Introduction

FOXDEN stands for FAIR Open-Science Extensible Data Exchange Network.

FOXDEN is a system of cyberinfrastructure (CI) building blocks designed to support high-impact, data-intensive science through heterogeneity, modularity, and interoperability. Unlike monolithic data platforms, FOXDEN offers loosely coupled services that can be selectively deployed, ensuring seamless integration with existing infrastructures and workflows. It is highly portable, supporting diverse hardware architectures (AMD, ARM, Power8, RISC) and operating systems (Linux, macOS, Windows), making it deployable at scales ranging from personal workstations to high-performance computing (HPC) facilities.

Key Features

FOXDEN is designed to facilitate collaborative reuse of datasets, starting with exemplary datasets and workflows at CHESS. Researchers can use FOXDEN to search for datasets, retrieve missing metadata, and analyze data locally or remotely, enabling efficient cross-facility collaboration. The system supports adaptive workflows, accommodating future use cases by integrating diverse data storage solutions and federating CI resources.

FOXDEN is structured around three interdependent components:

1. FOXDEN Services and Workflows – A suite of FAIR-compliant services for data collection, visualization, processing, publication, and management.
2. FOXDEN Federated Storage Network (FFSN) – A distributed storage federation connecting partner facilities, community portals, and research groups, modeled after the NSF-funded National Science Data Fabric (NSDF).
3. FOXDEN Community Building – A comprehensive program for education, training, and workforce development, fostering an engaged community of users and developers for long-term sustainability.

This repository contains documentation of FOXDEN Services and Workflows.

Technical Design

FOXDEN services are web applications written in Go, offering RESTful HTTP APIs that allow seamless data interactions without requiring specialized client software. These services handle structured and unstructured data using both relational and document-oriented databases, ensuring scalability, fault-tolerance, and long-term sustainability. Clients can choose which FOXDEN services should be deployed at their premises and easily integrate them within existing infrastructure.

A strong emphasis on cybersecurity ensures that FOXDEN integrates industry best practices. Web interfaces and APIs are secured with encryption and token-based authentication. Each token carries specific scopes for fine-granularity access to underlying data and operations.