On Tuesday, June 28th, KanREN deployed two innovative networks designed to support the data sharing needs of modern research and education in the state of Kansas.

HyperCore is a dual-redundant, geographically diverse backbone with multiple 100 Gigabit connections shared by University of Kansas, Kansas State University, Wichita State University, and the University of Kansas Medical Center. ResilientRing is a dual-redundant, geographically diverse network of multiple 10 Gigabit connections at Fort Hays State University, Emporia State University, Pittsburg State University and Washburn University.

HyperCore and ResilientRing are interconnected at exit points in Wichita and Kansas City, providing 100 Gbps upstream speeds to Internet2, an advanced, international network of leaders in research, academia, industry and government. The networks are deployed utilizing a combination of fiber owned and operated by KanREN, KSU, KU, and KUMC and lit fiber from Kansas Fiber Network.

“HyperCore and ResilientRing represent two years of planning and collaboration with forward thinking universities throughout the state of Kansas,” said Cort Buffington, KanREN’s Executive Director. “Not only were we able to deploy a next generation network that will attract high-end research and innovative businesses to Kansas, but it was launched within budget and four days ahead of schedule. Early is an unfamiliar phrase in IT. We are proud we get to say it.”

“HyperCore and ResilientRing are invaluable to us as we continue to build connections between KU and the private sector,” said GR Underwood, President of the Bioscience and Technology Business Center at KU. “Modern innovations in technology and biopharmaceutical research rely heavily on the transfer of big data. KanREN has engineered a pipeline for data that will give us a competitive edge for the foreseeable future.”

Read the full article on KanREN’s website.

The Keystone Initiative for Network Based Education and Research (KINBER) and West Virginia Network (WVNET) recently turned up a new fiber-optic peering connection between the two networks in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. KINBER, Pennsylvania’s statewide research, education and community network and trusted technology partner, provides advanced networking infrastructure and services to non-profit organizations and fosters collaboration between Pennsylvania-based organizations for value-added services such as Internet2 connectivity, realistic high-definition video, real-time videoconferencing, and data sharing. WVNET is a dynamic service organization providing telecommunications and computing services to West Virginia to higher education, K-12, libraries, state government and non-profits.

The new 10 gigabit-per-second (Gbps) fiber-optic connection now provides greater capacity and speed between Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

Vice Chancellor for Technology and WVNET Director Dan O’Hanlon comments, “In these modern times, the speed of a connection is crucial for our customers. The cross-connect between WVNET and PennREN will help speed up connectivity between the two statewide networks in Pennsylvania and West Virginia and enable future enhanced connectivity to the Internet as well as to Internet2. WVNET is constantly seeking out opportunities to make our connections stronger, faster and safer.”

WVNET and PennREN are not strangers to each other since they are both regional network members of Internet2. This new network peering partnership will further their relationship. The new connection is a great benefit for KINBER and WVNET members and connected institutions, enabling better network connectivity and access to a broader range of network based services and applications.

“By working together on the direct connection between the two state networks, KINBER and WVNET are able to increase services to our communities in Pennsylvania and West Virginia,” said Wendy Huntoon, president and CEO of KINBER. “Through this new peering connection, both organizations are now better positioned to enable our communities for enhanced community networking, public safety and educational applications and services between the two states now and in the future.”

The new high speed peering connection with WVNET is the first of several planned peering connections with other state and regional networks underway for KINBER.

Read the full press release on the KINBER website.

SC16 – Salt Lake City, UT
Please apply or encourage women in the research & networking IT community to apply

I. SUMMARY
The Women in IT Networking at SC (WINS) program, introduced in November 2015 at the SC15 conference in Austin, Texas,  developed as a means for addressing the prevalent gender gap that exists in Information Technology (IT) particularly in the fields of network engineering and high performance computing (HPC).  The 2015 program enabled five talented early to mid-career women from diverse regions of the U.S. research and education community IT field to participate in the ground-up construction of SCinet, one of the fastest and most advanced computer networks in the world.  WINS, is a joint effort between the Energy Sciences Network (ESnet), the Keystone Initiative for Network Based Education and Research (KINBER), and University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR).

SCinet, the Supercomputing Conference’s (SC) dedicated high-performance research network and backbone of information and communication is seeking qualified female U.S. candidates in their early to mid-career to join the SCinet volunteer workforce for SC16. Selected candidates will receive full travel support and mentoring by well-known engineering experts in the research and education community.

SCinet provides an ideal “apprenticeship” opportunity for engineers and technologists looking for direct access to the most cutting-edge network hardware and software, while working side by side with the world’s leading network and software engineers, and the top network technology vendors.

There are more than 15 teams that comprise SCinet,  all focused on specific areas of expertise involved in setting up and operating a research network. Selected candidates will be matched with a mentor in one of these areas based on interest and background. Learning and training opportunities include (but are not limited to):

• Operating and maintaining traditional “IT” services for SCinet;
• Installing fiber optic network connections;
• Installing and configuring wireless access points;
• Installing and configuring wired network devices for conference meeting rooms;
• Managing internet routing protocols;
• Configuring wide-area network connections to national telecom providers;
• Supporting conference attendees, high-performance computing (HPC) and high-performing network demonstrations;
• Participating in cybersecurity activities focused on prevention, detection, and countermeasures to protect the resources of the conference.

II. BACKGROUND
SC is an annual conference co-sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Computer Society.  The conference focuses on the science and application of HPC and communication technologies. Since 1988, volunteers funded from academic, government and corporate organizations in the HPC industry have worked together to produce the SC Conference series.

The conference attracts over 12,000 technical program attendees, exhibitors and exhibit visitors. SC has been the breeding ground for the technologies that now underpin services ranging from cloud computing, high-speed Internet services, and current ubiquitous computing architectures.

Attendees are primarily computer engineers, computer scientists, computational scientists and managers/executives of computing facilities who use high-speed and high-performance computers for research and other technical applications. Executives, sales and engineering managers from companies involved in producing and selling HPC products and services also attend and participate.

SCinet provides the essential advanced and commodity networking capabilities the conference needs to support large-scale HPC demos.  In recent years, SCinet has delivered bandwidths exceeding 1 terabit per second and has had the opportunity to utilize new services and technology, such as pre-production software-defined networking and intrusion detection systems.

III. Travel for SCinet training

This grant funds selected participants to travel for the staging (if applicable), setup, and attendance of the SC conference and SCinet. Travel could include up to three weeks (or some portion of these three weeks) depending on the SCinet team needs.

• SCinet Staging: October 20-28
• SCinet Setup: November 7-12
• SC Exhibit Show and Conference: November 13-19

IV. Project Measurement
After completion of the conference, participants will be asked to report on their experiences and touch on topics such as: what part of the training was new or useful, which learning experiences were not effective or valuable, and other targeted questions that will help drive the future of gender diversity outreach efforts. This reflection will be shared with their home institution, SCinet leadership, project PIs, the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation.

V. Selection Criteria
Candidates will be reviewed by a panel of experts from the research and education community for current job relevance, stated support from applicant’s employer, ability to attend the conference (we will take care of the travel costs but you must be able to set aside time to attend), areas of interest (see application form), and desire to participate in SCinet!

The review committee will select up to seven candidates to receive funding to set up SCinet at the SC conference in Salt Lake City from October 20-28 and November 7-19, 2016. Final candidates will be notified by mid to late August 2016.

VI. Proposal Submission:
Please review and fill out the application at:  https://form.jotform.com/hestem/wins-sc16-application

If you have any questions about WINS, please email wins-management-team@ucar.edu.

The WINS project team includes:  Marla Meehl – NCAR/UCAR (PI), Mary Hester (ESnet), Wendy Huntoon (KINBER), Kate Petersen Mace (ESnet), Lauren Rotman (ESnet).

*
NSF
2015
grant #ACI-1440642