At SC24, ESnet Staff Will Be Presenting, Demo-ing — and Supporting SCinet

Yatish Kumar gives a demonstration of the ESnet SmartNIC at the Department of Energy’s  SC23 booth.  

In just a few days, one of the biggest — if not the biggest — networking events of the year for Energy Sciences Network staff will begin. The International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis, known as SC, will be held in Atlanta Nov. 17-22, and more than two dozen ESnetters will be presenting, volunteering, and/or attending. 

Read on for some highlights of what they’re up to. For SC24 reminders, recaps, and photos, be sure to follow ESnet on LinkedIn and Instagram! 

ESnet Talks and Demos

There are two major themes underlying many of ESnet’s presentations at SC24: real-time streaming of instrument data (such as the EJFAT prototype and the GRETA/DELERIA project) and activities related to the Department of Energy’s Integrated Research Infrastructure (IRI) program, for which several ESnetters are playing key roles.

Sunday, Nov. 17

• Eli Dart: Data, Data Everywhere panel, part of the annual Parallel Data Systems Workshop, 4:35 pm, B309

Monday, Nov. 18

• Eli Dart, Brian Tierney, Kiran Vasu, and others: Recent Linux Improvements that Impact TCP Throughput: Insights from R&E Networks (INDIS Workshop), 2 p.m. 11/18 B305
• ESnet staff were involved with this DIII-D collaboration and will be in attendance: IRI Fusion Pathfinder Multi-Facility (demo), 7 p.m. 11/18 at the DOE booth, #3401 in the exhibit hall 
• John Wu with Paul Lin, NERSC, on the DIII-D Fusion Pathfinder Project: Accurate in-situ in-transit analysis of particle diffusion for large-scale tokamak simulations (demo), 8 p.m. 11/18 at the DOE booth (#3401) 

Tuesday, Nov. 19

• Yatish Kumar (and Vardan Gyurjyan, Jefferson Lab): Practical Hardware Accelerated Real-Time Multi-facility Streaming Workflow (EJFAT) demo, 11 a.m. 11/19 at the DOE booth (#3401)   
• Eli Dart (and others): Birds of a Feather: Real-Time Scientific Data Streaming to HPC Nodes: Challenges and Innovations, 12:15 p.m. 11/19, B213
• Justas Balcas: Network control that makes SENSE (part of SC24-NRE-022 PDF and SC24-NRE-023 PDF), 11/19, 4:20 pm, SCinet Theater (#2049)
• Eli Dart (with Debbie Bard, NERSC, and others): IRI Outreach and Engagement committee office hours, 2 pm 11/19 and 11/20 in the DOE booth (#3401) 

Wednesday, Nov. 20

• Yatish Kumar (and Vardan Gyurjyan, Jefferson Lab): Demo: Practical Hardware Accelerated Real-Time Multi-facility Streaming Workflow (EJFAT), 2 p.m. 11/20 at the DOE booth (#3401) 
• Tom Lehman, Xi Yang, Justas Balcas: Presentation — SENSE Services for Data Movement Systems (XRootD, dCache), 11/20, 3:40 p.m., SCinet Theater (#2049) 
• Yatish Kumar (with Ilya Baldin, Jefferson Lab: Featured Booth Talk: Implementing Time-Critical Streaming Science Patterns Using Distributed Computational Facilities, 4 p.m. 11/20 at the DOE booth (#3401)  

Thursday, Nov. 21

• John MacAuley, Xi Yang, and others: Birds of a Feather: IRI: What novel interfaces will HPC expose for cross-facility workflows?, 12:15 p.m. 11/21, B311
• Eric Pouyoul (with Raj Kettimuthu/Argonne and Mario Cromaz, Berkeley Lab): Demo: GRETA/DELERIA integration with SciStream, 12:40 p.m. 11/21, SCinet Theater (#2049)
• Justas Balcas: FABRIC Research Infrastructure Lightning Talk — Traffic Steering Without the Switch: Offloading Big Flows to the NIC, 1:40-1:50 p.m. (RENCI Booth #3923)

Supporting SCinet

SC24’s temporary network, known as SCinet, will break records again this year, offering 8.41 terabits per second of wide area network (WAN) bandwidth, up from last year’s already blazing 6.71 Tbps. When it goes live, SCinet will once again be the fastest temporary network in the world, ready to support leading-edge demonstrations (such as those that are part of the National Research Exhibition) that will push the boundaries of high performance networking and computing. 

As the saying goes, “SCinet takes a year to plan, a month to build, a week to operate, and a day to tear down,” and indeed, the brainstorming and research phase for SCinet at SC24 began in December 2023. The roughly 200 volunteers from around the U.S. and the world are divided into multiple teams and right now most are in the very intense setup phase. 

ESnet has a long history of supporting SCinet’s design, planning, and construction over the decades that SC has been held, including with several staff members serving as SCinet Chair. 

Look for the following ESnet SCinet volunteers at SC.

SCinet Routing Team Co-Chair Dylan Jacob always has fun at SC

SCinet Executive Advisor: Jason Zurawski

Contributor Relations Team Member: Gizella Kapus

Routing

• Co-Chair: Dylan Jacob
• Team Members: Ryan Vredenburg, Bill Stephens

WAN Transport

• Co-Chair: Cody Rotermund
• Team Members: John Christman

Network Security 

• Team Member: Patrick Storm

Women in Networking at SC (WINS)

• Team Co-Chair: Fatema Bannat Wala
• ESnet WINS Director: Kate Robinson

SCinet Network Support

Executive Director Inder Monga (center) accepts ESnet's SCinet Platinum Sponsor Award in 2023

This year, ESnet has been awarded Platinum status as a SCinet contributor, the second-highest level, for its loans of bandwidth and equipment — not to mention the many person-hours of its cadre of SCinet volunteers. 

Some highlights of the support that ESnet is providing for SC24’s 8.41 Tbps WAN capacity: 

• 8x200G optical waves for 4x400G ethernet circuits from Los Angeles to SC24 on Cisco 1004 equipment, to support Caltech experiments and demonstrations.
• 1x400G wave from Berkeley, California, to SC24 in Atlanta, to extend the ESnet Testbed for ESnet Testbed experiments and demonstrations.
• 4x400G waves from McLean, Virginia, to SC24 in Atlanta, via Ciena Wavelogic5 Nano pluggables, to support the Starlight and Navy Research Lab experiments and demonstrations.
• 1x400G wave from ATLA to SC24 for ESnet6 Peering (Nokia 400G ZR+) to provide ScienceDMZ access to ESnet-connected peers and ESnet resources.
• 1x400G wave from ATLA to SC24 for Lumen Miami circuit metro extension to support FIU/Amlight experiments and demonstrations.
• 1x100G wave from ATLA to SC24 via FIU/Amlight to support NICT experiments and demonstrations.

For SC24 reminders, recaps, and photos, be sure to follow ESnet on LinkedIn and Instagram!