SCIENCE

CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA -- Collaboration among researchers and students "down under" with those in North America took a giant leap forward today as the Australian Academic and Research Network (AARNet) activated a trans-Pacific optical fiber connection to the Pacific Northwest Gigapop at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington, USA. The Pacific Northwest Gigapop is a primary interconnection point for advanced research and education networks in Canada, the US, and now the Pacific Rim. This new direct 155 Megabit per second (OC-3c) connection allows the Australian research community to communicate quickly and efficiently with researchers, and enjoy access to advanced research resources and apparatus in the Canada and the US. "Having an optical fiber circuit to the Pacific Northwest Gigapop makes the previously unworkably slow and roundabout data trip across over ten thousand of miles of water a breeze. The most significant achievement in bridging this trans-oceanic digital-divide will be our newly acquired abilities to traffic in high quality remote sense, video, sound and multimedia material as well as in huge scientific datasets and other demanding digital objects like medical images. This will make virtual neighbors out of our partner networks and resources across the world. Exploiting such mechanisms to develop relationships between researchers is key to fostering and sustaining excellence in research, in education and economic development," said George McLaughlin, Executive Director of AARNet. "AARNet faced the challenges and isolating forces of extreme geographic distance head-on with an audacious and well architected effort. With the continued leading-edge work of their talented and determined network engineering staff, this circuit will support AARNet's role as one of the top research networks in the world. We are pleased to help them accomplish this and to provide them with the next-generation infrastructure they need to move their data efficiently among their partners around the world. This important addition to the global research and education network fabric will benefit us all," said Ron Johnson, Vice President and Vice Provost of the University of Washington. "The first connections through the Pacific Northwest Gigapop will be to CANet*3 and Internet2 backbone networks, the advanced research and education networks of Canada and the United States respectively," said McLaughlin. "In addition, we will obtain immediate very high speed and lowest latency access to the research and education networks and the interconnected computational and information resources throughout the Pacific Northwest and California." The transPacific fiber optic cable is part of the Southern Cross Cable Network with U.S. landing and backhaul to PNWGP provided by WCI Cable. Two separate redundant cables span 19,000 miles under the Pacific with landings in Alexandria, Australia; Kahe Point; Oahu, Hawaii; and Nedonna Beach, Oregon among others places. It took 19 months to lay these cables. AARNet Pty Ltd is a not-for-profit company that operates the AARNet2 network, providing Internet services to all thirty-seven Australian universities, CSIRO Australia and their research and education partners. AARNet provides an incubator for development of advanced network infrastructure and applications. It has a national and international focus with access to the global research and education networks through the PNWGP. AARNet is also a member of the GrangeNet consortium which will build a 10Gbps backbone in Australia and develop advanced network and grid services to support advanced applications. Pacific Northwest Gigapop is the Northwest's Next Generation Internet, Internet 2/Abilene applications cooperative, testbed, and point of presence. PNWGP connects together high-performance international and Federal research networks with universities, research organizations, and leading-edge R&D and new-media enterprises throughout Washington, Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Canada, and now Australia. The University of Washington is one of the world's top research universities. Perennially among the top 3 American institutions in peer-reviewed research activities and related competitive contracts and grants, and with numerous top-ranked programs, the UW is a university which truly embodies the ideals of "Learning @ the Leading Edge"™. WCI, headquartered in Hillsboro, is made up of World Net Communications, Inc., WCI Cable, Inc., WCI LightPoint, LLC and Alaska Fiber Star, LLC. Collectively the group manages and constructs terrestrial and submarine fiber optic systems and telecommunications infrastructure. WCI provides carrier neutral collocation and undertakes new network projects throughout North America and the Pacific Rim. Led by over 180 US universities, working with industry and government, Internet2 is developing and deploying advanced network applications and technologies for research and higher education, accelerating the creation of tomorrow's Internet. Internet2 recreates the partnerships of academia, industry and government that helped foster today's Internet in its infancy. For more information about Internet2, see http://www.internet2.edu/