Performance of an ARC–enabled computing grid for ATLAS/LHC physics analysis and Monte Carlo production under realistic conditions

A significant amount of the computing resources available to the ATLAS experiment at the LHC are connected via the ARC grid middleware. ATLAS ARC-enabled resources, which consist of both major computing centers at the Tier-1 level and lesser, local clusters at Tier-2 and 3 level, have shown excellent performance running heavy Monte Carlo (MC) production for the experiment. However, with the imminent arrival of LHC physics data, it is imperative that the deployed grid middlewares also can handle data access patterns caused by user-defined physics analysis. These user-defined jobs can have radically different demands than systematic, centrally controlled MC production.