FABRIC, a unique resource in the NSF cyberinfrastructure ecosystem, is now part of ACCESS Resource. FABRIC is an internationally distributed set of equipment at commercial colocation spaces, labs and campuses. Its mission is to “explore impactful new ideas that are impossible or impractical with the current internet,” and its infrastructure enables cutting-edge experimentation and research at scale. Each node offers significant compute and storage, and all are interconnected by high-speed, dedicated optical links.
Several FABRIC nodes are at sites that host ACCESS-allocated resources – including NCSA, PSC, SDSC and TACC – allowing researchers to incorporate large-scale computing platforms into their complex, distributed workflows and experiments.
FABRIC components are well-suited for the experimentation and testing of distributed AI applications, including those with AI processing at or near the edge as well as testing of federated learning. FABRIC also enables research in networking, cybersecurity, distributed computing, storage, virtual reality, 5G, machine learning and science applications. FABRIC is also well suited for educational use.
As part of ACCESS, FABRIC joins the Sage edge computing platform as a unique distributed network infrastructure, rather than a typical high-performance computing or storage resource.