The CMS research community in the U.S. depends on collaborations to ensure good peer review, and fresh ideas to keep the quest for new elementary particles and novel behaviors of the fundamental forces going. That’s easy to do in the U.S. where researchers rarely have to worry about bandwidth and network availability challenges.

Before the NSF Office Of Cyber Infrastructure supported Western-Hemisphere Research and Education Networks – Links Interconnecting Latin America (WHREN-LILA) project started in January of 2005, researchers who needed to communicate with collaborators to the south had to survive with what was present- 45mb/s links without a sustainable financial model, and an alphabet soup of government, quasi-government and for profit operations in between the U.S. researchers, and the needed foreign experts.

But with WHREN-LILA two things changed: 1. WHREN: A caucus was formed from all the parties operating network resources for the benefit of research and education in the Western Hemisphere. 2. LILA: A framework was created linking together open exchange points so that there is baseline multi-national support (including approximately 40% NSF support) connectivity, and notably, a secure way for other research projects to invest in LILA when they need the bandwidth.

This is exactly what happened in November of 2006. The CMS physics community documented that they needed more bandwidth urgently from Brazil to the US. Through separate NSF and Brazilian physics programs they secured funds- and through LILA the capacity was available in 30 days, at an 80% discount compared to going it alone.

The NSF physics program that needed this change is called the Center for High-Energy Physics Research Education and Outreach (CHEPREO). It is an inter-regional program, that can make the world better by encompassing an integrated program of research, cyberinfrastructure, and educational outreach at one of the largest minority schools in the US, preparing U.S. students to work in a globally engaged workforce.  The long-term high-energy physics research program, called the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment at CERN, provides a focus for a robust outreach activity.    CHEPREO is enhancing science and math education in South Florida for underserved minority students through pedagogic innovations and teacher training led by a Physics Learning Center.  The advanced networking and Grid computing infrastructure has enabled closer collaboration with South America, and familiarizes America’s students with globally distributed learning.

http://www.whren-lila.net/
http://www.chepreo.org/