BOSS-LDG: A Novel Computational Framework that Brings Together Blue Waters, Open Science Grid, Shifter and the LIGO Data Grid to Accelerate Gravitational Wave Discovery

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new computational framework that unites Blue Waters, Open Science Grid, Shifter, and the LIGO Data Grid to enhance gravitational wave data analysis and accelerate discoveries.

Contribution

It is the first to connect these high-performance computing resources and tools for large-scale gravitational wave data analysis.

Findings

Successfully integrated Blue Waters with LIGO Data Grid via Open Science Grid.

Enabled large-scale gravitational wave searches on Blue Waters during LIGO's discovery campaign.

Demonstrated the framework's potential to accelerate scientific discovery in gravitational wave astrophysics.

Abstract

We present a novel computational framework that connects Blue Waters, the NSF-supported, leadership-class supercomputer operated by NCSA, to the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) Data Grid via Open Science Grid technology. To enable this computational infrastructure, we configured, for the first time, a LIGO Data Grid Tier-1 Center that can submit heterogeneous LIGO workflows using Open Science Grid facilities. In order to enable a seamless connection between the LIGO Data Grid and Blue Waters via Open Science Grid, we utilize Shifter to containerize LIGO's workflow software. This work represents the first time Open Science Grid, Shifter, and Blue Waters are unified to tackle a scientific problem and, in particular, it is the first time a framework of this nature is used in the context of large scale gravitational wave data analysis. This new framework has been used in the last several weeks of LIGO's second discovery campaign to run the most computationally demanding gravitational wave search workflows on Blue Waters, and accelerate discovery in the emergent field of gravitational wave astrophysics. We discuss the implications of this novel framework for a wider ecosystem of Higher Performance Computing users.