Designing and deploying a bioinformatics software-defined network exchange (SDX): Architecture, services, capabilities, and foundation technologies

This paper describes a Bioinformatics Software Defined Network Exchange (SDX) or BioSDX, which has been designed, deployed, and demonstrated by a multi-organizational research consortium to enable bioinformatics knowledge discovery supported by dynamic networking services. This BioSDX uses precision networking to support precision medicine. The BioSDX is based on recent technical developments in infrastructure abstraction that enables new types of tools and services utilizing programmable network infrastructure through high levels of resource virtualization. Combined with close integration of programmable cloud computing facilities, the BioSDX is an important advance in supporting the new paradigm of data intensive bioinformatics across multiple disciplines, including computational genomics and precision medicine.