Connecting Live in Austin with One of the Mosts Powerful Networks in the World

The SCinet network, SC’s Supercomputing Internet, is now live! On November 14, the Austin Convention Center became home to the fastest and most innovative computer network in the world built by volunteers, delivering more than 1.6 terabits per second of network bandwidth to the SC conference (SC15).

SCinet gives the SC conference attendees a unique chance to showcase and discover the latest research in HPC. By building the fastest, most innovative operational network possible every year, SCinet enables data-intensive research and live-use of high performing hardware to run multi-gigabit demonstrations, requiring a fast and robust infrastructure.

SC15 SCinet Contributors (click to enlarge).

“This network is unrivaled with regards to its capabilities and the broad-reaching influence, both nationally and internationally, to support demonstrations and experiments that could not be done easily in any other place. It’s a one-of-a-kind environment where research meets production,” says Davey Wheeler, SCinet Chair and Senior Network Engineer from the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). “As the SCinet Chair leading the development of this network, this year is a culmination of 17 years of experience working on SCinet from year to year. It is humbling and honoring to be able to work aside these colleagues and see the tremendous talent, dedication, and creativity of the volunteers.”

SCinet is built by a team of expert volunteers from around the world, taking one year to design the network, three weeks to set it up, four days to operate it, and twenty-four hours to tear it down. Over 100 engineers from industry, academia and government institutions came together to build this network, using over $22 million in loaned equipment and over 89 miles of newly installed fiber optic cables.

“Having been the SCinet Chair for SC07 in Reno, I am intimately familiar with the incredible amount of planning and work that goes into creating what will be the most powerful network. Over 130 SCinet volunteers from more than 15 countries have worked energetically for the past year to provide wired and wireless access to our conference attendees, and the platform for our exhibitors to showcase bandwidth-driven HPC and cloud computing applications. SCinet continues to be a crucial part of SC and I am extremely grateful for their hard work,” says Jackie Kern, Director of IT Shared Services at UIUC and SC15 Conference Chair.

For SC15, SCinet has connected multiple 100 gigabit circuits, bringing an unprecedented 1.62 terabits per second of bandwidth to the Austin Convention Center. Lonestar Education and Research Network (LEARN) leads this effort in collaboration with leading national and international research networks and commodity providers. LEARN and SCinet supports the HPC community by providing multiple 100 gigabit waves and complementary capabilities throughout the SC15 conference events. 

In addition to the massive external capacity SCinet brings to the convention center, the network is also supporting research initiatives through a half-day workshop, Innovating the Network for Data-Intensive Science (INDIS); and the Network Research Exhibition (NRE). SCinet organizes the INDIS workshop to discuss technical papers and show floor demonstrations dedicated to high performance networking technologies, innovations, protocols, hardware, and much more.

Further, SCinet is providing the wireless connectivity for more than 11,000 expected conference attendees throughout the conference areas. The SCinet team built the SC15 wireless network using 339 wireless access points to support more than 4,000 simultaneous users on the conference wifi. The wireless network will include support for eduroam (education roaming) service, which allows users (researchers, teachers, students, and staff) from participating institutions to securely access the protected wireless network using their home organization’s login credentials.

SCinet is the result of the hard work and significant contributions of many government, research, education and corporate collaborators who have volunteered time, equipment and expertise to ensure SC15’s success. This year, SCinet continued the Contributors Program and we would like to give a special thank you to all SCinet contributors and volunteers!

Platinum contributors: CenturyLink, Ciena, ESnet, Infinera, Internet2, Juniper Networks, and Lonestar Education and Research Network (LEARN).

Gold contributors: Brocade, Cisco, and Gigamon.

Silver contributors: Alcatel-Lucent, Arista, Austin Convention Center, Dell, Greater Austin Area Telecommunications Network (GAATN), inMon, IXIA, Reservoir Labs, Spirent, and The University of Texas System.

Bronze contributors: CABLExpress, Commscope, Splunk, Verisign, and Viavi Solutions.

Volunteers from the following organizations supporting the development and deployment of SCinet: Alcatel-Lucent, Army Research Laboratory, CABLExpress Corporation, CENIC, CenturyLink, Ciena, Cisco, Clemson University, DFN-Verein, DataDirect Networks, Dell Research, Energy Sciences Network (ESnet), Florida LambdaRail (FLR), Freelance, Georgia Institute of Technology, Idaho State University, InMon Corporation, Indiana University, Indiana University GlobalNOC, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Infinera, Internet Consulting of Vermont, Internet2, JDSU, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Lonestar Education and Research Network (LEARN), Louisiana Optical Network Initiative (LONI), Louisiana State University, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Pennsylvania State University, Purdue University, REANNZ, Radware, Reservoir Labs, SURFnet, Sandia National Laboratories, The University of Texas at Austin, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, University of Amsterdam, University of California, San Diego, University of Colorado Boulder, University of Heidelberg, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Michigan, University of Oklahoma, University of Pittsburgh, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, University of Texas, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Utah Education Network, and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

If you’re interested in volunteering for SCinet or participating in the Contributor’s Program for SC16, please email scinet@info.supercomputing.org.

Eight Questions with "HPC Matters" Chair Wilf Pinfold from Intel

Wilf Pinfold

Wilf Pinfold has a PhD in Computational Fluid Dynamics and Studied Business at Stanford.  He serves as the HPC (High Performance Computing) Matters Chair as well as the Chair of the ACM SIGHPC Advisory Board.

What is your role in the “HPC Matters” program?
SC conference organizers launched the “HPC Matters” program in 2013 with support to develop it over a three-year period. I am honored to have been asked to chair the program through this three-year launch period.
   
SC15: How/when did this get started?
My first conversation with the SC Steering committee about a program that reaches beyond the technical community and communicates the importance of high performance computing to politicians and the general public was in 2006. Since then there have been several programs such as “masterworks”, but they have not had multi-year support. We believe this multi-year program will be a breakthrough.

What are the goals?
Starting in November 2013, the SC conference organizers launched “HPC Matters” to encourage members of the computational sciences community to share their thoughts, vision, and experiences with how High Performance Computers are used to improve the lives of people all over the world. Four pillars provide structure to the program:
1.    Influencing Daily Lives
2.    Science and Engineering
3.    Economic
4.    Education

The inaugural HPC Matters Plenary opened to a packed house

What were some of the highlights from last year?
The SC14 launch was excellent with a Video Challenge, a Plenary and a 
speaker program called the Impact Showcase.

The HPC Matters video challenge had four award winners:

o    Micron Technology for the Funniest Video
o    Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) for the Most Creative Video
o    Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC) for the Most Inspiring
o    National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) for the Most Likes/Views

The conference also created four videos highlighting the ways in which supercomputers benefit society via health/consumer products, entertainment, weather forecasting, and climate modeling.

The HPC Matters Plenary was given by Dr Eng Lim Goh, CTO of SGI, who discussed the vital role HPC plays in helping researchers and organizations create a better world. Dr. Goh explained what HPC makes possible across industry with real-world examples. He invited Dr. Piyush Mehrotra, chief, from NASA Advanced Supercomputing Division, to speak on HPC-based research that is leading us to revolutionary insights about the world.

The Impact Showcase, launched  in 2013, is designed to introduce attendees to the many ways that HPC matters in our world, through testimonials from companies large and small who many times are clients of exhibitors on the show floor.  Their stories relate real-world experiences of what it took to embrace HPC to better compete and succeed in their line of endeavor.

What can attendees expect this year?
These programs will be back along with new programs for Technical Program, Exhibitors, and Students. Stay tuned as these get rolled out in 2015.
     
How can organizations or individuals get involved?
There will be a call for participation in May 2015 looking for parties interested in the HPC Matters Plenary, the Video Challenge and Impact Showcase.

Why is this important?
For the whole HPC community it is important because we need the politicians and their electorate to understand the value of HPC so our scientists and researchers continue to have the best equipment to keep doing the analyses that make the world a better place.

As a veteran of the HPC industry, what keeps you motivated?
In HPC there is always something new to learn, some new discovery or some significant advance. Each day you can see how HPC makes the world better and that is highly motivating.