BER Requirements Review 2022

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Goals

The primary purpose of an ESnet Requirements Review is to discuss and analyze current and planned science use cases and anticipated data output of a particular program, user facility, or project to inform ESnet’s strategic planning, including network operations, capacity upgrades, and other service investments. The goal of this particular review is to accurately characterize the networking requirements of science funded by the BER Program Office. These requirements will serve as input to the ESnet architecture and planning processes, and will help ensure that ESnet continues to provide world-class support for scientific discovery for DOE scientists and their collaborators. The tangible outcome of the review will be a document that includes both the network requirements and a supporting narrative.

The Requirements Review is typically an in-person event. By design, it is meant to be a highly conversational process through which all participants gain shared insight into the salient data management challenges of the subject program/facility/project. The ESnet Science Engagement Team organizes, convenes, and executes the Review in close coordination with the ESnet Program Manager and one or more leads from the subject program/project/facility.

ESnet will focus the Review to deliver the following outcomes:

Identification and analysis of any data management gaps and/or network bottlenecks that are barriers to achieving the scientific goals.
A forecast of capacity/bandwidth needs by area of science, particularly in geographic regions where data production/consumption is anticipated to increase or decrease.
Development of a shared understanding of the data management needs, challenges, and capability gaps that could inform strategic investments in solutions.

Review Objectives, Outcomes, and Artifacts

Through a cases study methodology, the Review provides ESnet with information about:

Existing and planned data intensive science experiments and/or user facilities, including the geographical locations of experimental site(s), computing resource(s), data storage, and research collaborator(s).
For each experiment/facility project, a description of the “process of science,” including the goals of the project, how experiments are performed and/or how the facility is used. This description includes information on the systems and tools used to analyze, transfer, and store the data that is produced.
Current and anticipated data output on near and long term time scales.
Timeline(s) for building, operating, and decommissioning of experiments, to the degree these are known.
Existing and planned network resources, usage, “pain points” or bottlenecks in transferring or productively using data the science produces.

Schedule

Due to ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, staging this event in 2022 as an in-person review will not be feasible. At this time we are working through the steps to complete this as a fully virtual event. This schedule is subject to change:

Virtual Components

The following virtual deadlines and events have been tentatively scheduled:

- Case study preparation by author teams
- ESnet & DOE Review of case studies and production of summaries
- 1:1 meetings (as needed)
- “Focus Groups” to discuss case study findings
- Final Report draft released
- Discussion Webinar
- Final Report Published

Physical Components

It is not anticipated that this review will have a physical component at this time.

Review Registration

The review is by invitation only, and registration is not available at this time.

Review Report

This review will generate a network requirements document for the BER Program Office. This document will be composed of the network requirements input from the workshop attendees.

Review attendees should review the case study template document and other background materials on the documents page. Please also review the pages on the ESnet public web site. Please then use the background materials in combination with your own knowledge and experience, as well as input from representatives from your facility and laboratory, to generate a narrative describing your scientific research, instrument, facility or other scientific endeavor. Examples of science narratives with their accompanying requirements matrices can be found in the reports from previous reviews. Case studies (both the narrative and the corresponding data table) must be submitted to the review organizers (Jason Zurawski (zurawski @ es.net), Eli Dart (dart @ es.net), Andrew Wiedlea (awiedlea @ es.net), and Ken Miller (ken @ es.net).

At the review we will review the documents and speak with the attendees to ensure that we understand the science being done insofar as it has an impact on networking. We will also make sure that we capture the timelines for upgrades, new facilities, changing collaborations, and other coming events that will change the way in which the network is used.

The review format is much closer to a round-table discussion rather than a series of PowerPoint presentations. If you feel that you really need to give a formal presentation we can accommodate that by providing a suggested template, but we have found that these review are more productive if there is a simple discussion and exchange of ideas rather than a formal presentation format.

Logistics

The following rough schedule has been devised:

Webinars to introduce the Case Study format, and expected timeline
Case Study preparation
1:1 Virtual discussions
Small "Focus Groups" to discuss Case Study findings
Community Webinar to Summarize Findings
Final Publication
1Year "Checkin" & Discussion

This schedule is subject to change.

Agenda

The precise agenda for virtual meetings has not been determined yet.

Webinars

There will be two webinars offered by the ESnet and DOE teams to discuss the BER review process, the Case Studies, the expectations for participants, the associated timelines, and provide an opportunity to ask questions.

Recordings will be made for those that are unable to make these times. All participants are encouraged to attend or listen to at least one of the webinars.

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