High-speed infrastructure expands data processing and transfer capacity for cutting-edge research in Brazil
On Thursday, July 2, the Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM) launched a new 100 Gb/s connection for the e-Ciência Network, infrastructure for the National Education and Research Network (RNP) which will serve institutions that conduct highly complex scientific research by offering large-volume data processing and transfer. This new line will be fully functioning by December.
Directors General of RNP and CNPEM, Lisandro Granville and Antonio José Roque da Silva, and MCTI Acting Executive Secretary Hugo Valadares. Image credits: Danilo Rondina/RNP Outreach
The new infrastructure connects CNPEM to a national network of research institutions prepared for “big science” applications. These include the National Scientific Computing Laboratory (LNCC), SENAI’s Cimatec, and CNPEM itself, which runs the Sirius accelerator facility. With the new 100 Gb/s network, which is a thousand times faster than the average Brazilian home internet connection, CNPEM will expand its capacity to support strategic research and strengthen the infrastructure required for Brazil’s scientific and technological development.
The e-Ciência Network is part of the Conecta Program, an initiative of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI) implemented by RNP with activities centered around advanced connectivity, high-performance networks and secure data sharing. For CNPEM Director General Antonio José Roque, this project in partnership with RNP creates new frontiers for the institution.
“Here we are inaugurating new scientific capacity; the scientific network will provide CNPEM, which carries out cutting-edge science, an exceptional capacity to transfer and process data,” he said, adding that the infrastructure will allow important advances in research that is already underway. “This helps leverage the science that is produced here at CNPEM.”
RNP Director General Lisandro Granville highlighted that this initiative represents a landmark in the evolution of Brazil’s networks for research. “To have CNPEM be the first in this big system, this large network, is a major point of pride.”
Granville highlighted the impact of this new connection capacity on processing the data generated by Sirius. “The science will make it possible to boost the speed by at least 50 times compared to PADEX in the past,” he noted, referencing the RNP’s Express High Performance platform.
According to Granville, this new infrastructure will be essential to keep up with the pace of research at CNPEM. “Now we will be able to have data transfer compatible with the speed of research, with the expectation that not only science but also innovation will need it.”
Implementing the new connection involved teams from CNPEM’s infrastructure and networks, engineers and technicians from RNP, and partners from other national laboratories responsible for testing and validating the new computational capacity.
During the ceremony, MCTI’s Acting Secretary of Science and Technology for Digital Transformation Hugo Valadares stressed that infrastructure investments are essential to expand the country’s scientific capacity and strengthen its presence in international research initiatives.
“The ministry works to create public policy, connecting resources and promoting the conditions required for science and technology to develop. What transforms this investment into concrete results are institutions like CNPEM and RNP.”
From PADEX to the e-Ciência Network
The partnership between CNPEM and RNP dates back to 2016, when the Center was part of efforts to implement PADEX (Express High Performance Processing), a project that connected CNPEM with the Santos Dumont supercomputer at LNCC and was one of the precursors to the current e-Ciência Network.
“For around ten years, while Sirius was still in its construction phase, we had already anticipated that the new synchrotron light source would generate massive volumes of data and require robust infrastructure for transmission and processing. PADEX was an important first step, but its scale was still limited. Today, with the e-Ciência Network, we have taken a major stride that transforms this scenario: what used to take hours to be transferred can now be done in minutes, making it even more viable to integrate CNPEM with the national high-performance computing infrastructure,” said Antonio José Roque da Silva.
During the current implementation stage, activation of the 100 Gb/s network at CNPEM includes delivering the Science DMZ kit, specialized infrastructure for transferring large volumes of scientific data, with installation and initial configuration of the equipment at the Center. This process also marked the infrastructure migration from PADEX to the e-Ciência Network, with one of the routes stepping up from 10 Gb/s to 100 Gb/s.
The applications with the greatest needs for high-capacity data storage, processing and transfer are studies using cryogenic electron microscopy and experiments conducted on the Sirius beamlines. These types of analyses generate massive volumes of data that need to be processed, segmented and transformed into images for scientific interpretation.
“The volume of data generated by experiments grows continuously, as does the need for integration with centers for processing, storage and remote collaboration. This new infrastructure strengthens our technological environment and prepares us for future cycles of scientific and technological expansion,” notes Denis Massarotto Campos, head of CNPEM’s Information Technology Division.
Along with meeting current needs, the infrastructure also prepares the Center for future scientific endeavors such as Orion, the laboratory complex for pathogen research which will house maximum biological containment (BSL-4) facilities that are the first of their kind in Latin America.
