Network-aware data movement advisor

Next-generation eScience applications often generate large amounts of simulation or experimental data that must be shared and managed by collaborative organizations. Advanced networking technologies and services have been rapidly developed and deployed to facilitate the massive data transport necessary for such data sharing and collaboration. However, these technologies and services have not been fully utilized by application users mainly because their use typically requires significant domain knowledge and in many cases even their existence is not made aware to the public. We design and develop a Network-aware Data Movement Advisor (NADMA) utility to enable automated discovery of network and system resources and advise the user of efficient strategies for fast and successful data transfer. NADMA is primarily a client-end program that interacts with existing data/space management and discovery services such as Storage Resource Management, transport methods such as GridFTP, and network resource provisioning systems such as TeraPaths and OSCARS. NADMA acts as a route planner in a typical vehicle navigation system to provide the user a set of feasible route options along with performance estimations as well as specific steps and commands to authorize and execute data transfer. We demonstrate the efficacy of NADMA in several use cases based on its implementation and deployment in wide-area networks.