NSF grant upgrades network infrastructure to 100-gigabits

The University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Computing and Engineering has been awarded a $500,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to upgrade the backbone of the UMKC computer network to a high-speed 100-gigabit network. The upgrade includes the Volker and Hospital Hill campuses.

The enhancement also includes upgrading connectivity between core research buildings to 10-gigabit optical links and establishes dedicated 10-gigabit connections for research to external regional entities. This will allow UMKC researchers to move data faster than ever before, enhance existing research collaborations and foster new opportunities.

This project provides an enhanced platform for solving a variety of single-, inter-, and multi-disciplinary problems across several fields of science and engineering. It particularly assists and promotes the following research activities: end-to-end campus network performance management, large data movement service research, chemical fingerprinting and sequencing research, computational physics and electronic structure research, and human balance and ambulation research. The development broadly impacts interdisciplinary research and education connecting researchers in SCE with researchers at the School of Dentistry, the School of Biological Sciences and the College of Arts & Sciences.

The project is under the direction of Sejun Song, Ph.D., SCE associate professor; Baek-Young Choi, Ph.D., SCE associate professor; Deepankar Medhi, Ph.D., SCE curators’ professor; and Mary Lou A. Fritts, Ph.D., UMKC chief information officer and senior vice provost.