Facilitated by Jisc
Open to staff from Janet-connected sites involved in network operations or in communities conducting data-intensive science
Regular monthly meetings via Zoom
About the community
Researchers at Janet-connected sites often have challenging network requirements. One notble case is an ever-increasing need for them to move large volumes of data to other organisations on Janet or beyond. The systems and network engineering knowledge required to design, build and operate effective platforms for such data transfers is not insignificant.
The broad aim of the RNE community is to discuss and share best practices in research networking, bringing together those with experience in the area with those who may be new to the subject, along with engineers and performance specialists from Jisc.
Topics might include examples of Science DMZ implementations, how to gather network performance measurements, and comparisons of software transfer tools. Ultimately, we hope to enable all Jisc members to make optimal use of their Janet connection to support their research requirements.
Our aims are to:
- Present and discuss examples of network engineering practices in support of research
- Discuss the tools, software and concepts behind Science DMZ principles
- Arrange and report on data transfer tests in varying scenarios
- Explore new technical solutions
- Foster collaboration between communities, within Janet and internationally
These aims will be discussed and updated at the group's first meeting. The RNE community will meet on a regular, monthly basis to allow members to share and discuss ideas, best practices and any issues they face.
Who should join
The community is open to:
- Network managers
- Campus network engineers
- Campus IT staff supporting data intensive research
- Members of research communities seeking to share large volumes of data
No prior experience in the area is assumed.
Next community call
The next Research Network Engineering community call is taking place at 14:00 BST on Friday 14 April 2023.
The topic will be the use of jumbo frames on research and education networks.
A jumbo frame is generally considered to be a packet using a Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) larger than the usual 1500 bytes seen on wired Ethernet and WiFi LANs. The MTU is the largest layer 3 (IP) data unit that can be communicated in a single network transaction.
By using larger MTUs, for example 9000 bytes, it is possible to improve network and thus data transfer performance, particularly on infrastructure for large-scale data transfers, but there are specific considerations and potential pitfalls that both system and network operators need to be aware of when enabling jumbo frames.
In this session we will have a mix of Jisc and community speakers presenting on the theory of jumbo frames, Janet support for their use, results of performance tests with larger MTUs, and operational feedback and challenges experienced in their use. We also encourage attendees to share their experiences to inform the discussion.
We hope that by the end of the session attendees will have a better understanding of whether they might benefit from deploying jumbo frames.
Register to receive the Zoom details and a calendar invite.
Past event resources
Documents from the first community meeting on 20 January 2023:
Documents from the first community meeting on 9 December 2022:
Find out more
If you have any questions about the community please email the community facilitators at netperf@jisc.ac.uk
To hear about RNE community news and events, or to discuss ideas or challenges you may have with other members of the community, sign up to the JiscMail list.