Edge recently partnered with FABRIC, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, and Princeton University to provide high performance network infrastructure connecting university researchers and their local compute clusters and scientific instruments to the larger FABRIC infrastructure. FABRIC (Adaptive ProgrammaBle Research Infrastructure for Computer Science and Science Applications) is an expanding global research testbed designed to help shape future generations of computer networks. Funded by the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Mid-Scale Research Infrastructure program, FABRIC is a novel adaptive programmable national research network testbed that allows computer science and networking researchers to develop and test innovative architectures that could yield a faster, more secure Internet.
“EdgeNet is uniquely well-positioned to provide infrastructure support to these types of research networking initiatives,” explains Bruce Tyrrell, Associate Vice President, Programs & Services, Edge, “As a backbone and external services provider to both Rutgers and Princeton University, Edge has the capacity and capability to meet the high bandwidth research needs of our partner institutions. Our extensive optical backbone enables Edge to efficiently and economically deploy 100Gb transport services to all of our members.”
FABRIC Across Borders (FAB) extends the network to four additional nodes in Asia and Europe. FABRIC is an international infrastructure that enables cutting-edge experimentation and research at-scale in the areas of networking, cybersecurity, distributed computing, storage, virtual reality, 5G, machine learning, and science applications.
The FABRIC infrastructure is a distributed set of equipment at commercial collocation spaces, national labs and campuses. Each of the 29 FABRIC sites has large amounts of compute and storage, interconnected by high speed, dedicated optical links. It also connects to specialized testbeds (5G/IoT PAWR, NSF Clouds), the Internet and high-performance computing facilities to create a rich environment for a wide variety of experimental activities.
“EdgeNet is uniquely well-positioned to provide infrastructure support to these types of research networking initiatives. As a backbone and external services provider to both Rutgers and Princeton University, Edge has the capacity and capability to meet the high bandwidth research needs of our partner institutions. Our extensive optical backbone enables Edge to efficiently and economically deploy 100Gb transport services to all of our members.”
— Bruce Tyrrell
Associate Vice President, Programs & Services, Edge
“FABRIC aims to be an infrastructure to explore impactful new ideas that are impossible or impractical with the current Internet. It provides an experimental sandbox that is connected to the globally distributed testbeds, scientific instruments, computing centers, data, and campuses that researchers rely on everyday,” said Paul Ruth, FABRIC Lead PI. “Edge enables us to support research across many facilities including the COSMOS wireless testbed, Princeton’s experimental P4 testbed, and remotely controlled instruments such as a CyroEM microscope at Rutgers.”
FABRIC Capabilities include:
- FABRIC Enables New Internet and Science Applications
Encourages a multidisciplinary approach to designing the next generation Internet supporting end users as well as science domains that depend on large-scale intelligent networks. Provides access to cutting-edge programmable network technologies, like P4 and OpenFlow. - FABRIC Integrates Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence Enables novel approaches to distributed computing and network systems control and management by integrating Machine Learning capabilities.
- FABRIC Integrates HPC, Wireless, and IoT
Creates a diverse environment combining programmable core and edge networks, large computational resources, 5G and IoT capabilities. - FABRIC Advances Cybersecurity
Enables at-scale, more realistic research by peering with production networks to observe behavior. - FABRIC Promotes Education
FABRIC helps train the next generation of computer science researchers.
“Edge is pleased to partner with the FABRIC team and researchers at Rutgers University and Princeton University to provide high performance network infrastructure that connects university researchers and their local compute clusters and scientific instruments to the larger FABRIC infrastructure, creating opportunities to explore innovative solutions not previously possible for a large variety of high-end science applications and providing a platform on which to educate and train the next generation of researchers on future advanced distributed systems designs.”
— Dr. Forough Ghahramani
Assistant Vice President for Research and Innovation, Edge
Princeton Provost and Gordon Y.S. Wu Professor in Engineering and Computer Science Jennifer Rexford was an early supporter of bringing FABRIC to Princeton, serving as a founding member of the project’s steering committee. “Linking into FABRIC allows Princeton to support science on a global scale, across multiple domains,” said Rexford. Currently, the capabilities of computer networks are predetermined by their equipment and software, which network researchers and administrators only have limited ability to modify. FABRIC, by contrast, allows researchers to “bring their own device” to the testbed. “FABRIC enables researchers to reinvent the internet by experimenting with novel networking ideas in a realistic setting — at tremendous speed, scope, and scale,” added Rexford.
“The integration of FABRIC with COSMOS, both being pivotal national testbeds, opens unparalleled avenues for experimentation that blend wired and wireless networking with edge computing. Supported by Edge’s provision of connectivity between these pivotal national testbeds as well as to other national and international networks in NYC and Philadelphia carrier hotels, it opens unparalleled avenues for experimentation that blend wired and wireless networking with edge computing. This synergy not only enhances our research capabilities but also paves the way for groundbreaking advancements in network infrastructure and distributed systems,” notes Ivan Seskar, Chief Technologist at WINLAB, Rutgers, emphasizing the importance of collaborative efforts in pushing the boundaries of networking and computing research.
The FABRIC team is led by researchers from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Kentucky, Clemson University, Illinois Institute of Technology, and the Department of Energy’s ESnet (Energy Sciences Network). The team also includes researchers from many other universities, including Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, and Princeton University, to help test the design of the facility and integrate their computing facilities, testbeds, and instruments into FABRIC.
Jay Dominick, Princeton’s former Vice President for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer agrees. “Bringing Princeton into the terabit networking age is an important part of our commitment to provide world-class research capabilities to our faculty,” said Dominick. “With our partners at Edge, our researchers will be able to gain early insights into how high speed, high-capacity terabit-scale networking will transform their work.”
To learn more about FABRIC capabilities, visit whatisfabric.net/ or contact Forough Ghahramani at research@njeged.net for additional information.
