SLAC scientists help set data-transfer speed record

BY TOM MEAD

Transmit 6.7 gigabytes of data -- the data equivalent of four hours of DVD-quality movies -- across 7,000 miles in less than a minute? Can do.

The Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) is part of an international relay team that recently was awarded a certified data-transfer speed record by Internet2, a consortium of 200 universities working in worldwide partnership with industry and government to develop and deploy the next-generation Internet. The team transferred uncompressed data at 923 megabytes per second for 58 seconds from Sunnyvale, Calif., to Amsterdam -- a distance of almost 6,800 miles, or about one-quarter of the way around the world. This transfer speed is more than 3,500 times faster than a typical home Internet broadband connection.

"This new world record for SLAC is an example of an Office of Science laboratory working collaboratively with industry to drive forward worldwide high-speed data transfer," said Raymond L. Orbach, director of the Energy Department's Office of Science, which stewards 10 national laboratories. "It underlines the tradition in particle physics of groundbreaking work in manipulation and transfer of enormous data sets."

Practical benefactors of high-speed data transfer, notes Les Cottrell, assistant director of SLAC Computer Services, include "doctors at multiple sites sharing and discussing a patient's cardio-angiographs to diagnose and plan treatment, or disaster recovery experts sharing information across the globe in near real-time to develop recovery and relief plans." Intended to deliver much more than merely a faster web or e-mail, these new technologies will augment applications such as digital libraries, virtual laboratories and distance learning.

The team consisted of staff from SLAC, Caltech, the National Institute for Nuclear Physics and High Energy Physics (NIKHEF) in Amsterdam, and the Faculty of Science of the Universiteit van Amsterdam.

The record-setting international transmission also used the advanced networking capabilities of TeraGrid, StarLight, SURFnet, NetherLight, Cisco and Level 3 Communications. Cisco loaned $1 million of equipment for several months, and Level 3 provided the network and bandwidth supporting the research.