The Hawaii Innovation Initiative, a bold plan to double University of Hawaii (UH) research, will focus on research strengths in astronomy, earth and ocean sciences, as well as agriculture and health sciences. During the planning for the initiative it became clear to all that meeting this goal would require the development of a highly advanced cyberinfrastructure (CI) framework that encompasses high performance computing, data visualization, big data analytics, cybersecurity, large data storage and real time collaboration with scientists around the globe. All these capabilities must be enabled by advanced networking. UH has been extraordinarily successful in designing and implementing research and education (R&E) networks to connect campuses, research facilities, public schools and libraries throughout the Hawaiian Islands with national, international and regional networks. A recent series of NSF network infrastructure and NTIA BTOP awards now provide 10Gbps network connectivity on the islands, between the islands, to the mainland national R&E networks and to international peer networks in Australia and Asia.
With a major upgrade in the campus fiber infrastructure fully funded and underway, this project will complete the necessary upgrade of the campus network at UH Manoa to support data-intensive science by creating a Science DMZ and providing 10Gbps bandwidth increases to key campus research facilities. The project will enable the rollout of OpenFlow on campus, is fully compatible with OSCARS for dynamic circuit provisioning, and will support GENI experimentation. Finally, the project includes the innovative deployment of perfSONAR tools to support continuous monitoring of the campus network with the lowest possible impact on staff.
The proposed perfSONAR work represents a real innovation in campus networking. Exemplar projects with campus and global implications that will benefit from improved campus networks include: the Pan- STARRS Survey Telescope, the Alpha Magnetic Spectroscopy Data Center, microbial oceanography research at the Center for Microbial Oceanography Research and Education STC, the Hawaii Institute for Marine Biology, and sensor based research in climate change, oceanography and disaster preparedness at the UH School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology. In addition, broad national and global access will be improved to significant scientific resources based in Hawaii. And as the premier research university in an EPSCoR jurisdiction, UH Manoa has one of the most diverse populations in the nation. UH is a Native Hawaiian-Serving Institution and also enrolls significant and growing numbers of Pacific Islander and Filipino students, who are also highly under-represented in STEM-related employment and education. The increased engagement of under-represented local and mainland students and scholars in research in Hawai?i will lead to improvements in U.S. research and education for the entire nation.
