CERN needs a big network because the Large Hadron Collider’s selected collision data must be stored, moved and analysed across computing centres around the world. The Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG) connects those centres so physicists can work with LHC data without relying on a single supercomputer or a single location.
Why does CERN need a big network?
Particle collisions in the LHC produce far more detector information than researchers can record and analyse in full. Trigger systems select potentially interesting events for further analysis; CERN’s data centre processes selected data, and the WLCG provides storage and computing resources distributed among centres worldwide. Networks carry data between those centres so researchers can use those resources across locations.
During LHC Run 2, CERN’s data centre processed an average of one petabyte of data per day. That is a period-specific processing figure, not a measure of the amount permanently archived or the transfer rate of the global network. CERN’s description of LHC storage explains the role of filtering and gives the Run 2 figure.
What is the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid?
The WLCG is a distributed computing system, not one enormous computer. CERN describes its mission as providing global computing resources to store, distribute and analyse LHC data. The system combines computing and storage at many sites with software, middleware and networking that coordinate work and data movement.
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CERN’s WLCG overview reports about 1.4 million computer cores and 1.5 exabytes of storage across more than 170 sites in 42 countries. The same overview says it serves more than 12,000 physicists and runs over two million tasks per day. These are figures from that overview; CERN’s pages do not establish that every published total was measured on the same date.
How does CERN move LHC data around the world?
From detector to computing centres
- Detect and filter: LHC detectors register signals from particle collisions. Trigger systems select events considered potentially interesting, reducing the volume that needs to be retained for further analysis.
- Process and store: CERN’s data centre receives selected data. Storage systems and computing clusters at WLCG centres provide capacity for keeping data and running analysis jobs.
- Transfer and coordinate: Networks move files among centres, while grid software and middleware manage transfers, job submission and access controls. CERN describes transfer services designed for reliability and fault tolerance, with authentication and confidentiality features.
- Analyse across sites: Researchers use computing resources distributed across the grid to analyse LHC data. CERN describes the WLCG as providing near-real-time access for a global physics community.
CERN lists physics software, middleware, hardware and networking as the WLCG’s four main component layers. Its transfer tools support functions including third-party transfers, where a transfer is coordinated between storage systems, and partial-file transfers. This makes the network more than a fast connection: it is part of a coordinated system for moving data reliably between distributed storage and computing.
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How large is CERN’s network?
CERN says more than 50,000 km of optical fibre provides connectivity across its sites. Following upgrades during Long Shutdown 2, CERN reported worldwide data-transfer peaks of up to 33 GB/s, around eight times the rates typical during Run 1. The 33 GB/s figure is a peak global transfer rate, not a guaranteed continuous rate for every link. CERN’s account of the network challenge gives these figures.
A separate CERN description says 10 Gbit/s optical-fibre links connect CERN to Tier-1 centres. That is a description of CERN-to-Tier-1 links, not another estimate of the worldwide peak. The measures have different scopes: one concerns specific links, the other global transfer performance. See CERN’s description of WLCG software, middleware and hardware.
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What do CERN’s data figures measure?
| Figure | What it measures | Scope and time context |
|---|---|---|
| One petabyte per day on average | Data processed | CERN data centre during LHC Run 2; not a current daily archive or network-rate figure. CERN storage. |
| Up to 33 GB/s | Peak global data-transfer rate | Reported after Long Shutdown 2 upgrades; CERN compared it with typical Run 1 rates. CERN network challenge. |
| 10 Gbit/s | Optical-fibre link capacity | CERN-to-Tier-1 link description; not the global peak rate. CERN grid layers. |
| One exabyte | Cumulative LHC experimental data gathered in CERN’s storage system | Milestone published by CERN on 17 December 2025; not the WLCG’s total storage capacity. CERN’s 2025 milestone announcement. |
| About 1.5 exabytes | Storage capacity reported for WLCG | Figure in CERN’s WLCG overview, alongside its site and computing figures; its page does not show a reporting date. CERN WLCG overview. |
These figures answer different questions. A processing volume per day, a transfer rate, a link speed, a cumulative archive milestone and a grid-wide storage-capacity figure cannot be treated as competing estimates of the same quantity.
Why distribute computing across countries?
The LHC data is analysed by a worldwide physics community, so computing and storage distributed among many centres allow work to take place beyond CERN’s own facilities. CERN’s 15 December 2025 retrospective describes hundreds of computing centres in more than 40 countries. That is a broad description of the worldwide network of centres; it is distinct from the WLCG overview’s specific count of more than 170 sites in 42 countries. CERN’s WLCG retrospective provides the 2025 context.
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How has the network grown?
A historical example illustrates the difference between a dedicated site connection and the full global grid. In 2013, CERN described the Wigner centre extension in Budapest as having 500 servers, 20,000 computing cores and 5.5 petabytes of storage, connected to CERN by dedicated redundant 100 Gbit/s circuits. Those were specifications for that centre at that time, not present-day WLCG totals. CERN’s 2013 announcement gives the details.
When the WLCG was announced in 2008, project leader Ian Bird described the ability to manage data at that scale as “the product of several years of intense testing.” In the same announcement, chief scientific officer for the LHC project Jos Engelen called the grid “a vital pillar of the LHC project” and “an absolute necessity for analysis of the LHC data.” These are statements from 2008, not comments on a recent upgrade. CERN’s 3 October 2008 announcement records both quotations.
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