Tag Archives: networking

The Quilt again shines collaborative light on future of R&E Networking

The Quilt, a consortium of regional Research and Education (R&E) Networks throughout the United States, hosted its annual Fall Member Meeting virtually on Sept. 29 and Sept. 30. More than 100 registered attendees and stakeholders gathered online for two days to collectively advance networking for research and education throughout the United States.

The program included several plenary and breakout sessions particularly relevant to the R&E networking community.

R&E partnerships with state leaders to facilitate internet access solutions for unserved and underserved communities topped the list of hot topics and “aha moments” from this year’s meeting.

The meeting opened with a “Fireside Chat” with CENIC’s Louis Fox outlining California’s new statewide middle-mile broadband initiative. The Fireside Chat led into a panel discussion moderated by Louis and included panelists from the Ohio, Oregon, and Nevada R&E networks as well as included the R&E state broadband leader partners from the State of Ohio’s broadband office called BroadbandOhio as well as a state representative from Oregon who is a champion of affordable broadband access in the state. The panel discussion focused on the important role of R&E networks in state broadband strategies.

Another presentation by Sun Corridor Network (SCN) and the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) focused on the collaborative efforts between the two organizations with the goal of delivering affordable broadband access to the unserved and underserved in the stae. Derek Masseth with Sun Corridor noted that it has been a great partnership, and SCN very much appreciates ADOT’s willingness to partner!

Additional comments shared in the virtual chat during the presentation included …This year attendees also took deep dives into areas such as disaster recovery, network facilities management, mapping, and cybersecurity. MCNC Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer Chris Beal talked on the emergence of new R&E cybersecurity solutions to help protect community anchor institutions as well as the North Carolina organization’s new managed services cybersecurity practice called Vital Cyber.“No one is safe from hackers today. There have been far too many headlines recently involving phishing or ransomware attacks affecting big companies and industries. But what you don’t hear much about is how cyber criminals hit our schools, our hospitals, our libraries, and other community anchor institutions,” explained Beal. “These important pillars in our local towns need more protections from today’s growing cyber threats. That why Vital Cyber was created to develop and activate a full suite of managed security services to protect North Carolina’s critical cyber infrastructure; marrying a proven and tested combination of tools, services, and consulting without any extra hardware or staff.”

Additional sessions focused on budget planning, cloud, business continuity, fiber IRU renewals and inter-exchange points, observations from the most-recent NSF CC* PI Workshop, and much more.

The two-day event closed out with a fascinating presentation from Eli Dart, Lauren Rotman, and Jason Zurawski on ESnet’s High Energy Physics requirements and R&E network preparedness for next Large Hadron Collider (LHC) run.

“Identifying new opportunities for Quilt members to leverage one another’s resources and expertise is the hallmark of Quilt events,” said Jen Leasure, President and CEO of The Quilt. “Although we all would like to get together in person, the level of conversation even virtually is of such a great benefit to all of our members as well as our collective mission.”

The Quilt is the national coalition of non-profit U.S. regional research and education networks representing 40 networks across the country. Members of The Quilt provide advanced network services and applications to over 900 universities and tens of thousands of other educational and community anchor institutions. Together, we promote consistent, reliable, inter-operable and efficient advanced networking services that extend to the broadest possible community and represent common interests in the development and delivery of advanced cyberinfrastructure that enables innovation through our education and research mission.

The next member meeting for The Quilt is scheduled for early February 2021.

 

The Quilt returns to La Jolla in February

We kick off our 20th anniversary this year by heading back to California for our annual 2020 Winter Member Meeting on Feb. 5-7 in La Jolla.


The Quilt begins this year’s 20th anniversary in February by heading back to one of our favorite places for our annual Winter Member Meeting in La Jolla. We are looking forward to this year’s in-person gathering of our national Quilt community and stakeholders to collectively advance networking and cyberinfrastructure for research and education. We also are excited that Internet2 is collocating its Regional Principals Meeting with us this year

We have many exciting conversations and topics planned for the upcoming event with plenty of time to network with your colleagues from across the country throughout the course of the program. You can read a few of the highlighted areas below as well as view the full 2020 Agenda here.

Highlights & Opportunities

This year’s event kicks off with the NOAA N-Wave and RON Partner Breakfast followed by in-person meetings for our Quilt working groups as well as annual CEO Round Table and quarterly meeting of The Quilt Board of Directors. We’ll wrap up the day with a networking reception hosted by Ciena.

Our first full day together will include plenary talks and panel discussions covering a variety of topics including the Tribal Digital Village Network R&E Partnership, updates on National Science Foundation’s CISE and Campus Cyberinfrastructure Program investments, examining a case study in REN and community college partnerships in Arizona, and how to successfully build a security services portfolio for R&E Networking Communities. In the afternoon, our program focuses in on smaller group discussions on topics of importance to our members such as EPOC deep dive outcomes and researcher engagement, network automation and telemetry, telecom policy discussions, and helpful discussions on fiber facilities, bridging the rural digital divide, connecting community anchor institutions, and more.

On our final day, a confluence of our Quilt Working Groups will discuss network security solutions and services, eSports programs, regional network roles in community preparedness, and MANRS compliance.

Sponsors

Please join us in thanking our industry supporters for helping make this year’s event possible: AWS, Carahsoft, Ciena, Juniper Networks, Pier Group, and Red Hat.

Questions?

If you need further information about this year’s meeting, please contact Jennifer Griffin.

Social Media

Be sure to follow us @TweettheQuilt and participate on social media using #QuiltinSoCal.

SC18 brings supercomputing’s best and brightest to Dallas

Every November, thousands of researchers and industry representatives in high-performance computing and related fields, such as advanced networking, data storage, and data analysis, meet for the annual Supercomputing Conference (SC18) in Dallas, Texas, to learn about HPC and scientific applications and innovations from around the world.

SC18 marks the 30th Anniversary of the SC Conference Series, and hasn’t been back in Dallas for 18 years. This year’s event, with the theme “HPC Inspires” is set for Nov. 11-16 at the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center in Dallas. Exhibits will be on display Nov. 12-15.

HPC Inspires

Imagine the possibilities. Unlike any time in history, HPC allows us to analyze many points of data to make groundbreaking discoveries in all fields of inquiry, connecting humanity to the world around us as never before.

What is SCinet?

SCinet is a truly special collaboration among more than 180 highly-skilled volunteers from about 80 domestic and international organizations. All donate their time, energy, and unique skills to the overall success of the conference, with the generous support of their home institutions.

SCinet Chair Jason Zurawski is a Science Engagement Engineer at the Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) headquartered and managed by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. ESnet is the U.S. Department of Energy’s high-performance networking facility. In 2004, while Jason was a computer science graduate student, he volunteered to plan, build and operate SCinet, the SC Conference’s dedicated high-capacity network. SCinet supplies exhibitors with high-capacity feeds to run all their applications in addition to providing high-speed WiFi to more than 10,000 attendees. It is a giant task and requires the best in the business to create and manage it. Read more from Jason in this blog.

Quilt Members once again have joined many from the international supercomputing community to play an integral part of the annual event through demonstrations, booths, presentations and the building of SCinet. Those include: Great Plains Network (Booth 1035); Louisiana State University (Booth 1816); University of Utah (1828); Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (2028); NCAR (Booth 2000); Indiana University (Booth 2400); Ohio Supercomputing Center (Booth 3037); Starlight (Booth 2851); and Pacific Wave (Booth 3158), just to name a few.

Another Win for WINS

Five women IT professionals have been selected to participate in the “Women in IT Networking at SC” (WINS) inclusivity program at SC18. They will join peers from around the globe to help build and operate SCinet.

This year’s WINS participants are:

  • Brenna Meade, telecom analyst at the University of Denver in Colorado
  • Erika Kindlimann, network security engineer at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan
  • Jessa Westclark, network specialist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst
  • Kalina Dunn, network engineer at GlobalNOC at Indiana University
  • Loren Adams, network engineer at Georgia State University in Atlanta

In recognition for its work to provide professional development opportunities to highly-qualified women in the networking field, the WINS program received the 2017 Innovations in Networking Award for Experimental Applications presented by Quilt Member, CENIC. Read more about it.

This year’s WINS review committee was led by Wendy Huntoon of KINBER and included Carrie Gates of Securelytix, Eli Dart of ESnet, Dave Jent of GlobalNOC and the Quilt, John Kolb of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Amy Philipson of Pacific Northwest Gigapop, and Linda Winkler of Argonne National Laboratory.

WINS is funded by the NSF and the Department of Energy. It was initiated in 2015 as joint effort between ESnet, the Keystone Initiative for Network Based Education and Research (KINBER), the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), and SCinet.

As of 2018, WINS has funded 24 women to participate in SCinet.

Staying in the Loop

Real-time event conversations can be found @Supercomputing on Twitter or using #SC18.

If you or others from Quilt Member institutions plan to attend SC18, we would like to hear from you and your experience for a future blog. Please contact us or Tweet us @TweetTheQuilt.

 

The Quilt offers ideas for new federal e-Connectivity pilot

The Quilt is pleased to offer recommendations for a new USDA program created to expand rural broadband in underserved rural and tribal areas throughout the United States.

A new rural broadband program funded within the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018 now authorizes the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Rural Utilities Service (RUS) to distribute $600 million through the “e-Connectivity” pilot that targets support in the form of grants and loans.

In July, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue invited comments on the implementation of the e-Connectivity Pilot Program, and The Quilt responded on behalf of R&E networks across the country.

According to a 2018 report by the FCC, approximately 19 million rural American households do not have reliable, affordable, high-speed internet access. Without e-connectivity, the report noted, rural Americans cannot reach their full productivity in the workplace, receive the best education, nor benefit from the highest quality of health care.

USDA is developing this pilot to catalyze private investment and bring broadband to unserved rural areas of the country. The new program provides a unique opportunity to develop modern methods to leverage federal funds that increase private investment in broadband services for as many rural American homes, businesses, farms, schools, and health care facilities as possible.

There is no “one size fits all” when it comes to solutions to bridge the broadband gap in
underserved areas. The Quilt has offered the following recommendations:

  • R&E networks play a vital and expansive role in their respective broadband landscapes.
  • RUS should prioritize e-Connectivity Pilot Applications that include connectivity to Community Anchor Institutions (CAIs) and tribal lands.
  • The e-Connectivity Pilot should consider the broadband needs of communities and regions, not just census blocks.
  • The e-Connectivity Pilot should fund middle-mile infrastructure where necessary to deliver sufficient broadband access to residences and CAIs.

The program should measure broadband access, affordability, and performance (noting a recent submission to the NTIA on how to improve the quality and accuracy of broadband availability data by one of our member networks, Merit, filed jointly with The Quello Center at Michigan State University). Please see our previous blogpost on this official submission.

DOWNLOAD THE QUILT’S FULL SUBMISSION TO USDA RUS.

USDA Rural Development provides loans and grants to help expand economic opportunities and create jobs in rural areas. Gaining expert insight on this pilot program will give the USDA all the information they need to make the most effective use of these new and innovative funds.

Submissions and comments were due to the USDA by Sept. 10, 2018.

#QuiltinABQ Recap: Trending conversations from 2017 Fall Member Meeting

Thank you for joining us in Albuquerque for the 2017 Fall Member Meeting. Building on the success of the colocation of Fall 2015 and 2016 events, this year’s Fall Member Meeting also coincided with the National Science Foundation Campus Cyberinfrastructure and Cybersecurity Innovation for Cyberinfrastructure PI Workshop and the ESnet Site Coordinators Committee Fall Meeting (ESCC).

Some of the best networking minds in the country gathered in the southwest desert for some exciting discussions on how R&E networks are uniquely positioned to meet today’s infrastructure challenges to support researchers in their scientific discovery. Thank you once again to Quilt Member, the University of New Mexico Albuquerque GigaPoP, or UNM-ABQG for inviting us to New Mexico.

This was one of our most dynamic programs to date! The meeting started off with an impressive plenary from Dr. Raymond Newell of Los Alamos National Laboratory on cybercryptography followed by excellent regional cyberinfrastructure collaborations panels from Texas and New Mexico to support scientific discovery. Additional highlights include plenaries from Jack Brassil of the National Science Foundation and Louis Fox from CENIC, and panel discussions showcasing our R&E networking communities collaborative approach to cyberinfrastructure workforce development, connecting public libraries, and others.

Below we have captured and curated many of the social media conversations that were happening throughout the event. We hope you enjoy this recap and the information provided, and we’ll see you again on Feb. 6–8, 2018 for our 2018 Winter Member Meeting in La Jolla, Calif.

2017 Fall Member Meeting sets sights on ABQ

Our 2017 Fall Member Meeting is only a few weeks away, and we have a great program lined up for Quilt members, affiliates and guests inside the Hyatt Regency – Downtown Albuquerque on Oct. 3-5 in New Mexico.

At the invitation of our Quilt member, the University of New Mexico Albuquerque GigaPoP, or UNM-ABQG, The Quilt is very excited to have our community gather in the desert southwest to learn, share, and collectively advance networking for research and education. Building on the success of the colocation of Fall 2015 and 2016 events, this year’s Fall Member Meeting also coincides with the National Science Foundation Campus Cyberinfrastructure and Cybersecurity Innovation for Cyberinfrastructure PI Workshop and the ESnet Site Coordinators Committee Fall Meeting (ESCC).

Some of the best networking minds in the country will be gathered all in one place for some exciting discussions on how R&E networks are uniquely positioned to meet today’s infrastructure challenges to support researchers in their scientific discovery.

The draft program agenda for The Quilt Fall Member Meeting is available here. Highlights include a joint networking reception, plenaries on Quantum Cryptography, cyberinfrastructure investments, discussions on regional research platforms and scaling a national research platform with additional highlights from the first NRP Workshop in Montana this summer, US UCAN and Quilt member collaborations on the Institute of Museum and Library Science (IMLS) Grant and Toolkit, advanced networking and big data, Science DMZs, lightning talks, cybersecurity, and more.

This is one of our most dynamic programs to date! We are looking forward to the opportunity to bring all these groups together, and thank you once again to our Quilt member UNM-ABQG for inviting us to Albuquerque.

For workshop logistics and registration, please contact Tracey Norris at tracey@thequilt.net
You can follow the conversation now and throughout the meeting using #QuiltinABQ or @TweettheQuilt.

We look forward to seeing you ABQ!

Humans and technology intersect at NRP Workshop

The first National Research Platform (NRP) Workshop is happening next month and The Quilt is excited and looking forward to discussing and learning more about our potential role in developing a national big data superhighway.

The NRP workshop will be held at Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana on Aug. 7 and Aug. 8. The purpose is to bring together representatives from interested institutions to discuss implementation strategies for deployment of interoperable Science DMZs at a national scale. This workshop is sponsored by the National Science Foundation through the Pacific Research Platform and Montana State University, and CENIC.

The National Science Foundation funded a 5-year cooperative agreement for the Pacific Research Platform (PRP) to improve the end-to-end, high-speed networking data transfer capabilities in collaborative, big-data science among 20 institutions. As part of the PRP cooperative agreement, NSF requires that the ensemble of PRP technologies be extensible across other scientific domains and to other regional and national networks. In response to this requirement, the NRP Workshop will solicit input from many multi-state networking organizations (Internet2, The Quilt, ESnet and others) on how the PRP model might further blossom.

Sessions will be devoted to science-driver application researchers describing their needs for high-speed data transfer, including their successes and frustrations. Discussions will focus on requirements from the domain scientists and the networking architecture, policies, tools and security necessary to deploy a 200-institution National Research Platform. All participants will be encouraged to ask questions and share their thoughts during these discussions. View the impressive line-up of speakers and experts.

The NRP is committed to facilitating the necessary social engineering among a diverse group of science, R&E network and IT leaders as well as provide proven end-to-end networking. An effective national partnership will need cyberinfrastructure experts working with scientists at their interface and understanding the desired scientific outcomes, rather than viewing the technology as an end to itself. Identifying common functionality that can be leveraged between science applications to make the NRP partnership more efficient and effective and prioritize high-performance access to supercomputer centers is key.

Registration has closed as the event is at capacity. For information about future workshops or the latest PRP research, please join the PRP listserv. Any other questions, visit the FAQ section on the event website.

Don’t miss VMware breakfast at Winter Member Meeting

If you are attending the The Quilt 2017 Winter Member Meeting in La Jolla, there will be a VMware-sponsored breakfast on Wednesday, Feb. 8 (7 to 8:15 a.m.) in the La Jolla Room at the La Jolla Shores Hotel.

Tim Boltz and Martin Gavin from Carahsoft will be there to answer any questions you may have regarding VMware or Carahsoft. We also will be discussing The Quilt’s exciting new VMware Convenice Pricing Program and the Carahsoft team will be doing an overview of:

  • Contract successes
  • Member savings and value
  • How can your members can gain access to this contract and all of its benefits
  • FAQs

Limited space is available. Please contact Jennifer Griffin to reserve a spot. This will be an excellent opportunity to meet the Carahsoft team so please consider participating!

Follow all conversations on social media during the Winter Member Meeting using #WMM17.

Quilt offers ESnet Science Engagement Workshop at #WMM17

The Quilt will be returning to the La Jolla Shores Hotel and La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club in California on Feb. 7-9 for its Winter Member meeting. Among the many exciting conversations and topics of interest that week will be the ESnet Science Engagement Workshop for Regional Networks on Thursday, Feb. 9 (9 a.m. to 3 p.m.) inside the La Jolla Room at the La Jolla Shores Hotel (separate registration required).

The Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) provides network connectivity and services for DoE/SC Labs to communicate with science collaborators around the world. To support this mission, ESnet conducts regular reviews of network requirements to determine the current and future science communication and collaboration needs for numerous communities. The purpose of these reviews is to accurately characterize the near-term, medium-term and long-term network requirements of the science being performed. This approach brings about a network-centric understanding of the science process used by the researchers and scientists, without asking technical questions directly, and derives network requirements from that understanding.

The goal of this interactive workshop outlines a process that can be adopted by members of the R&E networking community to advance the mission of science engagement and fully realize the investments made in networking and personnel by agencies such as the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science and the National Science Foundation.

Presenting Team

  • Jason Zurawski, Science Engagement Engineer, ESnet (lead)
  • Kevin Thompson, Program Director, National Science Foundation
  • Steve Diggs, Data Curation/Cyberinfrastructure, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
  • Jennifer Schopf, Director of International Networking, Indiana University

Topics

The topics of this workshop focus on the intersection of research and technology, in particular the use of high-speed networks. Specifically, the purpose of science engagement; overview of an outline for a case study approach to gather scientific requirements (documentation, meeting preparation); and a live example of how to conduct an in-person review to characterize needs with a visiting scientific group. View the Draft Agenda.

Who Should Attend?

Regular participants in The Quilt and the cyberinfrastructure engineering community are encouraged to attend, participate, and help define a strategy to encourage growth of scientific understanding and support.

Limited space is available. Please contact Jennifer Griffin if you have any additional questions!

Follow all conversations on social media during the Winter Member Meeting using #WMM17.