IRNC: Testbed: COSMOS Interconnecting Continents (COSMIC)

The project enables the use of unique programmable wireless, optical, and edge-cloud network testbed infrastructure for international collaborative experiments. It builds on the interfaces of the PAWR COSMOS (NYC) and ORBIT (NJ) testbeds with the PEERING (US/International) and FABRIC (US) testbeds, and adds connections to international testbeds, including CPQD (Brazil), Kyutech/StarBED (Japan), OneLab/NITOS (EU/Greece), and CONNECT (Ireland). To support cross-layered international experiments, unique capabilities are developed, including optical and BGP extensions to the Mininet network emulator, and PEERING testbed tools for cross-layer BGP functions and controlled public Internet experimentation. The project creates a powerful international experimental platform for networking research from applications down to the optical and radio physical layers. A few distinct example experiments that demonstrate various capabilities and motivate further experimentation include: (i) Artificial Intelligence for multi-layer Quality of Service over disaggregated infrastructure during remote scientific experimentation; (ii) cloud processing of latency- and capacity-sensitive mobile applications across network domains and testbeds; and (iii) interdomain routing, data security, and privacy across national boundaries. A strong outreach component aiming at broadening participation in computing involves local Harlem middle and high school teachers in research and in development of educational components. Finally, the development of emulation-based sandbox capabilities for international experiments promises to make such large-scale experiments more accessible to a wide range of researchers. Therefore, and due to the availability of a unique international infrastructure, the project has the potential to support experimentation that enhances the performance of future networks and helps bridge the digital divide. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.