This global project expands on the success of the FABRIC project, investigating innovative ways to manage and share massive volumes of data, a key component to aiding international scientific collaboration. FABRIC Across Boarders (FAB) will create an extension to the North American testbed, linking it with other testbeds across the world.  

This $3 million project, funded by National Science Foundation IRNC grants, aims to understand the future network challenges in order to create a robust and interconnected cyberinfrastructure. By improving the storage, networking and security aspects of the cyberinfrastructure, it is expected that FAB will realise great benefits to the data intensive scientific communities, particularly areas that require secure global data sharing, such as urban science, weather, and high energy physics.  

The Smart Internet Lab is one of just four international institutions to join the testbed, bringing their extensive knowledge and experience in emerging network technologies, smart cities, and connected communities to the collaboration. The Smart Internet Lab will host a FABRIC node in its own 5GUK Test Network, connecting it to the FAB global network. Researchers will explore emerging digital technologies, with a view to understanding how future cities, communities and citizens will consume and share information on a global scale.  

This project will enable scientists to undertake global end-to-end experimentation on an intuitive network platform with one-of-a-kind capabilities. By working directly with the users from the scientific community, FAB with be able to address the cyberinfrastructure concerns and challenges faced, creating solutions that benefit a much wider audience. 

Alongside The Smart Internet Lab, three additional partners will be joining the collaboration: the University of Tokyo, University of Amsterdam and Geneva (CERN).