GridFTP based real-time data movement architecture for x-ray photon correlation spectroscopy at the Advanced Photon Source

Abstract

X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy (XPCS) is a unique tool to study the dynamical properties in a wide range of materials over a wide spatial and temporal range. XPCS measures the correlated changes in the speckle pattern, produced when a coherent x-ray beam is scattered from a disordered sample, over a time series of area detector images. The technique rides on “Big Data” and relies heavily on high performance computing (HPC) techniques. In this paper, we propose a highspeed data movement architecture for moving data within the Advanced Photon Source (APS) as well as between APS and the users' institutions. We describe the challenges involved in the internal data movement and a GridFTP-based solution that enables more efficient usage of the APS beam time. The implementation of GridFTP plugin as part of the data acquisition system at the Advanced Photon Source for real time data transfer to the HPC system for data analysis is discussed.