By all accounts, the size of the data flows pulsing out of new instruments, sensor networks and massive simulations continues to escalate dramatically. Consequently many researchers in large national and international collaborations, sitting in different administrative domains, spread across the wide area network, and using diverse local resources, are likely to find that the data sets of most current interest are not where they need to be, when they need to be there, for their work to proceed efficiently. It is clear that an adequate cyberinfrastructure strategy for campus level bridging must address such critical problems in the area of data logistics.
This project creates a Data Logistics Toolkit (DLT) - an easy to install package of production quality software for building WAN-enabled storage nodes that dramatically improve the ability of data intensive research communities to collaborate in the wide area. DLT-enabled services (e.g. a global "drop box" for research that supports automatic data positioning) enable the automation and optimization of the timely placement of data across a wide range of scenarios, using policy-controlled sharing, replication, caching, control loop optimization and overlay multicast. Offering familiar user and programming interfaces, and backed by a solid but scalable security framework, the DLT transforms global data-intensive collaboration by providing a generic interface to an essential logistical resource - storage - and by giving campuses with DLT-enabled nodes the network awareness and adaptivity needed to maximize the productivity of their wide area links to distributed data and computing resources.
