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FAQ

What benefits have we already seen?

Lessons learned from the LHC Computing Grid have driven further innovation in grids all over the world, changing the way science is done. Grids are being used in the fight against disease, climate change, air pollution and more. Any science that requires intensive simulation or calculation can benefit from grid computing.

The computing centres providing resources for the LHC Computing Grid are also active in other grids, in particular EGEE in Europe and Open Science Grid in the United States, but also several national and regional grid structures such as GridPP in the UK, INFN Grid in Italy and NorduGrid in the Nordic countries.

Who is involved in the LHC Computing Grid?

The LHC Computing Grid comprises three “tiers” and 32 countries are formally involved:

• Tier-0 is one site: the CERN Computing Centre. All data passes through this central hub but it provides less than 20% of the total compute capacity.
• Tier-1 comprises eleven sites, located in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, the Nordic countries, Spain, Taipei, and the UK, with two sites in the USA.
• Tier-2 comprises over 140 sites, grouped into 38 federations covering Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, India, Israel, Japan, Republic of Korea, the Netherlands, Norway, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taipei, Turkey, the U.K, Ukraine, and the U.S. Tier-2 sites will provide around 50% of the capacity needed to process the LHC data.
• Tier-2 sites then feed their data to PC clusters in physics institutes around the world, such that groups of scientists and individuals can analyze LHC data from their own desks.

What were the challenges of developing the LHC Computing Grid?

• Managing the sheer volume of data that has to be moved reliably around the grid.
• Administering the storage space at each of the sites.
• Keeping track of the tens of millions of files generated by 9000 physicists as they analyse the data.
• Ensuring adequate network bandwidth: optical links between the major sites, but also good reliable links to the most remote locations.
• Guaranteeing security across a large number of independent sites while minimizing red-tape and ensuring easy access by authenticated users
• Maintaining coherence of software versions installed in various locations
• Coping with heterogeneous hardware
• Providing accounting mechanisms so that different groups have fair access, based on their needs and contributions to the infrastructure.

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