Faster data transfer

GridFTP, a protocol developed by researchers at Argonne National Laboratory, has been used to transfer unprecedented amounts of data over the US Department of Energy's (DOE) Energy Sciences Network (ESnet).

The Argonne-developed system proved key to enabling research groups at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee and the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center in California to move large data sets between the facilities at a rate of 200MBytes/s.

'Conventional protocols have proven unable to handle the increasing demand of large-scale data transfer. The result has been delays in obtaining data, or even lost data as the network becomes overwhelmed. GridFTP changes that,' said Ian Foster, co-director of the Globus Alliance project responsible for designing GridFTP.

As large-scale collaborative science projects become increasingly common, the need to transfer unprecedented amounts of data is becoming critical. Having GridFTP on ESnet will enable the sharing of data between supercomputer centres in disciplines such as climate modelling and nuclear physics.