What’s New With FABRIC?
An update from Ilya Baldin, FABRIC Principal Investigator
We are very pleased and excited to see the continued growth of FABRIC resources and user base! We now have over 250 registered users and more than 40 registered projects and the list is growing every day. In the past few months we’ve added several more sites (FIU, UCSD, Clemson, GPN/UMKC) and will shortly be adding Indiana University, Princeton, Rutgers University, GA Tech and Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center. We are also very excited to be nearing the completion of the installation of our first international site at CERN! Our optical footprint is growing as well and through a partnership with ESnet and Infinera we are starting the installation of the remainder of our DWDM system including the 1.2Tbps national ‘TeraCore’ ring.
We recently deployed the newest version of our testbed software, which includes support for externally connectable IPv4 and IPv6 network services, Layer 3 VPN services and integration with Internet2 CloudConnect system.
We are currently focusing our efforts on developing support for P4 deployments using a combination of Xilinx U280 FPGAs and Tofino-based switches being deployed within the FABRIC footprint.
Of course we are continuing to expand our community outreach activities including tutorials at TechEx 2022 last December, planned tutorials at the KNIT 6 workshop in April and other community-oriented events. Stay tuned for further announcements!
Save The Date: KNIT 6
April 24 – 26, 2023 | Austin, TX
KNIT 6, the second in-person FABRIC Community Workshop, will take place from April 24 – 26, 2023 in Austin, TX. KNIT 6 will be hosted by the Texas Advanced Computing Center.
FABRIC, an international infrastructure that enables cutting-edge experimentation and research at-scale, is up and running. The FABRIC team is excited to share updates from the platform, experimenters, and wider community.
We’ll kick off the workshop on April 24 with small-group, hands-on FABRIC tutorial sessions and advanced training topics. From April 25-26, the FABRIC team will provide new project highlights and present demos on the platform. Experimenters across multiple science domains will present compelling experiments and solicit feedback from fellow participants during “unconference sessions.” The team will expand on how FABRIC can support researchers across areas such as networking, cybersecurity, distributed computing, storage, virtual reality, 5G, machine learning, and science applications. Attendees will get the chance to explore the FABRIC portal, connect with the FABRIC community, and provide feedback to the FABRIC team.
Stay tuned to our website for the latest information.
FABRIC: A Testbed of Testbeds
Participating Testbeds and Facilities
FABRIC is a testbed of testbeds, helping users experiment using multiple testbeds. Like Lego blocks, users can get accounts on several testbeds and build an experiment using all of them. Additionally, testbeds can be powered by FABRIC. FABRIC can support testbeds as an underlying infrastructure, while not necessarily exposing the FABRIC interfaces to their users.
The list of participating testbeds and facilities is growing and currently includes over twelve members. Testbeds and facilities can be added to the page using this form.
Find the full list on our website.
Open Solicitations
Funding opportunities that encourage the use of FABRIC
NGI Enrichers Program: The NGI Enrichers program supports European NGI researchers and innovators to spend 3-6 months in the US or Canada to work and collaborate with US and Canadian hosts, to promote knowledge-sharing and establish long-term collaborations on NGI technologies, services, and standards. The program provides travel funding, living allowance, and visa for visiting fellows from Europe, and supports both fellows and their hosts, with bootcamps, mentors, visibility, community building and more! Applications are due January 31.
Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace (SaTC): The SaTC program welcomes proposals that address cybersecurity and privacy, drawing on expertise in one or more of these areas: computing, communication, and information sciences; engineering; education; mathematics; statistics; and social, behavioral, and economic sciences. Proposals that advance the field of cybersecurity and privacy within a single discipline or interdisciplinary efforts that span multiple disciplines are both welcome. Full proposals can be submitted at any time.
See a list of all solicitations mentioning FABRIC on our website.
Do you have a project idea that would benefit from using FABRIC? The FABRIC team welcomes requests for Letters of Collaboration. To expedite the process, please contact us by filling out the form.
Upcoming Events
Leadership team presence at industry or academic events
KNIT 6: We’ll kick off the workshop on April 24 with small-group, hands-on FABRIC tutorial sessions and advanced training topics. From April 25-26, the FABRIC team will provide new project highlights and present demos on the platform. Experimenters across multiple science domains will present compelling experiments and solicit feedback from fellow participants during “unconference sessions.” The team will expand on how FABRIC can support researchers across areas such as networking, cybersecurity, distributed computing, storage, virtual reality, 5G, machine learning, and science applications. Attendees will get the chance to explore the FABRIC portal, connect with the FABRIC community, and provide feedback to the FABRIC team. This event will take place in Austin, TX from April 24 – 26.
See a list of all upcoming events on our website.