CC-NIE Integration: Leveraging DYNES for Weather Data Distribution on Multicast Virtual Circuits

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The project objective is to create a new version of a software program called Local Data Manager (LDM), which is used to distribute weather data by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) to over 170 institutions. This new version uses network multicast services in order to decrease the required computing resources and network capacity. The methods being employed are as follows: (i) implement a new version of LDM, LDM-7, by integrating a reliable multicast transport protocol called Virtual Circuit Multicast Transport Protocol (VCMTP) into the current LDM-6, (ii) install LDM-7 on Dynamic Network System (DYNES) hosts that have been deployed at several universities as part of another NSF grant, (iii) compare performance of LDM-7 across two types of network multicast service: layer-3 (IP) multicast and layer-2 multicast virtual circuits, and (iv) beta test LDM-7 at U. Wisconsin and Rutgers U. for future transition to practice at the other 170 institutions. The potential benefits of the project are promising because LDM-6 has a large deployed base; in addition to UCAR, it is used by NOAA, NASA, US Geological Survey, US Army Corps of Engineers, US Air Force, US Navy, and international agencies. Our expected outcome, based on a preliminary evaluation of VCMTP, is that LDM-7 will require fewer servers and lower network capacity to achieve the same level of performance as today's LDM-6. More broadly, this network multicast solution with the reliable transport protocol can be used to disseminate other types of information such as financial data and video files.