New JANET Lightpath service supports national and international research collaboration: JANET(UK) announces the launch of the JANET Lightpath service to meet the growing needs of the UK research communities for dedicated end-to-end network capacity. The new JANET Lightpath service operates over the JANET network and provides separation at the network transmission level. With users taking control of the networking at higher layers, the circuit (or lightpath) capacities can be set within a range of a few tens of Mbit/s to a full 10Gbit/s, according to user requirements. JANET Lightpaths can be typically used to connect research support facilities (e.g. high performance computing and large scale data repositories) and experimental facilities (particle accelerators, radio telescopes) across JANET. Lightpaths can also be extended internationally by connection via GÉANT to reach other National Research and Education Networks. Connections to North America and other international networks are also possible via a JANET connection to Chicago. JANET Lightpath provides segregation of research traffic from normal JANET service traffic. It enables the UK's research communities to transmit large volumes of data or delay-sensitive data across the network. As David Salmon, Research Support Unit Manager at JANET (UK), explains, the requirements and expectations of these users has expanded and changed in recent years: "During the planning of the latest generation of the network backbone, rolled-out earlier this year, it became evident there was a growing requirement from high-end users for separate dedicated networks for research and development purposes." He added: "With the launch of the JANET Lightpath service we are delighted to have responded to their demands and this shows a further example of how we are listening to and accommodating the many requirements of the research sector." Typical users of JANET Lightpath will be from a range of disciplines including physics, astronomy and high-end computing. Researchers from these disciplines will deploy lightpaths for such applications as high capacity file transfer, remote real-time visualisation, and computational steering. A typical example of the use of Lightpaths is illustrated in the EXPReS Project. This uses a technique called e-VLBI to allow widely separated telescopes in Europe and around the world to simultaneously observe the same region of sky; the data is then aligned and correlated by a central data processor. The project uses the national networks of various countries to complete this work including JANET in the UK. This project conducted the first successful real-time correlation of e-VLBI data from China, Australia and Europe. "The use of lightpaths has meant a tremendous improvement in the connectivity of the telescopes," says Arpad Szomoru, Head of Research and Development at JIVE (Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe). "It has enabled us to reliably transport large data volumes in real-time over long distances, without disrupting normal internet traffic." In the future it is anticipated that Lightpath provisioning will be on a dynamic basis, where a user (or even an application), given suitable authorisation, can request a Lightpath to be established on demand and then released once the application has finished with it. Work to develop this future capability will be undertaken as part of the JANET Optical Development Programme. This programme aims to capitalise on the potential of the JANET infrastructure by investigating mechanisms to improve the management and delivery of network capacity wherever it is needed. It will also examine developments in optical networking technologies and network architectures to inform the approach to future JANET network services. Typical use of lightpaths over JANET so far are: Particle Physics: A 10Gbit/s lightpath is in place between the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire and CERN on the Swiss/French border. This lightpath traverses the Thames Valley JANET regional network, the JANET backbone and the GÉANT network. The lightpath is used by particle physicists working on the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) experiment at CERN to transport large quantities of data as part of a series of 'service challenges' to test the data-processing infrastructure of the LCG (LHC Computing Grid). These tests seek to verify that the LCG will be able to cope with the large amounts experimental data which will begin to be produced towards the end of this year when the LHC begins operation. A number of 1Gbit/s lightpaths are in place between Jodrell Bank in north-west England and Dwingeloo in the Netherlands. These lightpaths traverse the Network North West regional network, the JANET backbone, the GÉANT network and SurfNET, the Dutch National Research and Education Network. They are being used to carry digitised signals from radio telescopes in the UK to a data processing centre in the Netherlands, where they are combined with similar signals from other telescopes around Europe. This technique of real-time signal correlation enables the detection of very weak signals from astronomical sources. Linking the individual telescopes in this way produces the capability of a much larger telescope, allowing research projects to be undertaken which would not otherwise be possible. High End Computing: A 10Gbit/s lightpath is in place between the Daresbury Laboratory in north-west England and a research laboratory in Frankfurt, Germany. This lightpath traverses the Network North West regional network, the JANET backbone, the GÉANT network and X-WiN, the backbone of the German National Research & Education Network. The lightpath links the HPCx computing facility at Daresbury with similar facilities in several other European countries. Each one of these facilities contributes a proportion of its computing resources to a common pool. Researchers can then bid for resources to undertake particularly computationally-intensive projects. These projects can involve a wide range of disciplines such as estimating the accuracy of weather forecasts, drug design and exploring the interactions of sub-nuclear particles.