The CC-NIE Network Infrastructure project at San Diego State University (SDSU) is constructing and deploying a Science DMZ to support data intensive science and accommodate specific end-to-end dataflow scenarios between SDSU and other universities and national laboratories. The design of the Science DMZ follows the vision and architecture laid out by the Energy Sciences Network (ESnet). Cisco Nexus 7000 and 2000 series switches are deployed, along with a 10Gbps connection to the CalREN-HP network with exclusive use by the Science DMZ. Researchers at SDSU are hosting delay-sensitive applications and datasets on Lustre parallel file systems directly attached to the Nexus switches. These applications and datasets support research projects in the numerical simulation of earthquake rupture and wave propagation, coastal ocean modeling, pulse detonation engines, vortex rings in Bose-Einstein condensates, and large-scale data for proteomics, gene promoter bioinformatics, and microbial metagenomics. The project will directly impact the faculty and students who encompass the Computational Science Research Center which draws participation from all science and engineering departments at SDSU. The Science DMZ provides researchers with the capability to rapidly exchange large datasets and deploy Web-based science applications that are accessible through a dedicated network that is separate from, and therefore not impacted by, general Internet traffic generated by the campus population. The DMZ will promote remote usage of computing resources at SDSU, cultivate development of collaborative tools for sharing data with the broader scientific community, establish new research partnerships, and foster new mentorship opportunities between faculty and students engaged in computational science.
