Energy Sciences Network - ESnet4

ESnet4

ESnet4 is a large-scale science data transport network with enough bandwidth to transport multiple streams of 10 gigabits per second. As the DOE's next-generation scientific network, ESnet4 enables international scientific collaborations on large-scale science projects through reliable, high-speed connections between DOE Labs, and U.S. and international research institutions.

ESnet4 utilizes three main elements:

• A circuit-oriented Science Data Network for moving terabytes of data. Like a direct line connecting two endpoints, this dedicated network allows information to flow directly at high data rates from one remote host to another.
• An Internet Protocol (IP) network for typical data transfers. Unlike the Science Data Network, the IP network is connected to many computers, and can have multiple endpoints. To reach a destination, information traveling on an IP network will constantly encounter routers that quickly direct and redirect it. Like air-traffic controllers, the routers determine the most efficient routes.

• Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs) are the last component of ESnet4. This system carries both Science Data and IP networks to effectively connect research centers in the same geographic region. Currently, 11 ESnet sites are served by MANs.

The Long Island MAN and the Chicago Area MAN were specifically built to facilitate the movement of data from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiments at the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN). The ESnet carries LHC data from CERN to U.S. Tier 1 sites over its network. Eventually 15 million gigabytes of data per year will be distributed to researchers across the globe.

CERN collects data from the LHC, sending information across the Atlantic Ocean via the fiber optic network USLHCnet, which is managed by researchers at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif. An ESnet hub in Manhattan is the US entry point for LHC ATLAS data. From there, ESnet delivers data from the LHC’s ATLAS detector to Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York, to be processed and stored. Meanwhile, data from the LHC’s CMS detector traverses USLHCnet into ESnet in Chicago, arriving at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Ill., for processing and storage. Researchers at universities and DOE laboratories across the country connect to these databases through ESnet4, the DOE’s next-generation scientific network. Internet2, the country’s leading education and research network, and ESnet officially launched a partnership in 2006 to develop and deploy ESnet4 just in time for the LHC experiment.

In 2009 ESnet was named one of the "government organizations that understand IT innovation".