Three DOE Labs Now Connected With Ultra-High Speed Network That is 10 Times Faster Than Commercial Internet Providers

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is now supporting scientific research at unprecedented bandwidth speeds – at least ten times faster than commercial Internet providers – with a new network that connects thousands of researchers using three of the world’s top supercomputing centers in California, Illinois and Tennessee.

The new network will be officially unveiled today in Seattle, Washington, at the gala opening of SC11, the premier international conference on high performance computing, networking, storage and analysis, where DOE researchers will use the network for groundbreaking climate data transfers and astrophysics visualizations. The project, known as the Advanced Networking Initiative (ANI), was funded with $62 million from the 2009 economic stimulus law and is intended for research use, but could lead to widespread commercial use of similar technology. The network now delivers data at 100 Gigabits per second (Gbps), making it one of the fastest systems in the world. It is the first step in the nationwide upgrade to the DOE’s existing Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) and will serve as a pilot for future deployment of 100 Gbps Ethernet in research and commercial networks. The initiative plans to accelerate by several years the commercialization of 100 Gbps networking technologies and uses new optical technology to reduce the number of routers used, as well as the associated equipment and maintenance costs.