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(Photo
Courtesy of Fermilab & CERN)
Network Requirements Workshops
ESnet conducts two network requirements workshops per year for DOE Office of Science program offices. The purpose of the workshops is to accurately characterize the near-term, medium-term and long-term network requirements of the science conducted by each program office. Since two workshops are conducted per year, we refresh the network requirements information for each of the six program offices every three years.
The workshops attempt to bring about a network-centric understanding of the science process used by the researchers and scientists, and from that understanding derive network requirements. The collected requirements, along with their science context, are captured in a formal workshop report, which is made available to ESnet, the scientists, and the program managers. We have found this to be an effective method for determining network requirements for ESnet's customer base. Links to the workshop reports and other materials appear below.
Case Studies
The principal inputs to the workshops are the views of the DOE/SC program office, the experience and expertise of the scientists present at the workshop, and "case study" documents describing the science. A case study document describes the science being done, the ways in which the scientists use the network in the process of doing their science, the instruments and facilities used by the scientists and how they interact with the network, and how these things are likely to change over time. In addition to the narrative text describing the science, a case study contains a table containing a distillation of the network-centric aspects of the science.
In particular, a case study document should answer the following questions:
- What science is being done?
- What instruments and facilities are used?
- What is the process of science?
- How are the use of instruments and facilities, the process of science, and other aspects of the science going to change over the next 5 years?
- What is coming beyond 5 years out?
- Are new instruments or facilities being built, or are there other significant changes coming?
There is a FAQ page that provides more information for case study authors.
Workshop Process
The workshops typically begin with presentations by ESnet staff and by the program managers from DOE. If appropriate, other presentations from significant partners may also be given (e.g. Internet2, NASA, NCAR, NIH). After that, workshop attendees talk through the case studies in turn, and the science and its use of the network is discussed. We have found that round-table discussions are much more productive for case study discussions than formal presentations - the interactivity of a round-table discussion is typically very valuable.
After the workshop, attendees update their case study documents with information or clarifications from the workshop and ESnet staff compile the case studies into a workshop final report, including any material that came out in the workshop that does not fit into one particular case study (e.g. needs or issues that affect all science done by the program). After review by workshop participants, the final report is posted in the requirements section of the ESnet web site.
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