FY04 IRAD–FUNDED GSFC LAMBDA NETWORK (L–Net)

Preparing Goddard for Large Scale Team Science in the 21st Century: Enabling an All Optical Goddard Network Cyberinfrastructure

The purpose of this approved proposal is to establish a "Lambda Network" (in this case using optical wavelength technology and 10Gbps Ethernet per wavelength) from Goddard's Earth science facility in Greenbelt, MD to the Scripps Institute of Oceanography (SIO) through the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) facility over the National Lambda Rail (NLR), a new national dark optical fiber infrastructure. Currently, the Sciences and Exploration Directorate maintains a Joint Center with SIO where research collaborations exist between more than a half dozen scientists at each institution. This Lambda–Net will allow SIO scientists to interactively perform complex collaborative analysis with their Goddard colleagues across the continent as if they were in the same building, by making data residing on Goddard's high speed computer disks available to SIO with access speeds as if the data were on their own desktop servers or PC's. It will enable scientists at both institutions to share and use compute intensive community models, complex data base mining and multi–dimensional streaming visualization over this highly distributed, virtual working environment. It will create a virtual lab within GSFC with a SIO wing.

Principal Investigators and Co–Investigators Pat Gary (606) and Jeff Smith (423/585) Co–PIs and the Information Technology Pathfinder Working Group (ITPWG), chaired by Dr. Milton Halem, as Co–Is