Data and Instruments
Scientific facilities, repositories, observational systems, and simulations produce and maintain data.
The Digital Backbone for Data-Intensive and Autonomous Science
NSDF connects distributed data, storage, networks, computing, software, and scientific facilities through a modular, federated architecture.
Scientific Facilities
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NSDF Entry Points
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Digital Backbone
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AI • Cloud • HPC
Architecture
A Federated, Platform-Agnostic Design
NSDF connects existing institutional systems rather than replacing them, allowing data providers to retain control while participating in shared discovery, access, streaming, and analysis workflows.
Entry Points
A domain-agnostic software stack provides a uniform interface across small, medium, and large computing centers and cloud providers.
Federated Services
Catalogs, metadata, data movement, streaming, access control, provenance, dashboards, and workflow services connect the ecosystem.
AI and Computing
Researchers connect data to cloud, HPC, visualization, analytics, and AI-guided scientific workflows.
Networking
High-Speed National Connectivity
The NSDF pilot uses high-speed research networking, including Internet2 infrastructure, to support data movement among storage resources, computing sites, facilities, and entry points.
100 Gbps+Backbone-class connectivity supporting distributed scientific data
movement
Deployment
NSDF Entry Points
Entry Points provide a uniform, domain-agnostic set of services that can be deployed at academic sites, computing centers, facilities, and cloud environments. Configurations can scale with the services and resources required by each site.
Education
Workforce and Outreach
NSDF uses deployments, tutorials, and real scientific datasets to validate services with diverse communities and to provide students with direct access to advanced scientific data and analysis methods.
Explore training opportunities →Software and Services
Reusable Components Across the Data Lifecycle
Catalog
Federated discovery across distributed data collections.
Data Movement
High-performance transfer and selective access to remote data.
Streaming
Live connections among instruments, dashboards, AI, and computing.
Visualization
Interactive dashboards for remote exploration and scientific steering.
Metadata & Provenance
Scientific context, persistent identity, and reproducibility.
Workflow Integration
Connections to cloud, HPC, AI services, and domain applications.