Software

Next-generation networking requires revised protocols, drivers, and middleware. We are pursuing scalable networking software technologies in the areas of distributed computing and distributed file systems. Acadia is developing extensions to GridFTP and the Grid Security Infrastructure (GSI) and addressing the needs of end-systems to provision network resources.

We also develop client applications to meet clients' needs and showcase our services and solutions.

GridFTP/GSI Extensions

Data distribution and management for large-scale collaboration face significant challenges as emerging data-intensive applications necessitate efficient and secure transport across geographically dispersed locations. GridFTP is a powerful solution which has been developed to address these transport requirements. In particular, it extends the FTP protocol to provide secure, reliable, and efficient transfer of petabytes of data across wide-area distributed networks. As core network traffic throughput exceeds Tb/s rates, with individual users provisioned for 10 Gb/s and beyond, software-only implementations of GridFTP will be insufficient to handle the vast torrent of data. However, considerable improvements to the speed and functionality of the GridFTP toolset are possible if next-generation hardware-accelerated technologies are incorporated into the system.

To that end, Acadia Optronics LLC is developing significant extensions to GridFTP which will incorporate powerful protocol offload engines. These protocol offload engines are capable of processing at all layers, from the physical layer to the application layer (OSI layers 1-7), and are tailored specifically to accelerate GridFTP. They reside on-board Acadia’s extensible Network Interface Controller (eNIC) card, thus severely reducing the software-induced bottlenecks associated with protocol processing and enabling secure, wire-rate transfer of data at 10 – 40 Gb/s. Acadia’s reconfigurable NIC includes a virtualized hardware framework designed for rapid application development, which makes it ideally suited for the development and deployment of hardware extensions to GridFTP. Additionally, offloading functionality onto this NIC card will free up system resources to complete other tasks.

Acadia is delivering a complete high-speed plug-and-play GridFTP solution, which consists of a customized Acadia NIC with protocol offload engines and a comprehensive GridFTP software distribution which incorporates all necessary extensions.

Wire-rate security is assured via offloaded SSL/TLS protocols and AES hardware cores; network and transmission-layer protocols are also accelerated to ensure 10 Gb/s operation of the application. Upgrading GridFTP to take advantage of these advancements requires integration of the offload engines with the GridFTP suite. Security extensions are being incorporated into the Grid Security Infrastructure (GSI) and the entire upgraded/offloaded network protocol stack is being integrated into GridFTP via its eXtensible Input/Output (XIO) system.

Acadia is partnering with the Distributed Systems Laboratory at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) to develop the XIO drivers, perform real-world integration tests of the complete system, and conduct a complete performance analysis of the system. The Distributed Systems Laboratory at ANL is a pioneer in GridFTP development and a leading member of the Globus Alliance, an international collaboration responsible for research and development of key Grid technologies.

Network Provisioning

The US Department of Energy (DOE) is actively expanding its networking cyber-infrastructures to support a wide range of emerging “e-science” applications. Some key examples include high energy physics, astrophysics, molecular dynamics, genomics, climate modeling, etc. To date, the DOE has already built an advanced packet-switching network, the Energy Sciences Net (ESN), and is also experimenting with a wide-area optical networking testbed, the Ultra Science Net (USN). Furthermore, ongoing research and development efforts are looking to inter-connect these networks (and others) in an automated manner. These developments will help to further scale e-science footprints and facilitate much larger collaborations between dispersed research groups. Overall, these architectures are very well-suited for provisioning “networking-layer” connectivity, e.g., site-to-site interconnection between edge routers/switches at different DOE locations. However, as high-performance end-systems come on-line, various provisioning challenges are starting to emerge. As a result there is a pressing need to extend provisioning capabilities to the client edge via novel end-system (end-host) control architectures.

Acadia Optronics LLC is addressing this important area and developing practical solutions (architectures, signaling protocols, middleware, and algorithms) for automated end-system control provisioning across DOE networks. These intelligent solutions enable flexible connection setups and also provide advance reservation capabilities — a very important feature for emerging grid-computing applications. As such, this work will help bridge the gap between complex "network-side" architectures and "client-side" applications and transport protocols, i.e., "applications-based" networking. At present, Acadia is conducting a full requirement analysis and specifying relevant architecture designs. Subsequently, Acadia will develop detailed signaling and middleware schemes and evaluate these systems via prototyping and advanced discrete event simulation. While currently under development for DOE e-science needs, this work is part of a larger effort intended to commercialize end-user network provisioning for a variety of corporate needs.

Middleware and Client Applications

Acadia develops middleware and end-user client applications to support our clients' needs, including real-time streaming encrypted video software in C/C++ and Visual C++ (with MFC) for the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Quantum Cryptography Testbed and analysis software to verify cryptographic security/integrity for NIST/DARPA. We have developed software gateways to enable communication between diverse network protocols and applications. We continue to develop full-featured demonstration applications for our hardware and system integration efforts, including high-performance hardware benchmarking programs, rapid-prototype software-defined radio demos, and other high-profile "hero experiment" demonstrations.

For more information, please contact info@acadiaoptronics.com.