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 | Speed record on the Brazilian webThe State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ) and the Brazilian National Research and Education Network (Rede Nacional de Ensino e Pesquisa – RNP) have promised to break the record of data transmission speed between Brazil and the United States. On November 11th, from midnight to one a.m. (Brasília time), the laboratory of High Energy Physics at UERJ plans to transmit around 180 gigabytes of data (which is equivalent to more than 250 CDs) to Pittsburgh, USA. The demonstration will be made during the High Performance Computing, Networking and Storage Conference (SC2004), a supercomputing conference to be held from November 6th to 12th. The data will leave a computer at UERJ and will travel a long way until they get to Pittsburgh, passing by at least four networks in Brazil, Europe and the United States: the Brazilian experimental Giga Project Network, the Latin American Clara Network, the European Géant and the North American Abilene, part of the Internet2 project. The first two have RNP’s participation. Rehearsing for 2007Besides the transmission, there will be a computational grid experiment between the equipment at UERJ and that in Pittsburgh. The grid is an infrastructure that permits the integrated and collaborative use of computers, networks, database and scientific instruments. The structure assembled at UERJ’s laboratory has 100 computers, which will be used to process jobs sent from Pittsburgh. This demonstration will be a rehearsal for the participation of Brazil in the experiments with the new subatomic particle accelerator of the European Center of Nuclear Research (Cern, from the French Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire), which should start functioning in 2007. The grid technology was the solution chosen to deal with the great amount of information which will be produced by the particle accelerator (20 petabytes per year, approximately the same as 28 million CDs). Both experiments are being coordinated by professor Alberto Santoro, from the Institute of Physics at UERJ. In order to make them possible, the collaboration of Embratel, Intelig, Telemar and Telefônica has been fundamental - contributing with the fibers of Giga Project network, as well as that of Clara organization (Latin American Cooperation of Advanced Networks), which permitted using the capacity of Clara Network that still hasn’t been used. In addition to the aforementioned organizations, technicians from the engineering units of Giga Project at RNP, CPqD, Clara Network and Géant are also involved. About the networks involvedUERJ is directly connected to Giga Project’s network, an experimental optical infrastructure coordinated by RNP and the Center of Telecommunications Research and Development (Centro de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento em Telecomunicações - CPqD). Giga Network was connected to Clara Network through its point of presence in Brazil, located in São Paulo, specially for the experiments of the laboratory of Physics. Clara Network interconnects national academic networks of Latin American countries at speeds of up to 155 Mbps. RNP represents Brazil in the consortium, being part of the central ring of the network. The connection abroad is possible due to a 622 Mbps link with Géant, the European academic network. The construction of Clara network and its connection with Europe occurred thanks to the support of the European Community, by means of Alice project (Latin America Interconnected to Europe). As it happens with Clara Network in Latin America, Géant interconnects several national academic networks in Europe and is also connected to academic networks in other parts of the world, among which we may cite Abilene, the major Internet2 project backbone, in the United States. From Abilene, we can get to the site of the event, the David L. Lawrence convention center, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. About SC2004SC2004 is the premier international conference on high performance computing, networking and storage. Founded in 1988, this conference series has grown to now include scientists, researchers, software developers, policy makers, corporate managers, CIOs and IT administrators from universities, industry and government. Attendees become immersed in the latest state-of-the-field developments in technology, applications, vendor products, research results, national policy and national/international initiatives. SC2004 is the one place attendees can see tomorrow’s technology being used to solve world-class challenge problems today. [RNP, 11.08.2004] | For more information |