Use of UKLight as a fast network for data transport from Grid infrastructures
Mary-Ann Thyveetil, Steven Manos, James L. Suter, Peter V. Coveney · 2007
Large-scale molecular dynamics simulations run on high-end supercomputing facilities can generate large quantities of data.We simulate mineral systems up to 10 million atoms in size in order to extract materials properties which are otherwise difficult to obtain through existing experimental techniques.Simulating clay systems this large can generate large files up to 50GB in size.These simulations were carried out on remote sites across the US TeraGrid and UK's HPCx supercomputer.Using the dedicated network, UKLight, connected to these high-end supercomputing resources has significantly reduced the time taken to transport large quantities of data generated from our simulations.UKLight provides excellent quality of service, with reduced packet loss and latency.This enhanced data transfer method paves the way for faster communication between two coupled applications, such as in the case of real-time visualisation or computational steering. Lighting the Blue Touchpaper for UK