NSF Award
1541218
Marshall University is improving and expanding its campus research network to offer high-performance end-to-end network connectivity between research facilities by implementing: a) Science DMZ to provide a dedicated network with configuration and policies optimized for scientific applications. b) a dedicated data transfer node to offer a high-speed storage server with adequate data store to host large data sets and 10G transfer rate on the Science DMZ and c) high performance network improvement supporting 10-40 Gb/s connectivity between research facilities, laboratories and the campus core network/data center. The end-to-end network performance measurement is based on the perfSONAR framework allowing constant monitoring of performance and latency. <br/><br/>The improved network infrastructures provides support to advanced data-intensive scientific research by enhancing data transfer from the end points at the researcher locations to the main campus research facilities including the Robert C Byrd Biotechnology Science Center, Genomics & Bioinformatics Core Facility (GABC), Arthur Weisberg Family Applied Engineering Complex, Visualization Lab, and Big Green XSEDE-compatible High Performance Computing cluster in University data center and the backup facility.<br/><br/>The new network capabilities enable faster data transfer for intra-campus connectivity and remove the bottleneck in external connectivity to foster collaboration with other institutions over the Internet2 national network. The project aligns with the institution's cyberinfrastructure plan in achieving the goal of creating a scalable network design that supports current and future science requirements to advance scientific research.
