AARNet deploys high-speed data connections for RDSI

AARNet is rolling out new high-speed data connections to eight RDSI (Research Data Storage Infrastructure) Nodes as part of the DaShNet (Data Sharing Network) project funded through the Federal Government’s National Research Network (NRN) Program. The University of South Australia (UniSA) is the lead agent for the NRN, which is an initiative of the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS).

The DaShNet project will enable researchers nationwide to quickly and easily access, use and share research data collections stored at the Nodes

Data collections stored at the RDSI Nodes can range from hundreds of Terabytes to Petabytes in size, and include data from research projects across a wide range of disciplines, such as the Murchison Widefield Array telescope, the Mitchell and Delbridge speech recordings, Australian Centre of Excellence in Particle Physics, Australian Synchrotron, Cancer Genome Atlas and the Great Barrier Reef Project, among others.

To allow fast access and transfer by many thousands of researchers, each Node will have resilient 10Gbps connections to both the AARNet routed backbone and a virtual private network (VPN), inter-connecting the Nodes.

With this dedicated DaShNet network, RDSI nodes can transfer a Terabyte in 20 minutes (compared, for example, to 300 hours or a week using a home ADSL connection).

In order to ensure that each Node can use these connections to their full capacity, AARNet is deploying ”Science DMZ” architecture at each site.

The Science DMZ approach is designed for optimizing data-intensive applications and was developed by ESNet, the American Energy Science Network for interconnecting Department of Energy laboratories across the USA.

The Science DMZ architecture follows the principle of “friction free” networking. This means:

• High-speed network routers and switches, capable of transferring at full line-rate without dropping a single packet,
• Dedicated Data Transfer Node (DTN) servers tuned for maximum transfer rates,
• Network performance measurement systems, to characterize and troubleshoot the network,
• Security policies tailored for high performance science environments, removing campus firewalls from the research data path.

The DaShNet network, developed and deployed by AARNet in partnership with RDSI, addresses the issues Australian researchers have traditionally faced around accessing, storing and sharing huge data sets and forms part of the federal government’s strategy to strengthen Australia’s capabilities in data intensive research and data intensive research collaboration.

Read more about DaShNet:

https://www.rdsi.edu.au/dashnet

https://www.rdsi.edu.au/dashnet-reliable