NEES Networking Needs

The NEES MRE: Where the Infrastructure Community Meets the

Cyberinfrastructure Community

Kyran (Kim) Mish, Director

Center for Computational Engineering

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

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So Exactly What is NEES?

• Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation– NEES is a distributed array of experimental sites, grid-based

data repositories, tool archives, and computational resources, all seamlessly linked (hopefully!)

• NEES has four components, with three now funded:– The consortium, which will run NEES after 2004– The consortium development (CD) builds the consortium– The experimental sites, which provide data and content– The systems integration (SI) effort, termed NEESgrid

• Network drivers include telepresence, curated repositories, scalable HPC, experimental-numerical coupling, short- and long-term QoS issues

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Example NEES Experimental Site

• Geotechnical Centrifuge at UC Davis

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NEES Network Stakeholders

• Experimental Facilities– Shake tables, centrifuges, wave tanks, field sites

• Resource providers– Computers, software, storage, networks

• End users– Researchers, practicing engineers, students, …

• Operational facilities– NCSA/NEESgrid NEES Consortium in 2004

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Typical NEES Cyberinfrastructure

Internet Fabric and Operations

NEESpop A

Experimental Equipment

Video I/O

Audio I/O

Site A: Experimental Data Producer

Hub A

NEESpop B

Telepresence Equipment

Active PI

Data Cache

Site B: Remote Lead Investigator

Hub B

Site C: Passive Collaborator

Teleobservation Equipment

Passive coPI

Data Cache

Hub C

Experimental Component

Campus Net Component

NEESgrid Component

Grid Data Repository

Grid Ops Center

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Infrastructure vs. Cyberinfrastructure

• Characteristics of Infrastructure Culture– Risk averse, which leads to slow technology adoption

– Code-based practice to defend against litigation

– Follow community wants/needs whenever possible

– Goal is highest reliability, e.g., MTBF

• Characteristics of Cyberinfrastructure Culture– High-risk, “innovate or die trying” approach to technology

– Best-practices approach leaves legal issues dangling

– Develop technology, then look for a market

– Goal is highest performance, e.g., TFLOPS

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Typical NEES Infrastructure

• Infrastructure community builds ubiquitous networks– Robust, reliable, redundant, extensible over time– Generally, these networks degenerate gracefully with load– High-value packets are seldom lost, thankfully

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Consider Science and Engineering

• Science is a process whose desired outcome is scientific truth– Open sharing of data in “community of science”– Metric is “evidence of a creative mind”

• Engineering is a profession whose desired outcome is technology– Information may be proprietary, IP dominates– Metric is financial or market-driven (share)

• NEES MRE must respect these differences

Questions, Answers, and Comments

Words of Wisdom from Bill Lennon, LLNL:

“People put up with networks only because they are a necessary evil”