ATLAS Canada lightpath data transfer trial

Emerging Grids will play a significant role in the computational, data, storage, and network requirements of High Energy Physics experiments coming online in the next few years. One such requirement, the bulk transfer of data over advanced high speed optical networks is necessary as such experiments are highly distributed with resources and participants from research laboratories and institutions spanning the globe. This trial at the iGrid 2002 conference attempts to stress the feasibility of high speed bulk data transfer over an end-to-end lightpath, a dedicated point-topoint optical link. Specifically, the objective was to transfer one Terabyte of Monte Carlo data from TRIUMF in Vancouver, Canada to CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. A rate equivalent to transferring a full CD of data every 8 seconds was achieved.