CC* Regional: NCShare Science DMZ

This project creates a shared high-performance network to enhance research and education at minority-serving and smaller institutions in North Carolina. Such networks, typically undertaken by individual universities, establish a parallel physical network infrastructure (a Science network) to interconnect researchers on the campus to external sites. Conversely, this project builds a shared, regionally based, Science network operating on the existing state-wide research and education network, rather than as a separate infrastructure.

The resulting Science network is expected to lower costs, require fewer local (campus) support personnel, and provide fast and unrestricted data movement to multiple institutions.

The network is hosted at MCNC, North Carolina’s research and education network operator, and is a collaboration with Duke University, North Carolina Central University and Davidson College. Technically, the project establishes parallel "friction-free" paths for 5-7 participating institutions by virtualizing existing last-mile circuits between university networks and the statewide network.

Project components include a Data Transfer Node, sufficient storage, and modest computation to demonstrate the efficacy of the shared Science network model. Shared resources are accessed using federated identity management and out-of-band traffic inspection ensures security.

By identifying transmissions between trusted research sites (regionally/nationally) and securely routing that traffic around local campus security inspections that are intended to examine general, untrusted network traffic, the speed of Science network transmissions is significantly improved. This virtualized approach increases accessibility of high-speed data-driven research by democratizing access to advanced Cyberinfrastructure, enhancing research productivity, promoting collaboration, and reducing the time required for scientific discoveries at participating minority-serving and smaller institutions.

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.