SCinet Sprint Hacks the World in Preparation for SC

Immensely Powerful, insanely fast

How do you prepare for a super-fast, high-performance network that has to run smoothly for one week of intense international collaboration in November? Planning. Lots of Planning.

In early May, the SCinet Team Leads gathered at the Texas Advanced Computing Center, known as TACC, in Austin for a SCinet Sprint. A sprint—a type of hackathon—brings people together to work in small groups toward a common goal. Sprints offer developers the chance to work on projects they might not have been able to tackle on their own due to a lack of resources or expertise.

This year’s sprint was an expansion of the usual DevOps meeting, including leads from the architecture, routing, network research, and contributor relations subcommittees. It was a chance for the team leads to do hands-on work in preparation for SCinet, collaborating across all of the teams for any updates or services they want to implement. 

With 28 people meeting in Austin and a few more participating remotely, it seemed a bit like organized chaos. But it was for a good cause: the teams were trying to make as much progress as possible toward bringing the IPV6 protocol to SCinet.

New Protocol, More Addresses

Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPV6) is the latest version of the Internet Protocol (IP), designed to replace the current version of the protocol, IPV4. The growing number of Internet-connected devices has caused a shortage of IPV4 addresses, which is why IPV6 was developed. Moving SCinet to IPV6 will increase the number of available addresses for exhibitors and attendees, enabling additional cybersecurity protocols over the network. 

Fortified with burgers, Texas BBQ, and donuts, the teams got to work, tackling specific projects in their areas and pushing to ensure they are prepared for any challenges that may arise in November. 

SC23 General Chair Dorian Arnold (center right) also briefly joined Hans Addleman (center left) and the teams, sharing his vision and meaning of this year’s conference theme, “I Am HPC.”

Laying the Groundwork

SCinet Chair Hans Addleman and Vice Chair Nathaniel Mendoza expanded the sprint this year to build camaraderie among the teams and avoid the last-minute panic that can occur in the days and weeks leading up to SC.

“If we lay the groundwork in advance, we might be able to avoid some rough patches in October,” said Addleman. “The teams shared ideas and expertise, which could get us to more efficient problem-solving and a better end result.”

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