Over 400 physicists at U.S. universities and laboratories plan to study the fundamental properties of particles and forces using data from the CMS and ATLAS experiments at the LHC, currently being built at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. When the LHC begins operating in 2007, data will be collected at the CMS and ATLAS detectors and sent over high-speed networks to large Tier 1 computer facilities worldwide, including Fermilab and Brookhaven National Laboratory in the United States and TRIUMF in Canada. The Tier 1 facilities will then send data to the Tier 2 computing facilities, located at universities across North America.

"The first goal of this meeting was to get the networking folks at the universities together with the physicists, and get communications going about the LHC project and Tier 2 centers," said Rick Summerhill from Internet2. "The second goal was to see where we were on supporting the connectivity down to the Tier 2 sites."

This meeting was the first time that physicists and network managers from all Tier 1 and Tier 2 centers in North America gathered to discuss LHC networking requirements. Getting the data quickly to all the scientists who wish to use it requires the coordination of many organizations. Connectivity between CERN and the United States is provided by US LHCnet, ESnet links Fermilab and Brookhaven to US LHCnet and Internet2, Internet2 provides connectivity to the U.S. Tier 2 centers, and CANARIE links the Canadian Tier 2 centers to TRIUMF.

"Successfully meeting the LHC experiments' networking challenges will require cooperative planning between network operators at all levels, from the campus to regional, national and international networks." said ESnet's Joe Metzger. "This meeting allowed the stakeholders to meet each other and gain a common understanding of the requirements."

"The meeting went very well, and we were surprised and pleased at the turnout," added Fermilab's Don Petravick. "People from all Tier 1 and Tier 2 centers, ESnet, Internet2 and the Department of Energy attended. Those providing the networks were able to fully grasp the needs of the LHC physicists in North America."

Presentations from the meeting are available at the meeting Web site. Learn more about the LHC experiments and networking at the ATLAS, CMS, Internet2 and ESnet Web sites.