NSF Infrastructure Grant
Infrastructure is not very sexy (unless you are an engineer, I suppose). Typically we ignore the infrastructure we are using and notice it only if it does not work as expected. Suppose you are a scientist or anyone needing a high speed, high bandwidth connection. Suppose you are C. D. Clark sending data to the K-State high performance computing cluster. You try to send a big file over your campus connection to be processed by Beocat, the cluster at KSU. Six hours later, your big file is still slowly making its way from your computer to KSU. At other times if you are Gordon Carlson you depend on a high bandwidth data stream (high definition 3-D video) to a site in Chicago. Your streaming data gets interrupted and restarts many times. Many of us have had the experience of video streaming content stopping and starting when watching Netflix on a slow connection. This illustrates the problem with using computers not optimized for fast data transfer and a network not built for speed. The University network needs to provide security and bandwidth for administrative functions, and the bandwidth provided for non-administrative or teaching functions needs to be controlled (even throttled down at times). Furthermore, the firewall servers that inspect packets are not built for speed, and the inspection slows the data stream moving over the network. Other researchers and teachers such as Paul Adams, Grady Dixon, and Bill Stark have had similar problems when they move large datasets across the campus network.
This is the problem that the National Science Foundation was trying to solve by providing infrastructure grants to Universities. Recognizing the researchers’ need for unfettered access and for fast data transfer, the NSF funded our application to upgrade our cyber infrastructure. Researchers at FHSU have a variety of interesting projects that require good networking resources. Professor C. D. Clark needs a high speed, high bandwidth connection to high performance computing resources at Kansas State University (Beocat) and to the Air Force Research Laboratory in San Antonio, Texas. He and his student researchers run simulations to determine the safety limits of lasers on human retinas. Dr. Gordon Carlson needs reliable high bandwidth connections for streaming high definition, 3D video, to colleagues in Chicago and Hawaii and for moving 3D radiologic data for Allied Health. Dr. Grady Dixon needs bandwidth for moving archived weather data and NOAA data for his study of “Tornado Valley” and for data at West Point. Professor Bill Stark also needs a fast connection to Kansas State University at Salina to a colleague there and for moving and storing massive amounts of video data collected by drones. The Agriculture Department needs bandwidth for drone data related to agricultural production. Informatics needs adequate bandwidth for its research involving routing various kinds of dataflows over the wide area network and to connect to KSU’s Beocat cluster. Dr. Paul Adams uses a variety of datasets including the Earth Observing Data and Information System (EOSDIS) and LandSAT data.
To address these needs the NSF helps Universities upgrade network, server, and storage resources to help scientists in their research. Specifically, the NSF helped FHSU create a Science DMZ. Science DMZs allow scientific data to bypass the network restrictions by providing alternate paths to off-campus resources. They allow the scientists to connect more directly to high-performance resources while protecting the campus network. The DMZ is segregated from the general purpose campus network so that when it uses a lot of bandwidth, the campus network is not adversely affected by it. Scientists can send and receive very large files quickly without interrupted the campus teaching and administrative network functions.
To create the DMZ the NSF helped to fund the following components:
- Upgrading the campus border router to 10 gbps
- Upgrading the campus core router to handle multiple 10 gbps fiber connections
- Creating a fast data transfer node with Globus connectivity (a server to move data across the web very quickly)
- Providing a number of “beefed up” personal computers optimized for moving data to the data transfer node or to the campus border router that have fiber connectors to building switches (the goal: 10 gbps from PC to the Internet)
- Providing additional storage for data moved to and from Internet sites
- Upgrading selected switches in buildings housing researchers mentioned above to handle the 10 gbps fiber connected PCs and servers
By these grants the National Science Foundation supports scientific research by helping institutions upgrade and redesign their computing and networking infrastructure. Researchers typically have a variety of challenges in connecting to computing resources off-campus. Campus networks are not built to provide high-bandwidth resources to specific researchers. Campus networks are built to provide secure, reliable computing resources for email, hosting websites, supporting learning management systems, hosting or facilitating enterprise resource planning system (like Workday), and a variety of related systems. Because the campus network needs to be reliable and to be secure, network administrators necessarily create firewalls, host intrusion detection systems, and control the flow of network traffic. All of these security features tend to slow the network traffic down as the data flows increase. The usual security systems handle the typical network data flows well. The system does not handle the needs of individual researchers to move massive amounts of data across the network. The firewalls inspect the packets of typical network flow, but when there are big data flows across the network, the network cannot handle them quickly.
By funding the Science DMZ which includes the upgraded switches, fiber, and upgraded PCs, the researchers can connect point to point with a very fast (10 gbps vs 1 gbps) connection. This is not as easy as putting a web address in a browser, but with the help of the network staff these individual connections are put into place. Once they are in place the researchers and students can connect to colleagues and resources at very high speeds. So, C. D. Clark and his students can run multiple simulations in a day instead of just one. Bill Stark will be able to use large data files for teaching instead of carefully reducing the resolution of video files collected from the drones or working with only very small areas. Gordon Carlson is now able to move big data files while simultaneously streaming high quality video to remote sites. Paul Adams can move large video data files from balloons flying in Western Kansas and large data sets from various federal sites. Grady Dixon can work with large weather data files in his research on tornados. Because C. D. Clark and Gordon Carson have learned how to use and to set up these connections, they are now able to help others. The networking and server staff have gone the extra mile to install and test server software and to facilitate the network connections to make all of this work. We owe a debt to the NSF for assisting us in creating the infrastructure and the incentive for researchers to work with the networking and server staff.
In this website are links to videos from the researchers who talk about their research projects. This is not a static site. I will add videos as they become available. I have also included some links to Science Café presentations from these researchers and from selected other researchers.
Video Links
If you want some additional information about the grant and details about the upgrades watch this video. I talk about some of the purchases made by the grant.
Dr. Grady Dixon's video about mortality rates and weather.
Dr. Jack Maseberg and Dr. Paul Adams on FHSU’s High-Altitude Balloon Launch (the launch video)
Science Café Presentations
Dr. Grady Dixon discusses: “Are Suicide Rates Affected by Weather”. View Flyer
Dr. Grady Dixon discusses “Tornado Valley.” View Flyer
Dr. Gordon Carson on “10,000 Years of Human communication in 30 Minutes” View Flyer
Dr. C. D. Clark and other Instructors on “Past Nobel Peace Prize Laureates.” View Flyer
Dr. C. D. Clark and other Instructors on “PechaKucha 20 Images x 20 Seconds” View Flyer
Dr. Paul Adams on “Citizen Science: Science Of, By, and For People” View Flyer
