Vanderbilt researchers now have access to 15 times more bandwidth than they had in the past to conduct and share their research, thanks to a new resource provided by Information Technology Services.

The new bandwidth has been put to work immediately by Charles Maguire, professor of physics, through the Advanced Computing Center for Research and Education. Maguire is involved in an international research project seeking to replicate the matter created at the time of the big bang. Vanderbilt is the proposed primary U.S. data repository and analysis site for the project, which is being conducted using the Large Hadron Collider at the world’s largest particle physics laboratory, CERN, near Geneva, Switzerland.

“We are exploring conditions of the early universe in the laboratory,” Maguire said. “These experiments will collide nuclear particles, in particular a beam of lead nucleus on another, near the speed of light. Collisions make a hot dense form of matter – essentially the same as matter that existed right after the big bang. The new bandwidth ensures that this data can be transferred rapidly to Vanderbilt, and is the primary reason Vanderbilt was chosen as the best place in the United States to analyze it.”

Maguire and his colleagues approached Provost Richard McCarty in Spring 2008 with their need for a high-speed link to process the data.

“There are hundreds of terabytes of data being generated at CERN and transferred to ACCRE – which is 1,000 times more data than we could possibly store on a single desktop computer system,” Maguire said. “The provost very quickly agreed to our request – it was wonderful to see the enthusiasm. We are on the leading edge of universities that have this capability, and I imagine that it will be used across the university and medical center to send and share data, such as MRI’s and PET scans, with collaborators,” Maguire said.

Vanderbilt began routing internet traffic over the new 10 gigabit-per-second circuit beginning Dec. 1, 2008. The previous circuit only allowed 662 megabits of data to be transferred per second.

“The new 10 gigabit-per-second circuit connects to Southern Crossing in Atlanta. This is a telecommunication hub similar to a large regional airport.  Our traffic routes there and in turn can attach to various national labs, Internet 2 and other research-related networks,” Matthew Hall, associate vice chancellor for ITS and associate chief information architect for enterprise architecture, said.

In addition to the expansion for research, ITS also dramatically improved connectivity for overall internet use at Vanderbilt.

“We increased our internet connectivity used for general internet purposes from 622 megabytes to 1 gigabit per second, which benefits the entire Vanderbilt community,” Hall said.

Those with questions about how to access the new research bandwidth should contact their local technology service provider or their ITS service delivery manager. 

More information about the CERN project is available on Exploration and here: http://cms.cern.ch/.

Contact: Cindy Frank, (615) 343-1626        
cindy.frank@vanderbilt.edu