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DOE Pulse
  • Number 309  |
  • April 12, 2010

Backhoes back off!

Installation of a secondary high speed connection from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to the world’s premiere research and education networks began in 2008 and was completed in late 2009.

Installation of a secondary
high speed connection from
the Pacific Northwest
National Laboratory to the
world’s premiere research
and education networks
began in 2008 and was
completed in late 2009.

Jim Schroeder can now sleep easy. In November 2009, the IT engineer and his colleagues at DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory finished a secondary high speed connection to the world’s premiere research and education networks. This includes the DOE-sponsored ESnet, which serves DOE laboratories and collaborators worldwide. Before the new optical cable was in place, PNNL had only one physical path to these networks. Anyone with a backhoe could take the connection down, a nightmare for Schroeder and his the IT team. Now, the data transfer is seamless. A data stream can be switched automatically to the secondary line in less than a minute.  The new connection, based out of EMSL, DOE’s national scientific user facility,  PNNL is poised to develop as data-intensive computing grows.

[Kristin Manke, 509.372.6011,
kristin.manke@pnl.gov]