Jason Zurawski

The Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) is the high-performance network user facility for the US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science (SC) and delivers highly reliable data transport capabilities optimized for the requirements of data-intensive science. In essence, ESnet is the circulatory system that enables the DOE science mission by connecting all its laboratories and facilities in the US and abroad. ESnet is funded and stewarded by the Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) program and managed and operated by the Scientific Networking Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). ESnet is widely regarded as a global leader in the research and education networking community.

ESnet interconnects DOE national laboratories, user facilities, and major experiments so that scientists can use remote instruments and computing resources as well as share data with collaborators, transfer large datasets, and access distributed data repositories. ESnet is specifically built to provide a range of network services tailored to meet the unique requirements of the DOE’s data-intensive science.

Between July 2023 and October 2023, ESnet and the Nuclear Physics program (NP) of the DOE SC organized an ESnet requirements review of NP-supported activities. Preparation for these events included identification of key stakeholders: program and facility management, research groups, and technology providers. Each stakeholder group was asked to prepare formal case study documents about its relationship to the NP program to build a complete understanding of the current, near-term, and long-term status, expectations, and processes that will support the science going forward.

The Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) is the high-performance network user facility for the US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science (SC) and delivers highly reliable data transport capabilities optimized for the requirements of data-intensive science. In essence, ESnet is the circulatory system that enables the DOE science mission by connecting all its laboratories and facilities in the US and abroad. ESnet is funded and stewarded by the Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) program and managed and operated by the Scientific Networking Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). ESnet is widely regarded as a global leader in the research and education networking community.

ESnet interconnects DOE national laboratories, user facilities, and major experiments so that scientists can use remote instruments and computing resources as well as share data with collaborators, transfer large datasets, and access distributed data repositories. ESnet is specifically built to provide a range of network services tailored to meet the unique requirements of the DOE’s data-intensive science.

In July 2023, the Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) and the High Energy Physics program (HEP) of the DOE SC organized an interim ESnet requirements review of HEP-supported activities, to follow up on the work started during the 2020 HEP Network Requirements Review. Preparation for these events included checking back with the key stakeholders: program and facility management, research groups, and technology providers. Each stakeholder group was asked to prepare updates to their previously submitted case study documents, so that ESnet could update the understanding of any changes to the current, near-term, and long-term status, expectations, and processes that will support the science activities of the program.

The Department of Energy (DOE) ensures America’s security and prosperity by addressing its energy, environmental, and nuclear challenges through transformative science and technology solutions. The DOE’s Office of Science (SC) delivers groundbreaking scientific discoveries and major scientific tools that transform our understanding of nature and advance the energy, economic, and national security of the United States. The SC’s programs advance DOE mission science across a wide range of disciplines and have developed the research infrastructure needed to remain at the forefront of scientific discovery.

The DOE SC’s world-class research infrastructure — exemplified by the 28 SC scientific user facilities — provides the research community with premier observational, experimental, computational, and network capabilities. Each user facility is designed to provide unique capabilities to advance core DOE mission science for its sponsor SC program and to stimulate a rich discovery and innovation ecosystem.

Research communities gather and flourish around each user facility, bringing together diverse perspectives. A hallmark of many facilities is the large population of students, postdoctoral researchers, and early-career scientists who contribute as full-fledged users. These facility staff and users collaborate over years to devise new approaches to utilizing the user facility’s core capabilities. The history of the SC user facilities has many examples of wildly inventive researchers challenging operational orthodoxy to pioneer new vistas of discovery; for example, the use of the synchrotron X-ray light sources for study of proteins and other large biological molecules. This continual reinvention of the practice of science — as users and staff forge novel approaches expressed in research workflows — unlocks new discoveries and propels scientific progress.

Within this research ecosystem, the high performance computing (HPC) and networking user facilities stewarded by SC’s Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) program play a dynamic cross-cutting role, enabling complex workflows demanding high performance data, networking, and computing solutions. The DOE SC’s three HPC user facilities and the Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) high-performance research network serve all of the SC’s programs as well as the global research community. Argonne Leadership Computing Facility (ALCF), the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC), and Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF) conceive, build, and provide access to a range of supercomputing, advanced computing, and large-scale data-infrastructure platforms, while ESnet interconnects DOE SC research infrastructure and enables seamless exchange of scientific data. All four facilities operate testbeds to expand the frontiers of computing and networking research. Together, the ASCR facilities enterprise seeks to understand and meet the needs and requirements across SC and DOE domain science programs and priority efforts, highlighted by the formal requirements reviews (RRs) methodology.

In recent years, the research communities around the SC user facilities have begun experimenting with and demanding solutions integrated with HPC and data infrastructure. This rise of integrated-science approaches is documented in many community and high-level government reports. At the dawn of the era of exascale science and the acceleration of artificial intelligence (AI) innovation, there is a broad need for integrated computational, data, and networking solutions.

In response to these drivers, DOE has developed a vision for an Integrated Research Infrastructure (IRI): To empower researchers to meld DOE’s world-class research tools, infrastructure, and user facilities seamlessly and securely in novel ways to radically accelerate discovery and innovation.

The IRI vision is fundamentally about establishing new data-management and computational paradigms within which DOE SC user facilities and their research communities work together to improve existing capabilities and create new possibilities by building bridges across traditional silos. Implementation of IRI solutions will give researchers simple and powerful tools with which to implement multi-facility research data workflows.

In 2022, SC leadership directed the Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) program to conduct the Integrated Research Infrastructure Architecture Blueprint Activity (IRI ABA) to produce a reference framework to inform a coordinated, SC-wide strategy for IRI. This activity convened the SC science programs and more than 150 DOE national laboratory experts from all 28 SC user facilities across 13 national laboratories to consider the technological, policy, and sociological challenges to implementing IRI.

Through a series of cross-cutting sprint exercises facilitated by the IRI ABA leadership group and peer facilitators, participants produced an IRI Framework based on the IRI Vision and comprising:

• IRI Science Patterns spanning DOE science domains;
• IRI Practice Areas needed for implementation;
• IRI blueprints that connect Patterns and Practice Areas;
• Overarching principles for realizing the DOE-wide IRI ecosystem.

The resulting IRI framework and blueprints provide the conceptual foundations to move forward with organized, coordinated DOE implementation efforts. The next step is to identify urgencies and ripe areas for focused efforts that uplift multiple communities.

Upon completion of the IRI ABA framework, ESnet applied the IRI Science Patterns lens and undertook a metaanalysis of ESnet’s Requirements Reviews (RRs), the core strategic planning documents that animate the multiyear partnerships between ESnet and five of the DOE SC programs. Between 2019 and 2023, ESnet completed a new round of RRs with the following SC programs: Nuclear Physics (2019-20), High Energy Physics (2020-21), Fusion Energy Sciences (2021-22), Basic Energy Sciences (2021-22), and Biological and Environmental Research (2022-23). Together these ESnet RRs provide a rich trove of insights into opportunities for immediate IRI progress and investment.

Our meta-analysis of 74 high-priority case studies reveals that:

• -There are a significant number of research workflows spanning materials science, fusion energy, nuclear physics, and biological science that have a similar structure. Creation of common software components to improve these workflows’ performance and scalability will benefit researchers in all of these areas.
• There is broad opportunity to accelerate scientific productivity and scientific output across DOE facilities by integrating them with each other and with high performance computing and networking.
• The ESnet RRs’ blending of retrospective and prospective insight affirms that the IRI patterns are persistent across time and likely to persist into the future, offering value as a basis for analysis and strategic planning going forward.

In April 2022, ESnet and the Office of High Energy Physics (HEP) of the DOE SC organized an ESnet requirements review of HEP-supported activities. Preparation for the review included identification of key stakeholders: program and facility management, research groups, and technology providers. Each stakeholder group was asked to prepare formal case study documents about the group’s relationship to the HEP program to build a complete understanding of the current, near-term, and long-term status, expectations, and processes that will support the science going forward. A series of pre-planning meetings better prepared case study authors for this task, along with guidance on how the review would proceed in a virtual fashion.

The Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) is the high-performance network user facility for the US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science (SC) and delivers highly reliable data transport capabilities optimized for the requirements of data-intensive science. In essence, ESnet is the circulatory system that enables the DOE science mission by connecting all of its laboratories and facilities in the US and abroad. ESnet is funded and stewarded by the Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) program and managed and operated by the Scientific Networking Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL).

The Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) is the high-performance network user facility for the US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science (SC) and delivers highly reliable data transport capabilities optimized for the requirements of data-intensive science. In essence, ESnet is the circulatory system that enables the DOE science mission by connecting all of its laboratories and facilities in the US and abroad. ESnet is funded and stewarded by the Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) program and managed and operated by the Scientific Networking Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL).

ESnet is widely regarded as a global leader in the research and education networking community. Throughout 2021, ESnet and the Office of Fusion Energy Sciences (FES) of the DOE SC organized an ESnet requirements review of FES-supported activities. Preparation for these events included identification of key stakeholders: program and facility management, research groups, and technology providers. Each stakeholder group was asked to prepare formal case study documents about their relationship to the FES program to build a complete understanding of the current, near-term, and long-term status, expectations, and processes that will support the science going forward.

Office of Basic Energy Sciences, DOE Office of Science; Energy Sciences Network; Gaithersburg, MD — September 22 and 23, 2010

Participants and Contributors; Alan Biocca, LBNL (Advanced Light Source); Rich Carlson, DOE/SC/ASCR (Program Manager); Jackie Chen, SNL/CA (Chemistry/Combustion); Steve Cotter, ESnet (Networking); Eli Dart, ESnet (Networking); Vince Dattoria, DOE/SC/ASCR (ESnet Program Manager); Jim Davenport, DOE/SC/BES (BES Program); Alexander Gaenko, Ames Lab (Chemistry); Paul Kent, ORNL (Materials Science, Simulations); Monica Lamm, Ames Lab (Computational Chemistry); Stephen Miller, ORNL (Spallation Neutron Source); Chris Mundy, PNNL (Chemical Physics); Thomas Ndousse, DOE/SC/ASCR (ASCR Program); Mark Pederson, DOE/SC/BES (BES Program); Amedeo Perazzo, SLAC (Linac Coherent Light Source); Razvan Popescu, BNL (National Synchrotron Light Source); Damian Rouson, SNL/CA (Chemistry/Combustion); Yukiko Sekine, DOE/SC/ASCR (NERSC Program Manager); Bobby Sumpter, ORNL (Computer Science and Mathematics and Center for Nanophase; Materials Sciences); Brian Tierney, ESnet (Networking); Cai-Zhuang Wang, Ames Lab (Computer Science/Simulations); Steve Whitelam, LBNL (Molecular Foundry); Jason Zurawski, Internet2 (Networking)

Office of Biological and Environmental Research, DOE Office of Science Energy Sciences Network Rockville, MD — April 29 and 30, 2010. This is LBNL report LBNL-4089E.

Participants and Contributors: Kiran Alapaty, DOE/SC/BER (Atmospheric System Research) Ben Allen, LANL (Bioinformatics) Greg Bell, ESnet (Networking) David Benton, GLBRC/University of Wisconsin (Informatics) Tom Brettin, ORNL (Bioinformatics) Shane Canon, NERSC (Data Systems) Rich Carlson, DOE/SC/ASCR (Network Research) Steve Cotter, ESnet (Networking) Silvia Crivelli, LBNL (JBEI) Eli Dart, ESnet (Networking) Vince Dattoria, DOE/SC/ASCR (ESnet Program Manager) Narayan Desai, ANL (Networking) Richard Egan, ANL (ARM) Jeff Flick, NOAA (Networking) Ken Goodwin, PSC/NLR (Networking) Susan Gregurick, DOE/SC/BER (Computational Biology) Susan Hicks, ORNL (Networking) Bill Johnston, ESnet (Networking) Bert de Jong, PNNL (EMSL/HPC) Kerstin Kleese van Dam, PNNL (Data Management) Miron Livny, University of Wisconsin (Open Science Grid) Victor Markowitz, LBNL/JGI (Genomics) Jim McGraw, LLNL (HPC/Climate) Raymond McCord, ORNL (ARM) Chris Oehmen, PNNL (Bioinformatics/ScalaBLAST) Kevin Regimbal, PNNL (Networking/HPC) Galen Shipman, ORNL (ESG/Climate) Gary Strand, NCAR (Climate) Brian Tierney, ESnet (Networking) Susan Turnbull, DOE/SC/ASCR (Collaboratories, Middleware) Dean Williams, LLNL (ESG/Climate) Jason Zurawski, Internet2 (Networking)  

Editors: Eli Dart, ESnet; Brian Tierney, ESnet

Office of High Energy Physics, DOE Office of Science Energy Sciences Network Gaithersburg, MD. LBNL-3397E.

Participants and Contributors: Jon Bakken, FNAL (LHC/CMS) Artur Barczyk, Caltech (LHC/Networking) Alan Blatecky, NSF (NSF Cyberinfrastructure) Amber Boehnlein, DOE/SC/HEP (HEP Program Office) Rich Carlson, Internet2 (Networking) Sergei Chekanov, ANL (LHC/ATLAS) Steve Cotter, ESnet (Networking) Les Cottrell, SLAC (Networking) Glen Crawford, DOE/SC/HEP (HEP Program Office) Matt Crawford, FNAL (Networking/Storage) Eli Dart, ESnet (Networking) Vince Dattoria, DOE/SC/ASCR (ASCR Program Office) Michael Ernst, BNL (HEP/LHC/ATLAS) Ian Fisk, FNAL (LHC/CMS) Rob Gardner, University of Chicago (HEP/LHC/ATLAS) Bill Johnston, ESnet (Networking) Steve Kent, FNAL (Astroparticle) Stephan Lammel, FNAL (FNAL Experiments and Facilities) Stewart Loken, LBNL (HEP) Joe Metzger, ESnet (Networking) Richard Mount, SLAC (HEP) Thomas Ndousse-Fetter, DOE/SC/ASCR (Network Research) Harvey Newman, Caltech (HEP/LHC/Networking) Jennifer Schopf, NSF (NSF Cyberinfrastructure) Yukiko Sekine, DOE/SC/ASCR (NERSC Program Manager) Alan Stone, DOE/SC/HEP (HEP Program Office) Brian Tierney, ESnet (Networking) Craig Tull, LBNL (Daya Bay) Jason Zurawski, Internet2 (Networking)