Argonne National Laboratory high performance network support of APS experiments
Martin J. Knot, Robert J. McMahon · Review of Scientific Instruments · 1996
Argonne National Laboratory is currently positioned to provide access to high performance regional and national networks. Much of the impetus for this effort is the anticipated needs of the upcoming experimental program at the APS. Some APS collaborative access teams (CATs) are already pressing for network speed improvements and security enhancements. Requirements range from the need for high data rate, secure transmission of experimental data, to the desire to establish a ‘‘virtual experimental environment’’ at their home institution. In the near future, 155 megabit/sec (Mb/s) national and regional asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) networks will be operational and available to APS users. Full-video teleconferencing, virtual presence operation of experiments, and high speed, secure transmission of data are being tested and, in some cases, will be operational. We expect these efforts to enable a substantial improvement in the speed of processing experimental results as well as an increase in convenience to the APS experimentalist.