Major Network Upgrade Enables Massive Data Transfers to Study Climate Change and Other "Big Science" Programs

Juniper Networks today announced that its best-in-class network routing and switching solutions now comprise the entire core of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) research network. Officially known as the Energy Sciences Network, ESnet provides direct connections to more than 40 major DOE research sites, as well as fast interconnections to more than 100 other global research and education (R&E) networks, allowing scientists to make effective use of unique DOE research facilities and computing resources, independent of time and geographic location.

In a major upgrade taking less than five months, Juniper helped the DOE deploy Ethernet services routers and series Ethernet switches, transforming the ESnet into a 10 gigabit per second (Gbps) Ethernet platform. This new, large-scale data transport network allows ESnet users throughout the U.S. and the global R&E community at large to access, share and analyze massive amounts of data being generated by large-scale scientific research projects around the world. These include the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in Switzerland; the Earth System Grid II (ESG) for research in global climate change; and many other key research initiatives. The LHC alone is expected to deliver 100 Gbps of data nonstop onto ESnet by 2010.

"Whether it's sharing 'Big Bang' data from Large Hadron Collider experiments, exploring high energy physics or furthering our understanding of climate change, ESnet plays a vital role in the U.S. and world research community," said Steve Cotter, ESnet department head at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. "Our scientific users require the ESnet to handle huge data flows with 'Five 9s' reliability and availability. We're supporting massive data transfers via multiple streams of data at 10 Gbps — the equivalent of 500 hours of digital music per second, per line. We're also partnering with Juniper Networks, Internet2, and other organizations to explore 100 Gbps processing."

ESnet and , a consortium of more than 325 universities, corporations and affiliate organizations that operates a high-performance, nationwide network, recently plans to partner with Juniper Networks and other industry participants to develop a 100 Gbps Ethernet test bed. Advances from this initiative will help the world's R&E community, industry, governments and other public sector organizations to leverage emerging standards for 100 Gbps interfaces now being developed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for scheduled availability in 2010.

In evaluating routers and switches, ESnet managers considered several features as non-negotiable: high-performance throughput; a flexible architecture that supported IPv6 and Multi-protocol label switching (MPLS); carrier-grade reliability; the ability to generate accurate, per-flow byte counts on virtual interfaces; and "Five 9s" availability (i.e., the network must be available 99.999 per cent of the time). Juniper Networks MX-series Ethernet services routers, including MX960 and MX480 platforms, and EX-4200 series Ethernet switches, fit those requirements and were chosen to comprise the core of ESnet.

The Juniper MX-series is a family of high-performance Ethernet Services routers with powerful switching and security features that provide unmatched flexibility and reliability to support advanced services and applications. The MX-series provides carrier-class reliability, quality of service (QoS) features, low-latency multicast support, and industry-leading MPLS capabilities, as well as the ability to scale functionality without compromising performance. The EX 4200 series switches feature Virtual Chassis technology, which combines the high availability and reliability of modular systems with the economics and flexibility of stackable platforms, to deliver a high-performance, scalable solution for data center and campus environments.

Both the MX-series routers and EX-series switches are powered by software, a single network operating system which integrates routing, switching, security and an array of network services. JUNOS software runs on a broad portfolio of products for converged network deployments and common network management, lowering total cost of network ownership through decreased space, power and cooling requirements.