NETWORKING INFRASTRUCTURE

SC'96 is building on the networking activities of previous conferences, providing many venues and opportunities for attendees to participate and view communications technology "at work" on many platforms and applications. This year, the networking infrastructure is a fully integrated network, including the following components: a Global Wide Area Applications Testbed (GWAAT); SCinet High Speed Network-FDDI, ATM and HiPPI infrastructure, available throughout the duration of the conference; and a SCinet Commodity Network-ethernet connectivity available to all research and exhibit booths the day they move into the building.

By providing an integrated network environment, we encourage researchers, exhibitors and attendees to test, display, demonstrate and access a wide range of local and wide area applications, services and information in presentation, research booths, exhibitor booths and conference-provided display devices.

G-Watt: Global Wide Area Applications Testbed

The Global Wide Area Applications Testbed (G-WAAT) offers a unique combination of high-end resources available to national and international Grand Challenge application teams. The emphasis for this GII testbed is on application demonstrations and performance. SUPERCOMPUTING conferences have traditionally showcased very high speed wide-area network connectivity to the convention center and state-of-the art visualization facilities on the show floor. This trend continues at SC'96, where we expect a connection to the NSF-sponsored vBNS, with expectations of operating at 155 Mbps and selected portions operating at 622 Mbps and other high speed networking testbeds. We plan to expand the range of applications supported and demonstrated to include International Grand-Challenge applications by providing high-speed connectivity to networks throughout the other G7 countries (Italy, France, Germany, Great Britain, Japan and Canada). This will be an exciting opportunity for collaboration among scientists and technologists spanning multiple continents.

Scinet High Speed Network

SCinet's High Speed Network infrastructure, utilizing FDDI, ATM and HiPPI technologies, will give researchers, exhibitors and attendees high speed network access to other computers, network services and information serives on the show floor, at their home institutions and across the Global Internet. This infrastructure will be tied into both experimental and commodity wide area networks providing connectivity for a range of applications and services, including: High Performance Computing Challenge, G-WAAT applications, exhibitor and research booth demonstrations. The network infrastructure will use leading edge networking equipment supplied by a range of vendors.

Scinet Commodity Network

For the first time, SCInet is offering a commodity ethernet connection to every booth on the show floor. This infrastructure will use off-the-shelf ethernet equipment and will be connected to at least one Commodity Wide Area Network Service provider.