Superfast Networks on Display
December 28, 2011
Network researchers, including ADNET HECN staff, troubleshoot the high-bandwidth connection between Seattle and Greenbelt.
SESDA's High End Computing Network (HECN) group continues to break new ground in network speeds. The group operates out of GSFC Code 606.1, the Networks and IT Security branch, and their project was cited as one of the top exhibits at the Super Computing 2011 (SC11) convention in Seattle last November. The team demonstrated unprecedented high-speed data transfer rates using custom built RAID servers that achieved a lightning-fast 60 Gbits/sec disk-to-disk transfer rates across the nearly 3000-mile distance between Seattle and Goddard Space Flight Center, and 72 Gbits/sec locally.
The HECN group also had a successful proposal to the Department of Energy that allows them to use DOE’s Advanced Networking Initiative (ANI) 100G test bed. Their project will allow them to evaluate advanced network cards as well as next-generation servers, performance measurement tools, and applications that will support highly parallel, multi-core architectures. Their goal is to keep pushing the envelope as they approach 100 Gbit/sec transfer rates. These enormously high bandwidths will prove critical as both NASA and the commercial world move towards cloud computing.
