To interconnect research facilities across wide geographic areas, network operators deploy science networks, also referred to as Research and Education (R&E) networks. These networks allow experimenters to establish dedicated network connections between research facilities for transferring large amounts of data. Recently, R&E networks have started using Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Software Defined Exchanges (SDX) for deploying these connections. AtlanticWave/SDX is a response to the growing demand to support end-to-end network services spanning multiple SDN domains. However, requesting these services is a challenging task for domain-expert scientists, because the interfaces of the R&E networks have been developed by network operators for network operators. In this paper, we propose interfaces that allow domain expert scientists to reserve resources of the scientific network using abstractions that focus on their data transfer needs for scientific workflow management. Recent trends in the networking field pursue better interfaces for requesting network services (e.g., intent-based networking). Although intents are sufficient for the needs of network operations, they are not abstract enough in most cases to be used by domain-expert scientists. This is an issue we are addressing in the AtlanticWave/SDX design: network operators and domain-expert scientists will have their own interfaces focusing on their specific needs.
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Automated Network Services for Exascale Data Movement
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiments distribute data by leveraging a diverse array of National Research and Education Networks (NRENs), where experiment data management systems treat networks as a “blackbox” resource. After the High Luminosity upgrade, the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment alone will produce roughly 0.5 exabytes of data per year. NREN Networks are a critical part of the success of CMS and other LHC experiments. However, during data movement, NRENs are unaware of data priorities, importance, or need for quality of service, and this poses a challenge for operators to coordinate the movement of data and have predictable data flows across multi-domain networks. The overarching goal of SENSE (The Software-defined network for End-to-end Networked Science at Exascale) is to enable National Labs and universities to request and provision end-to-end intelligent network services for their application workflows leveraging SDN (Software-Defined Networking) capabilities. This work aims to allow LHC Experiments and Rucio, the data management software used by CMS Experiment, to allocate and prioritize certain data transfers over the wide area network. In this paper, we will present the current progress of the integration of SENSE, Multi-domain end-to-end SDN Orchestration with QoS (Quality of Service) capabilities, with Rucio, the data management software used by CMS Experiment.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2019012
- PAR ID:
- 10548861
- Editor(s):
- De_Vita, R; Espinal, X; Laycock, P; Shadura, O
- Publisher / Repository:
- EPJ Web of Conferences
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- EPJ Web of Conferences
- Volume:
- 295
- ISSN:
- 2100-014X
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 01009
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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