Openflow services for science: an international experimental research network demonstrating multi-domain automatic network topology discovery, direct dynamic path provisioning using edge signaling and control, integration with multipathing using MPTCP

Large scale data intensive science requires global collaboration and sophisticated high capacity data management. Traditionally, mismatches between the requirements of large scale science and the restrictions of generally deployed networks have been problematic. However, the emergence of more flexible networking, for example, using techniques based on OpenFlow, provides opportunities to address these issues because these techniques enable a high degree of network customization and dynamic provisioning. Also, these techniques enable large scale facilities to be created that can be used to prototype new architecture, services, protocols, and technologies. Consequently, a number of research organizations in several countries with major HPC facilities have been working together to design and implement a persistent international experimental research facility that can be used to prototype, investigate, and test network innovations for large scale global science. For SC12, this international experimental network facility will be extended to from sites across the world to the conference showfloor, and it will be used to support several testbeds and to showcase a series of complementary demonstrations of techniques that could be useful to large scale science applications, including multi-domain automatic network topology discovery, virtual networking and tunneling over WANs, dynamic path provisioning using edge signaling and control, and multipath provisioning using MPTCP.