A Framework for International Collaboration on ITER Using Large-Scale Data Transfer to Enable Near-Real-Time Analysis

Abstract

The global nature of the ITER project along with its projected approximately petabyte-per-day data generation presents not only a unique challenge but also an opportunity for the fusion community to rethink, optimize, and enhance our scientific discovery process. Recognizing this, collaborative research with computational scientists was undertaken over the past several years to create a framework for large-scale data movement across wide-area networks to enable global near-real-time analysis of fusion data. This would broaden the available computational resources for analysis/simulation and increase the number of researchers actively participating in experiments. An official demonstration of this framework for fast, large data transfer and real-time analysis was carried out between the KSTAR tokamak in Daejeon, Korea, and Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) in Princeton, New Jersey. Streaming large data transfer, with near-real-time movie creation and analysis of the KSTAR electron cyclotron emission imaging data, was performed using the Adaptable Input Output (I/O) System (ADIOS) framework, and comparisons were made at PPPL with simulation results from the XGC1 code. These demonstrations were made possible utilizing an optimized network configuration at PPPL, which achieved over 8.8 Gbps (88% utilization) in throughput tests from the National Fusion Research Institute to PPPL. This demonstration showed the feasibility for large-scale data analysis of KSTAR data and provides a nascent framework to enable use of globally distributed computational and personnel resources in pursuit of scientific knowledge from the ITER experiment.