Acquisition of an FDDI Backbone for Data--Intensive Social Science Computing

在国家科学基金会的支持下，威斯康星大学社会科学计算合作社将为其广泛的计算网络购买光纤分布式数据接口骨干网。这种高带宽主干网对于在合作社进行的数据密集型研究是必要的。这项工作使用了一个50gb的在线政府数据库，以及来自美国和世界各地的私人收集的数据文件。当前的网络是使用10mb /s以太网规范的旧设备和更现代设备的混合体。一些老的技术是缓慢的，一些是脆弱的，这严重阻碍了研究。主干网在其拓扑结构的旧部分过载，每日峰值负载是行业推荐值的几倍。它已经变得脆弱，并给沿途的研究人员带来了频繁的干扰。即将建设的网络带宽将是目前的30到60倍。它既可以为现有用户服务，也可以将经济系的研究人员添加到系统中。社会科学计算合作社由威斯康星大学的五个研究和教学机构组成，包括人口与生态中心、社会学系、农村社会学系、老龄化与成人生活研究所和贫困研究所。大约有100名教师及其研究生助理和专业研究人员团队使用合作办学设施。所进行的研究侧重于人力资源、人口和全球变化的原因和后果，特别是与自然环境有关的变化。这项工作对增加基础科学知识作出了重大贡献，其中大部分与紧迫的国家需要有关。

Winsborough With National Science Foundation support, the University of Wisconsin's Social Sciences Computing Co-operative will purchase a Fiber Distributed Data Interface backbone for its extensive computing network. This high-bandwidth backbone is necessary to the very data-intensive research done in the Co-op. work which uses a 50 gigabyte, on-line, data base of government and privately collected data files from the U.S. and around the world. The current network is an amalgam of older and more modern equipment using a 10 mb/s ethernet specification. Some of the older technology is slow and some is fragile and this seriously impedes research. The backbone is overloaded in the older part of its topology and peak daily loads are several times industry recommendations. It has become fragile and causes frequent interruptions for researchers along its path. The network to be constructed will have from 30 to 60 times the current bandwidth. It will both serve current users and add Department of Economics researchers to the system. The Social Sciences Computing Co-operative is composed of five research and teaching agencies in the University of Wisconsin and includes the Center for Demography and Ecology, the Department of Sociology, the Department of Rural Sociology, the Institute on Aging and Adult Life and the Institute for Research on Poverty. About 100 faculty and their teams of graduate assistants and professional researchers use the co-op facilities. The research conducted focuses on human resources, demography and the causes and consequences of global change, especially as it relates to the physical environment. The work contributes in a significant way to the increase in basic scientific knowledge much of it relevant to pressing national needs.