e-Research overview
The AARNet
network connects Universities and Research Institutions to similar
facilities through domestic and international peerings, at very high
speeds (mostly 10Gbps). Thus through this data network, the research
community in Australia has access to a phenomenal asset that has the
potential to enhance research outcomes through increased collaboration.
It is the vision of AARNet to assist researchers to realize the potential of this network through an e-Research support program.
AARNet’s e-Research Program goals are:
- To identify researchers who through increased utilisation of the AARNet network will also achieve increased outcomes from their own research programs.
-
To work with researchers to overcome any hurdles that impede their use of the AARNet network.
- To work with researchers to facilitate exemplars so that other
researchers will ‘think differently’ about the way they tackle
collaboration issues.
-
To fully support the
National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS)
, especially via the Platforms for Collaboration Capability.
"Using high-speed communication networks, we wish to create a
distributed, large-scale astronomical instrument of continental and
inter-continental dimensions. This Very Long Baseline Interferometer
(VLBI) will operate in real-time and connect some of the largest and
most sensitive radio telescopes on the planet."
AARNet is working with the CSIRO Australian Telescope National Facility
(ATNF)
to provide support connecting the Australian telescopes to Jive
(in the Netherlands). The initial tests are for 3 x 256Mbit/sec streams
to be delivered from Australia to Jive for correlation. The final test
will increase the data to 3 x 512Mbit/sec streams.
About the E-Research Team
 |
Guido Aben is the Director of the e-Research team at AARNet.
|
 |
Alex Reid has taken the role of AARNet’s e-Research
Advisor on a part-time basis. He has had 45 years’ experience in the
IT industry, 38 in Higher Education, where most recently he was a
university IT Director,at the University of WA and at Oxford
University, UK. He was formerly the Chair of the AAC and sat on the AARNet
Board. His main activities now centre around IT/network policy and
strategy issues. He retains an honorary professorial fellowship at UWA,
where he still undertakes some teaching in the School of Computer
Science &Software Engineering. Alex holds a BSc, Dip Comp, MA and
MBA (Technology Management).
|
 |
Brett Rosolen
is the AARNet Technical Manager for e-Research. |
Initiatives
1. EN4R – Experimental Network for Researchers
Internationally,
light paths (also called circuits) have been used for supporting research
activities. Light paths offer lowest latency, lowest jitter, dedicated Gigabit
bandwidth and increased security over traditional network connections. To
promote use of light paths among the Australian community this program permits
qualified research projects access to a light path at no charge for 6 months.Click Here to find out more about EN4R.
2. e-Research Projects:
EXPReS
– “Express Production Real-time e-VLBI Service”