Spring 2003 Internet2 Meeting Cyberinfrastructure - Implications for the Future of Research Alan...

Spring 2003 Internet2 Meeting

Cyberinfrastructure -Implications for the Future of Research

Alan Blatecky

ANIR

National Science Foundation


Driving Factor 1:

Technology Pull

• Continuing exponential advances in sensor, computer, storage and network capabilities will occur

• Sensor networks will create experimental facilities• PetaByte and ExaByte databases will become feasible• Increase in numerical and computer modeling capabilities broaden the base of science

disciplines• Increase in network speeds makes it feasible to connect distributed resources as never before


Driving Factor 2:

Science Problem Push

• New classes of scientific problems are enabled from technologies development– High energy physicists will harness tens of thousands of CPUs in a worldwide data grid

– On-line digital sky survey requires mechanisms for data federation and effective navigation

– Advances in medical imaging and technologies enable collaboration across disciplines and scale

• Coupling of expertise, collaboration, and disciplines encourage the development of new science and research


Future Science Scenarios

• Virtual observatory -– graduate student in Brazil is struck by a strange spectrum of an object she had read in a paper, and uses existing data to

search for matching characteristics and is able come up with interesting results and observations

• Digital medical imaging and personalize medicine– advances in imaging technologies are utilized for routine screening, early assessment and the design of prevention therapies

• Disaster Response– hurricane predicted to hit New Orleans at the same time a terrorist anthrax threat in Houston has been confirmed; FEMA

uses national computing, database, sensor resources and so forth to determine appropriate response strategies


Scenarios continued

• Distributed collaborative designs for safer buildings– testing complex multi-component structures and associated reactions with sensor data to design safer structures

• Large-Scale international science– A $5B fusion reactor can be operated efficiently as an international facility; experiments can be designed, configured

and monitored by a team in a virtual control room.

• National Airspace simulation– The entire national airspace can be modeled and simulated including weather, real-time data, terrain data, radar and

sensor data


Observations

• Recent changes in the nature of science are creating an urgent requirement for a new class of distributed science infrastructure

• Infrastructure includes an array of grid and middleware technologies• E-science has some unique requirements that will not be addressed by industry• Current Grid/Middleware technology and software development is being done via a

patchwork of diverse, short-term projects and programs


The NSF Objective for Cyberinfrastructure

• provide an integrated high end system of hardware, software, and services that ...

• enables scientists and engineers to work on advanced research and education problems that would not otherwise be solvable


Cyberinfrastructure

Hardware

Grid Services & Middleware

DevelopmentTools & Libraries

Applications• Environmental Science• High Energy Physics• Proteomics/Genomics• …

Domain-specific Cybertools (software)




Shared Cybertools (software)




Distributed Resources

(computation, communication,

storage, etc.)



storage, etc.)



storage, etc.)



storage, etc.)


Cyberinfrastructure:an Ecological Model

Computational ResourcesSupercomputersGrid ToolsVisualizationComputing ClustersSpecialized Architectures

Scientific InstrumentsTelescopesCollidersShake TablesMicroscopesSensor Arrays

ExpertiseScientific DisciplinesResearchEducationTechnical supportSoftware DevelopmentGrid Operations

OrganizationsUniversities, SchoolsGovernment LabsGovernment AgenciesResearch CentersLibraries, Museums

Network ResourcesProduction BackbonesExperimental NetworksResearch NetworksMiddleware servicesGrid capabilities

CollaborationShared Resources

Virtual Organizations

Results

New ScienceNew ApplicationsGrand ChallengesCompetitivenessSocietal Impact

Data & Knowledge ResourcesDatabasesStorageCollectionsMining & Navigation Tools


Some Issues

• A recognition that long-term, sustained, and persistent efforts to develop and support grid and middleware must be established and encouraged as soon as possible

• Inadequate funding of Grid and middleware in general; inadequate funding of pipelines to produce expertise for future

• A recognition that international coordination, cooperation and collaboration is essential• Significant federal research support and development is required immediately, including a

long term development plan


Areas requiring immediate attention and support

• Robust Software and Middleware– “production” software engineering; including usability– hardened infrastructure– scaling issues, global deployment

• Grid Management and Operations– heterogeneous, multi-domain coordination of resources – authentication, authorization, monitoring, etc

• Grid interoperability– systemic programs and interoperability testbeds– development of consensus/standards– international coordination


Necessary Long-term Investments

• Fundamental CS&E research

• Operational cyberinfrastructure

• Shared cybertools (software)

• Domain-specific cybertools

To support research and education in all science and engineering fields.


Cyberinfrastructure Drivers

• Extensible Terascale Facility (ETF)

• Partnerships for Advanced Computational Infrastructure (PACI)

• Grid Physics Network (GriPhyN)/ iVGDL

• Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES) Grid project

• National Virtual Observatory (NVO)

• National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON)

• National Science Digital Library (NSDL)


Technical Challenges

• More players, more heterogeneity, design must scale

• System must be production-ready – SW must be bullet-proof, useful, usable

• Most interesting programming models (real-time, on-demand, adaptive, etc.) still require considerable research

• Programming environments, tools must be developed and usable– How do we debug a Grid program?


Logistical, Legal Challenges

• Who maintains the Software? Who fixes the bugs? Who documents the code? Who answers the phone? Who wears the pager?

• How do we do accounting over multiple administrative domains? How do we allocate resources over multiple sites?

• How do we deal with varying institutional IP policies, open source policies, licensing policies, etc.

• What authority and responsibility will Virtual Organizations have?


Ideological Challenges

• What organizational framework promotes development of stable, persistent infrastructure?

• How to integrate different institutional approaches and cultures for administration of resources, operations, Software development and deployment, etc.

• How to develop metrics and incentives for meaningful cooperation and coordination

• What is shared/private, free/charged for, centralized/distributed, etc.

• How do you share resources across national boundaries?


International Challenges

• Who makes decisions? Who enforces decisions? – Do we need a “Cyberinfrastructure UN”?

• How do we do global allocations?

• What mechanisms should be used to select/support applications?

• How do we ensure stability and interoperability?

• How do we ensure that the sharing of resources does not compromise security?


end

Spring 2003 Internet2 Meeting Cyberinfrastructure - Implications for the Future of Research Alan...

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