The FlowWave project creates a dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) solution that segregates and protects light paths dedicated for researchers. FlowWave bridges the University's science cyberinfrastructure to regional, national and international research networks in light waves reserved for researchers in order to support end-to-end science flows. FlowWave enhances the campus network by creating a distinct and dedicated path for research circuits to support targeted science application drivers towards increasing science flows and data-driven discovery. It provides a safeguard by separating the circuits dedicated for interconnecting research resources from the rest of the University traffic. The initial suite of science applications benefiting from this solution are in the physical and computational sciences with applications in the domains of high-energy physics, optical astronomy, climate modeling, real-time large-scale network simulation, and cloud computing. Researchers and their students at FIU (the largest Hispanic minority serving institution within the continental U.S.) can access and share resources for at-scale experiments. Campus IT staff are assured that experiments executed on the science cyberinfrastructure will not affect production services. The separation of production and research flows across the fiber link facilitates the use of SDN (software define networking) to provision slices across the research link enabling instant provisioning of circuits.
