Category II: A Prototype National Research Platform

在网络基础设施不断发展的支持下，数据密集型科学和工程研究的进步使新的见解和发现成为可能。其中包括在了解从人类公共卫生到地球健康的基本过程和机制方面取得的进展；预测和应对自然灾害；并促进科学和工程在许多领域的日益相互联系，包括天文学、极端尺度系统管理、细胞生物学、高能物理学、社会科学和卫星图像分析。从根本上说，需要新的系统架构来加速这种进步，包括将各种计算和数据资源、研究和教育网络、边缘计算设备和科学仪器集成到高度可用和灵活的分布式系统中的能力。这样的系统既提供了进行研究的技术平台，也可以催化分布式和多学科团队，这些团队正在开发新的和变革性的方法来解决学科和多学科研究问题。最近的报告，通过社区愿景，包括NSF支持的报告“通过网络基础设施转变科学”，指出网络基础设施（CI）生态系统旨在开放和可扩展，并随着时间的推移而增长，可以通过国家科学和教育界的计算和数据资源的实物贡献来推进。这个CI生态系统可以被视为“更全面的计算，数据，软件，网络和安全资源，工具和服务，以及计算和数据技能和专业知识的频谱，可以无缝集成和使用，并共同实现科学和教育领域的新的，变革性的发现”。为了实现这一全国性CI生态系统的愿景，加州大学圣地亚哥分校（UCSD）的圣地亚哥超级计算机中心（SDSC）将与内布拉斯加州大学林肯分校（UNL）和马萨诸塞州绿色高性能计算中心（MGHPCC）的合作伙伴合作，部署“原型国家研究平台”（NRP）。这种新型的全国规模分布式测试平台架构包括：部署在SDSC的高性能子系统，该子系统集成了先进的处理器，可与以多个100Gbps速度运行的极低延迟国家研究和教育（R&amp；E）网络相关联；额外的高度优化的子系统，每个子系统由288个图形处理单元（gpu）组成，部署在内布拉斯加大学林肯分校（UNL）和马萨诸塞州绿色高性能计算中心（MGHPCC），也将在每个位置以100Gbps的速度连接到R&amp；E网络；在三个站点中的每个站点部署至少额外的1 PB高性能磁盘存储，以建立一个内容交付网络（CDN），通过一组8个最佳位置的50TB非易失性存储器（NVMe）网络缓存，在约10ms的往返时间（RTT）内提供对全国任何地方数据的原型级访问；创新的系统软件环境，实现对全国分布的试验台系统的集中管理。此外，系统架构将通过一个新颖的“自带资源”计划来实现额外的功能集成，从而对未来的发展保持开放。该项目的结构是一个为期三年的试验台阶段，随后是一个为期两年的分配阶段。在试验台阶段，SDSC研究人员将与UNL和MGHPCC的合作者以及少数研究团队密切合作，评估NRP体系结构和组成部件的性能。半年一次的研讨会将把团队聚集在一起，分享经验教训，开发知识和最佳实践，为研究人员提供信息，并探索创新架构，以加速从想法到出版物的S&amp；E发现。在分配阶段，NRP将提供给通过nsf批准的分配程序认为有价值的项目的研究人员。讲习班在分配阶段继续进行。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Advances in data-intensive science and engineering research, supported by ongoing developments in cyberinfrastructure, enable new insights and discoveries. Among these are progress in understanding fundamental processes and mechanisms from human public health to the health of the planet; predicting and responding to natural disasters; and promoting the increasing interconnectedness of science and engineering across many fields, including in astronomy, extreme-scale systems management, cell biology, high energy physics, social science, and satellite image analyses. Fundamentally new system architectures are required to accelerate such advances, including capabilities that integrate diverse computing and data resources, research and education networks, edge computing devices, and scientific instruments into highly usable and flexible distributed systems. Such systems provide both technological platforms for conducting research, and can catalyze distributed and multidisciplinary teams, which are developing new and transformative approaches to addressing disciplinary and multidisciplinary research problems. Recent reports, informed through community visioning, including the NSF supported report “Transforming Science Through Cyberinfrastructure”, note that a cyberinfrastructure (CI) ecosystem designed to be open and scalable, and to grow with time may advance through in kind contributions of compute and data resources by the national science and education community. This CI ecosystem may be viewed, “more holistically as a spectrum of computational, data, software, networking, and security resources, tool and services, and computational and data skills and expertise that can be seamlessly integrated and used, and collectively enable new, transformative discoveries across S&E [science and education]”.Aligned with this vision of a national scale CI ecosystem, the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), in association with partners at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln (UNL) and the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center (MGHPCC), will deploy the “Prototype National Research Platform” (NRP). This novel, national scale, distributed testbed architecture includes: a high performance subsystem to be deployed at SDSC that integrates advanced processors to be available in association with extremely low latency national Research and Educational (R&E) networks operating at multiple 100Gbps speeds; additional highly optimized subsystems each constituting 288 Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) to be deployed at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln (UNL) and the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center (MGHPCC), to be also interconnected to the R&E networks at 100Gbps speeds at each location; a minimum of additional 1 PB of high performance disk storage to be deployed at each of the three sites to establish a Content Delivery Network (CDN) providing prototype caliber access to data anywhere in the nation within a round trip time (RTT) of ~10ms to be available through a set of eight optimally positioned 50TB Non Volatile Memory (NVMe)-based network caches; and an innovative system software environment enabling both centralized management of the nationally distributed testbed system. Additionally, the system architecture will remain open to future growth through additional integration of capabilities to be achieved through a novel “bring your own resource” program. The project is structured as a three-year testbed phase, followed by a two-year allocations phase. During the testbed phase, SDSC researchers, working closely with collaborators at UNL and MGHPCC, as well as with small numbers of research teams, will evaluate the NRP architecture and performance of constituent components. Semiannual workshops will bring teams together to share lessons learned, develop the knowledge and best practices to inform researchers, and explore the innovative architecture to accelerate S&E discoveries from ideas to publications. During the allocations phase, NRP will be available to researchers with projects deemed meritorious by an NSF-approved allocation process. Workshops continue through the allocations phase.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.