Image credit: Map data: © Google 2015, INEGI.
On 21 May, the Korea Institute of Science & Technology Information–Global Science experimental Data hub Center (KISTI-GSDC) – the Korean Tier-1 site of the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG) – completed the upgrade to 10 Gbps of the bandwidth of its optical-fibre link to CERN. The link is part of the LHC Optical Private Network (OPN) that is used for fast data replication from the Tier-0 at CERN to Tier-1 sites in the WLCG.
KISTI-GSDC was approved as a full Tier-1 site at the 24th WLCG Overview Board in November 2013, backed by the ALICE community’s appreciation of the effort to sustain the site’s reliability and the contribution to computing resources for the experiment. At the time, the bandwidth of the dedicated connection to CERN provided by KISTI-GSDC was below that required, but the road map for upgrading the bandwidth was accepted.
The original proposal was to provide the upgrade of the OPN link by October 2014. However, following an in-depth revision of the executive plan with the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning – the funding agency – to find the most cost-effective way, the upgrade process did not start until the end of February this year. It was finally completed just before the scheduled start of the LHC’s Run 2 in May.
The OPN link between KISTI and CERN is composed of two sections: Daejeon–Chicago (operated by KISTI) and Chicago–Geneva (operated by SURFnet). An additional line to be switched on in case of any necessary intervention complements the link. The yearly budget is about CHF1.1 million.
