Sandia`s research network for Supercomputing `93: A demonstration of advanced technologies for building high-performance networks

Abstract

Supercomputing `93, a high-performance computing and communications conference, was held November 15th through 19th, 1993 in Portland, Oregon. For the past two years, Sandia National Laboratories has used this conference to showcase and focus its communications and networking endeavors. At the 1993 conference, the results of Sandia`s efforts in exploring and utilizing Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) and Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) technologies were vividly demonstrated by building and operating three distinct networks. The networks encompassed a Switched Multimegabit Data Service (SMDS) network running at 44.736 megabits per second, an ATM network running on a SONET circuit at the Optical Carrier (OC) rate of 155.52 megabits per second, and a High Performance Parallel Interface (HIPPI) network running over a 622.08 megabits per second SONET circuit. The SMDS and ATM networks extended from Albuquerque, New Mexico to the showroom floor, while the HIPPI/SONET network extended from Beaverton, Oregon to the showroom floor. This paper documents and describes these networks.