What’s New With FABRIC?
An update from Ilya Baldin, FABRIC Principal Investigator
We are excited to report that Phase 1 of FABRIC deployment is nearly complete. The hardware for the last four sites of Phase 1 (FIU, UMKC/GPN, Clemson and UCSD) has been delivered and turned up. We are in the process of installing and configuring the software. The addition of these sites brings the total number of available FABRIC sites to 17.
We have deployed Release 1.2 of FABRIC software with some important additions. For example, the new Facility Ports allow us to connect FABRIC slices to external facilities. The first Facility Port for Chameleon at University of Chicago has been enabled and tested, and we have created a Jupyter Notebook showing how to use the APIs of both testbeds to create joint slices. We are working on Release 1.3 of the software for more new features. We encourage you to take a look at the Release Notes for 1.2 for anticipated 1.3 features, which include the ability to modify slices, attach large spinning storage, and more.
The team is hard at work in preparing for the KNIT 5 Community Workshop in Chicago (see the next section). We hope to see many of you there!
KNIT 5 Workshop: Registration Open
September 20-22, 2022 in Chicago, IL
Registration is open for the first-ever in-person FABRIC Community Workshop, which will take place from September 20-22, 2022 in Chicago, IL. KNIT 5 will be hosted by Northwestern University.
FABRIC, an international infrastructure that enables cutting-edge experimentation and research at-scale, is up and running for beta testing. The FABRIC team is excited to share updates from the platform, experimenters, and wider community.
We’ll kick off the workshop on September 20 with small-group, hands-on FABRIC tutorial sessions and advanced training topics, a tour of FABRIC facility partner STARLIGHT, and a reception event. From September 21-22, the FABRIC team will provide new project highlights, present demos on the platform, and discuss increased capabilities through integration with testbeds such as Chameleon, PAWR, and CloudLab. Early experimenters across multiple science domains will present compelling experiments and share 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.
If you are interested in applying for a travel stipend, please review these guidelines. Preference will be given to individuals who have paid for their registration in advance.
We urge you to register as soon as possible if you would like to attend, as space will be limited. Our team is working on measures to ensure the safety of all in-person participants and will share additional details in the coming weeks. We look forward to seeing you there!
Please complete our online form to register for the event.
FABRIC Tutorial Webinar
August 11, 2022 at 12 PM ET
The FABRIC community is cordially invited to participate in an upcoming FABRIC tutorial webinar, hosted by Paul Ruth. The purpose of this webinar is to introduce incoming and existing beta users to the new features and onboard new teams to the testbed. The FABlib library is significantly different from the original FABRIC API and this webinar will be valuable to both new and experienced users. During this webinar, Ruth will present new features and walkthrough several FABlib example experiments.
New users will be given the opportunity to create accounts, although the team will ask any new users to create an account before the start of the webinar. FABRIC team members will be available to help any users who have trouble creating accounts.
The webinar will take place from 12 – 2 PM ET, and space will be limited. Please indicate all dates that you are available on the form when you register, and the team will be in touch with your confirmed webinar date.
Please use our online form to register for a spot.
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 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.
Defining FABRIC
A glossary for common terms used by our researchers
Policy Decision Point (PDP): A software agent or function capable of arbitrating access decisions based on a preconfigured policy and an input consisting of identity, action and resource with accompanying attributes.
See the full glossary on our website.
Open Solicitations
Funding opportunities that encourage the use of FABRIC
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
NSF Convergence Accelerator Expo 2022: NSF’s Convergence Accelerator Expo 2022 is showcasing 45+ unique solutions focused on societal impact. Connect with researchers, learn from experts, and grow your network in a cross-disciplinary environment. FABRIC leadership team member Anita Nikolich will be pitching a project there. This event will take place from July 27 – 28.
2022 NSF Cybersecurity Summit: Save the Date for the 2022 NSF Cybersecurity Summit. The NSF cyberinfrastructure ecosystem presents an aggregate of complex cybersecurity needs as compared to other organizations and sectors. This community has a unique opportunity to develop information security practices tailored to these needs as well as break new ground on efficient, effective ways to protect information assets while supporting science. This event will take place from October 18 – 20.
See a list of all upcoming events on our website.