Debugging network performance problems on long multi-domain paths that cross the Atlantic has just become easier for ESnet users. The GÉANT network, a pan-European communications infrastructure serving Europe’s research and education community, has improved the perfSONAR performance monitoring software architecture and toolset it co-developed with ESnet, enhancing the ability of users in the U.S. and Europe to spot red flags in network performance.

PerfSONAR (or as GÉANT calls the European implementation, perfSONAR MDM or Multi-Domain Monitoring) software, enables users to pinpoint trouble spots and bolster end-to-end network performance across network domains—and now across the Atlantic. This improvement to perfSONAR will provide ESnet users enhanced visibility and interoperability, speed the identification of performance issues and help prevent delays caused by engineers working across multiple time zones. European and U.S. users can now monitor network performance via the same intuitive interface using consistent data formats. Specifically, it allows ESnet users to run tests from 8 of the more than 70 ESnet measurement points across the country, including Fermilab in Chicago, IL, Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, NY, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, CA to measurement points distributed across the GÉANT European network and vice versa.

This combination of ESnet and European perfSONAR measurement points provides a comprehensive end-to-end view of network performance, invaluable for global data exchange in projects such as CERN’s Large Hadron Collider.

–Joe Metzger