Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Scientific applications already generate many terabytes and even petabytes of data from supercomputer runs and large-scale experiments. The need for transferring data chunks of ever-increasing sizes through the network shows no sign of abating. Hence, we need high-bandwidth high speed networks such as ESnet (Energy Sciences Network). Network reservation systems, i.e. ESnet's OSCARS (On-demand Secure Circuits and Advance Reservation System) establish guaranteed bandwidth of secure virtual circuits at a certain time, for a certain bandwidth and length of time. OSCARS checks network availability and capacity for the specified period of time, and allocates requested bandwidth for that user if it is available. If the requested reservation cannot be granted, no further suggestion is returned back to the user. Further, there is no possibility from the users view-point to make an optimal choice. We report a new algorithm, where the user specifies the total volume that needs to be transferred, a maximum bandwidth that he/she can use, and a desired time period within which the transfer should be done. The algorithm can find alternate allocation possibilities, including earliest time for completion, or shortest transfer duration - leaving the choice to the user. We present a novel approach for path finding in time-dependent networks, and a new polynomial algorithm to find possible reservation options according to given constraints. We have implemented our algorithm for testing and incorporation into a future version of ESnet?s OSCARS. Our approach provides a basis for provisioning end-to-end high performance data transfers over storage and network resources.