and provision end-to-end network services across domains that combines deployment of infrastructure across multiple labs/campuses, SC booths and WAN with a focus on usability, performance and resilience.

A SENSE testbed consisting of network and end-system resources has been deployed across DOE laboratories, including Fermilab and Argonne National Lab and the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center at Berkeley Lab; facilities at Caltech and the University of Maryland; MAX (the Mid-Atlantic Crossroads) and ESnet. To control network resources, the SENSE system interacts with production provisioning system of ESnet and other regional and site networks. To control end-systems, SENSE software is deployed at the end-sites.

The SENSE demonstration at SC18 uses this persistent testbed and adds resources on the exhibit showroom floor at the conference. As shown in the figure below, the SC18 resources include data transfer nodes (DTNs) deployed in the Caltech and University of Maryland booths. Connections to the SC18 SCinet infrastructure provide multiple 100 Gbps connections back to the SENSE testbed. This infrastructure will be utilized to demonstrate the end-to-end SENSE services and includes high-speed data transfers and provisioning services.

http://www.es.net/news-and-publications/esnet-news/2018/esnet-to-support-leading-edge-demos-at-sc18/