CC* Networking Infrastructure: Enabling Big Science and Big Data Projects at the University of Massachusetts

Big science and big data scientific projects rely critically on high speed, reliable internet network connections to share and process scientific data. Data flows through major national and international research networks, which connect national laboratories and research universities across the world. The main goal of this project is to provide a modern network connection between the University of Massachusetts (UMass) Amherst and these networks to enable scientific projects in Astronomy, Computer Science, Life Sciences, and Physics. Several big data scientific projects at UMass Amherst rely on sharing information with other research institutes across the world via major national and international research networks, such as ESnet and Internet2. The main computing infrastructure for the projects at UMass Amherst is located at the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center (MGHPCC). This project connects the UMass Amherst computing resources at the MGHPCC directly to the major research networks. The connection is carried out as part of the Northeast Research and Education Network (NEREN), which is a consortium of several educational institutions in the northeast and upstate NY. The new 400+ Gbps fiber-based connection between these institutions and the major research networks meets the required modern standards for connection speed and reliability, and enables participation in big data research projects. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.