Internet 2 and Berkeley Lab to build 100 Gb/s network for the Department of Energy

A new network to be built by Internet 2 and Berkeley Lab for the Department of Energy will use 100 Gb/s connectivity to support a wide range of collaborative research applications that rely on high-speed interconnection of supercomputers.

Researchers will be able to use the network to exchange exceptionally large databases and will support machine-to-machine communications on a “grand scale,” said Rod Wilson, senior director of the external research program at Ciena, in an interview. Ciena is supplying optical networking equipment for the new network,

Applications that the new network will support include high-energy physics research, exploring new sources of energy, and climate modeling. Climate modeling is aimed at enabling researchers to, for example, model the impact of polar ice cap melting. Another research area is how to build more energy-efficient networks and supercomputers.

Network advances

The new network, known as the Energy Sciences Network (ESnet), received $62 million in funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and has the capacity to be expanded to support connectivity at speeds up to 4.4 Tb/s in the future.

ESNet will interconnect supercomputers in three research locations around the U.S. and a Manhattan landing point offering international connectivity. The international landing point is a critical component because another goal is to connect the network to research networks in Europe to gain the ability to tap into the Hadron proton collider (CP: Research networks could foretell Internet’s future).

“The days of researchers working alone in the basement of the university are gone,” said Wilson. “Research now is done on a national and international scale. To discover new things, there has to be collaboration on an international scale,”

Ciena has won a lot of work with research networks with its 6500 Packet Optical Platform because that platform offers an excellent combination of speed and span, Wilson said. The product uses coherent optical processing (CP: Ciena expands use of coherent optical processing) to support 100 Gb/s connectivity over distances of 1000 to 1200 kilometers over a variety of fiber types. As a result, Wilson said, organizations like the DOE do not have to do much re-engineering to existing fiber network facilities to support 100 Gb/s connectivity.