This project leads to a significant expansion and upgrade of the Virginia Tech campus network by extending high-data rate 10-gigabit per second connections and Science DMZ connectivity to strategic locations on campus. The new network connections enable the incorporation of Big Data concepts in classes; support funded research requiring the transfer of large data sets; and reduce barriers for independent, curiosity-driven research. The network accelerates discovery for researchers in several departments and multidisciplinary areas. Data kiosks in the Newman Library and Torgersen Hall provide high data rate connectivity for other researchers. The network is tightly integrated with local high-performance computing and storage systems and national cyberinfrastructure, enabling large-scale collaborative research and sharing of computational and data resources.
The expansion of the university's network to create a campus research network provides multiple 10-gigabit per second ports in classrooms and laboratories in eight buildings across the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg. The expansion is accomplished by deploying 48-port 10-gigabit per second Ethernet switches. Each of these switches has a 10- or 40-gigabit per second uplink. The core aggregation router connects to the campus 100-gigabit per second backbone network with multiple links for redundancy. The network provides at least a ten-fold increase in end-to-end network connectivity, making sustained high data rate connections ubiquitous between local and national computational and data resources, research laboratories, instruments, and selected classrooms.
