A Cloud-based Architecture for the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observation Simulations: Optimization, Design, and Results

Abstract

Simulating and analyzing detailed observations of astrophysical sources for very high energy experiments, like the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA), can be a demanding task especially in terms of CPU consumption and required storage. In this context we propose an innovative cloud computing architecture based on Amazon Web Services (AWS) aiming to decrease the amount of time required to simulate and analyze a given field by distributing the workload and by exploiting the large computational power offered by AWS. We detail how the various services offered by the Amazon online platform are jointly used in our architecture, and we report a comparison of the execution times required for simulating observations of a test source with CTA, by a single machine and the cloud-based approach. We find that, using AWS, we can run our simulations more than 2 orders of magnitude faster than using a general purpose workstation for the same cost. We suggest considering this method when observations need to be simulated, analyzed, and concluded within short timescales.