The international Data Mover Challenge (DMC) is a competition that is run once every 2 years and it aims to bring together experts from industry and academia in a bid to test their software and solutions for transferring huge amounts of research data. DMC seeks to challenge international teams to come up with the most advanced and innovative solutions for data transfer across servers located in various countries that are connected by 100Gbps international research and education networks.

The challenge focuses on optimising point-to-point data transfers between sites – a crucial step forward in advancing research collaboration and sharing. Participants from all over the world will compete by deploying the best software tools on Data Transfer Nodes (DTNs) that are set up within existing international networks across the globe.

The DMC competition is a key event of the SupercomputingAsia (SCA) conference series. Co-organised by the HPC Centres from Australia, Japan, Singapore and Thailand, SCA is an annual international conference that encompasses an umbrella of notable supercomputing events with the key objective of promoting a vibrant and relevant HPC ecosystem in Asia. DMC 2023 was launched on 28 February 2023 at SCA23.

Results

Overall Winner – Team Falcon
Most novel approach – Team CiTEO
Most complete architecture – Livewire
Best performing in impaired networks  – Team Musashino
Most innovative for HPC uses – Just SSH

The Challenge

DMC 2023 ran from 1 August to 30 October 2023.

Participating teams were given 5 days to deploy and run data transfer tests based on given scenarios:

  • 3 days to set up software: Monday SGT (UTC+8) 0000Hrs – Wednesday SGT (UTC+8) 2359Hrs
  • 2 days to run the data transfer and demonstrate software to judges: Thursday SGT (UTC+8) 0000Hrs – Friday SGT (UTC+8) 2359Hrs (Statistics and results will be captured)

The winning team will be announced at the SupercomputingAsia 2024 (SCA24) Conference. The winning team’s leader will be invited to attend SupercomputingAsia 2024 (SCA24) from 19-22 February 2024 in Sydney, Australia, for an award presentation and solution showcase*.

Judging Panel

The competitors were assessed and selected by an international panel of judges comprising domain experts and professionals in the field of networking and data transfer. Members of the judging panel for DMC23 include:

  • Andrew Howard, Cloud Systems Manager, National Computational Infrastructure (NCI), Australia (Chief Judge)
  • Marcos Felipe Schwarz , RNP, Brazil
  • Francis Lee Bu Sung, Associate Professor, School of Computer Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore
  • Tim Chown, Network Development Manager, Jisc, UK

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

For more information about DMC23, please contact [email protected].

*Award presentation and solution showcase may be done virtually depending on prevailing pandemic circumstances.

NETWORK PARTNERS

DTN PARTNERS