Announcing NLANR High Performance Connections
Applications Database

The National Laboratory for Applied Network Research (NLANR) invites users of high-performance networks to preview the High Performance Connections (HPC) Applications Database being developed by the NLANR Distributed User/Applications Support Team. The HPC Applications Database is the initial phase of an HPC Clearinghouse under development as an online facility that will provide support services and information about related projects, applications, and resources to people who are using high-performance networks such as the vBNS.

"We call this a preview because it is going to take us a while to collect information about all 160-plus sites," said George H. Brett II, Senior Project Coordinator of the Distributed Applications Support Team, "but it's up and running now, and we encourage people to use it and contribute to it."

Initially, the HPC Applications Database will include basic information about the NSF HPC awards: "meritorious applications" (projects), participants, institutions, discipline areas, and specific applications. Later the database will grow to include more detailed information about technical requirements of the applications and the results of application research. Once the NSF HPC information is in place, NLANR will work with the staff of the Internet2/Abilene community to see that their data also are incorporated. In addition, NLANR is working with regional and local support services (e.g., CENIC, SURA, and NYSERnet) providers to explore how they might use this collection or its format directly with their communities.

The HPC Applications Database Clearinghouse is located at Clearinghouse dast.nlanr.net/Clearinghouse/clearing_main.htm. HPC users are requested to review the information about their projects, applications, and resources using the query page at dast.nlanr.net/Clearinghouse/Query.htm, and to send corrections and updated information to NLANR. The NLANR development team also requests information on any projects at High-Performance Connections institutions that are not listed in the database. Information can be submitted via the web form on the query page, or by sending e-mail messages giving the URLs of web pages where they are described.

"The quality of the database will largely depend on individual contributions and updates of information," Brett said. "With the cooperation of the user community this can grow to be a valuable online resource, and eventually to an online collaboration space -- a Collaboratory -- for users of the NSF vBNS and UCAID Abilene networks.

"We also have collaborated with other regional and campus support people to develop a collection that will be useful to more than just the NSF award community. We want to work with these groups. Perhaps they will contribute directly or perhaps they will use the schema of the database locally. What's important is that we work together and use standard tools to ensure that the research and education community have the most complete, accurate, and up-to-date information."

NLANR was created in 1995 to provide technical and engineering support and overall coordination of the NSF/MCI very high performance Backbone Network Service (vBNS) connections at five NSF-supported supercomputer centers. Since then, the scope of NLANR's activities has expanded with the evolution of the vBNS and the advent of other high-speed networks. NLANR's support and services now are relevant to several other high-performance network service providers -- UCAID's Internet2, the Next Generation Internet initiative, and the STAR TAP international research network -- in addition to the vBNS.

Funded by the National Science Foundation Computer and Information Science and Engineering Directorate (CISE), NLANR is a distributed organization with three parts. The Distributed Applications Support team, located at UIUC/NCSA, provides support to vBNS users and assistance with high-performance applications. The Engineering Services team, located at CMU/PSC, provides in-depth information and technical support for connecting to and effectively using high-performance wide-area networks to campus network engineers, gigapop operators, and other networking professionals. The Measurement and Network Analysis team, located at UCSD/SDSC, conducts network performance and flow measurements and analyses for HPC sites.