LGS router will accommodate 10-fold boost in DOE data traffic

Network specialists LGS Innovations is teaming with the Energy Department to build a nationwide 100 gigabit per second Ethernet network thanks to a $62 million grant from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which will pay for the project.

The Advanced Networking Initiative is a project of DOE’s Energy Sciences Network, or ESnet, according to an Oct. 19 announcement from the Herndon, Va., company.

The 100GE is the next standard capacity leap in high broadband network connectivity, supporting 100 gigabits per second over the network, a significant improvement over most current standard networks that connect with speeds of 10GE or 40GE, a company public relations executive explained.

The 100GE network, to be managed by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, will accommodate ESnet’s anticipated 10-fold increase in science data traffic during the next four years and beyond.

It also will support research efforts that will enable scientists to develop technologies and innovations for energy, climate and other research challenges, the spokesman said.

Under the agreement, LGS Innovations is providing the 7750 Service Router from its parent company, Alcatel-Lucent. That will afford LGS a presence on ESnet’s national backbone as well as at select laboratory sites.

LGS is providing this solution through a competitively awarded subcontract with Synchronized Networking Solutions LLC.

The new network will first be built as a prototype connecting DOE computing facilities at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, Berkeley, Calif.; the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility near Chicago, the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility, Oak Ridge, Tenn.; and the LAN international exchange point in New York.

ESnet will put the network into production by the end of 2012.