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Linking Researchers at High Speed
Tuesday, 19 August 2008
The Kiwi Advanced Research and Education Network, or Karen, is a high-speed network linking New Zealand's researchers with each other, and research facilities around the world.
(via The Dominion Post) Karen was launched nearly two years ago and is being assessed by the government, who invested $43 million in capital costs to get it off the ground. The network was created with the aim of facilitating research between universities and other research organisations in New Zealand and around the world.
For some, the investment was a matter of national pride. That was much in evidence earlier this month when Research and Education Advanced Network New Zealand – set up to operate the network – for the first time played host to the biannual Asia Pacific Advanced Networking conference, drawing 300 cyber-scientists to Queenstown.
Karen can transfer data between New Zealand institutions at speeds of 10 gigabits per second using fibre supplied by TelstraClear. A 620 megabit per second link to the US and a 155Mbps connection to Australia are both supplied on the Southern Cross cable.
Waikato University head of computer sciences Tony McGregor says a "massive" international trend towards e-research, where individual researchers around the world collaborate and work as a team using Internet networks, means Karen is a vital resource. "For us to continue in active research, it's essential for us to join these teams. I would even go so far to say that any university that didn't continue to use Karen was putting its research future at serious risk. just because of the international trend towards e-research."
An Otago University physics lecturer uses Karen to hook up to global lightning sites around the world for real-time observations of lightning, and the network is also used to provide a video link between deaf students attending lectures and a sign language interpreter in Auckland.
Otago University IT services director Mike Harte says "We're also using Karen for access grids – which is video conferencing on steroids. It's a room with high quality cameras and multiple data projectors to provide a collaborative environment. Multiple sites are linked together in a virtual room and we're able to talk with people in New Zealand and all around the world."
Auckland technology firm Endace will become one of the first commercial companies to join Karen when it opens a new research and development centre in Auckland next month. Spun off from Waikato University to market software and equipment that researchers had built to analyse the performance of high-speed networks, Endace is a "poster child example of what happens when the education sector and the business sector get together", Chief executive Mike Riley says. One of the country's most successful high-tech firms, Endace is now valued on Britain's AIM stock market at £64.2 million, employing 65 people in New Zealand and about another 20 outside the country.
Some schools will also begin trialling the network this month. St Mary's College in Wellington will be one of the first to get a connection and it is expected most schools on the Wellington Loop – a local open access fibre network – will be hooked up. Karen will allow French and Italian television channels to be streamed to language students, and the remote delivery of courses.
It seems that the applications for Karen are just beginning to surface, and with continued support from the Government and industry, New Zealand will remain a keen player in the cyber-communications world.
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