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To better understand the world through research, you need to move data — and lots of it.

At UMass Amherst, researchers work at the cutting edge of science — analyzing tests from the world’s largest particle accelerator, studying frozen biological samples to understand molecules, supporting national computing testbeds such as FABRIC and gathering data from telescopes trained on deep space, for example. These projects have one thing in common: they generate staggering amounts of data every day.

How does UMass Amherst keep this research moving? The answer lies in its networks. To keep up with the growing demand for data, UMass Amherst Information Technology teams have been working behind the scenes to upgrade campus network infrastructure to carry more information faster, farther and with fewer hiccups. Altogether, this is leading to a doubled data transfer capacity and stronger research collaborations.
 

A campus-wide leap to 400 gigabits per second

The most significant jump in capability is a 400-gigabit expansion funded through the National Science Foundation Campus Cyberinfrastructure (CC*) program. The upgrade links the campus to national and international research networks and will drastically increase the university’s ability to transfer massive datasets across institutions, countries, and even oceans.

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A team of research computing experts – including network engineer Jessa Westclark and network specialist Daniel Uribe – is leading the implementation. So far, the team has overcome several unexpected roadblocks to keep the project moving, and they recognize its role in helping the university’s research keep up with the pace of discovery.

“The ability to transfer that much data allows us to move huge research sets from one area to another, where it used to not be as convenient for people to do that,” says Westclark. “So, it’s going to facilitate the ability to utilize the computing setup between universities and other national and international organizations.”

Without modernized networks, universities risk falling behind. It’s a frustrating outcome, similar to a movie buffering on slow Wi-Fi, but on a research scale, where delays can mean lost opportunities in discovery. The 400G upgrade keeps UMass Amherst in the fast lane so faculty, students and research partners can engage in data-intensive research without bottlenecks.

“It’s not like sharing a Google doc or spreadsheet with a few coworkers,” says Uribe. “It's enormous amounts of data being distributed to research organizations and universities around the world. If schools don't upgrade to be able to facilitate that, I think they're going to be letting their research capabilities dwindle.”

One of the biggest projects benefiting from this expanded infrastructure is Northeast Tier 2 – NET2 – a powerful computing system that helps process massive research datasets, particularly for high-energy physics experiments. NET2 plays a key role in ATLAS, one of four major experiments at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider, where scientists study high-energy particle collisions to better understand the fundamental forces of the universe.

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For the NET2 project, the timing of the campus-wide network upgrade couldn’t be better. In 2026, the Large Hadron Collider program will undergo an upgrade to a high-luminosity phase, increasing data demands by a factor of five to 10. While this expansion will allow researchers to conduct more advanced studies, it will also place greater strain on research networks. The UMass network upgrade will ensure that data transfer rates keep up so the project doesn’t slow down.

“NET2 is one of the examples of science projects that would not exist… if we didn't get [campus networking] right,” says Rafael Coelho Lopes de Sa, associate professor of physics at UMass Amherst. “We would just not be able to receive the huge amounts of data produced at [the Large Hadron Collider] in our computing cluster… and we would not be able to produce our studies.”
 

Scaling up for the future

Beyond individual research projects, these networking upgrades strengthen UMass’s broader computing and research infrastructure. For example, the Massachusetts Green High-Performance Computing Center (MGHPCC), a data center that supports sustainable, shared computing resources, will now be better integrated into UMass research, allowing researchers to tap into larger computing clusters and reduce wasted processing power.

These improvements also strengthen UMass’s partnerships with leading research networks such as Internet2, ESnet and NEREN, bolstering the university’s standing as a leader in high-performance computing and network research. The next phase will involve strengthening the connection between MGHPCC and the UMass Amherst campus, ensuring that more research projects can leverage high-throughput connectivity.

"Once we get a part completed, we’re able to say, ‘Fantastic, now we can move on to everything that’s been waiting on it,’” says Uribe. “There’s no ‘pop the champagne’ moment, it's all about keeping the momentum going.”