The Research Network Upgrade Project at CWRU improves the campus cyberinfrastructure in three coordinated areas to address increasing demand by research faculty for bandwidth to the national research network. New network edge equipment increases bandwidth to the national research network via the regional network, OARnet, to 100 Gbps. New network access electronics extends 10 Gbps bandwidth to four areas of campus with data-intensive research in engineering and physics. A new Science DMZ with data transfer nodes reduces the friction of large-scale scientific and research data transfers across the national network.
The enhanced network capabilities facilitate the research endeavors of diverse groups at the university including the Case Center for Imaging Research; Pharmacology and the Cleveland Center for Membrane and Structural Biology; as well as Astrophysics, Cosmology, and Particle Physics. This complements past work that provided bandwidth enhancements at selected locations in the access layer serving the health sciences campus.
The application of these advanced technological capabilities brings broader impacts within and beyond the immediate subject areas. The development of real-time MRI techniques is envisioned to lead to real-time imaging for surgical procedures with image information delivered to the surgeon from a remote data center. Advances in structural biology and hybrid methods facilitates molecular characterization of challenging biological systems including membrane proteins, receptors, and engineered viral vectors. The development of new radiation detection and detector media purification techniques impacts future medical imaging, nuclear non-proliferation, and industrial processes.
