NICT, NSCC, and SingAREN together have completed a 100-Gbps international network linking Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan — infrastructure that will be the backbone of the north- to southeast Asia network for international research and education networks (RENs) in the region.
This backbone will enable nodes in Singapore and Japan to become Asia’s global hubs for transcontinental R&E connectivity at the fastest-ever speeds of 100 Gbps. The link enables the research and education community to complete a new ring network, the Asia Pacific Ring (APR), across the Pacific between Asia and North America. (See Figure 1 below.)
The network will facilitate high-end research and education, bioinformatics, and supercomputing collaboration, for example, between the National Supercomputing Centre (NSCC) Singapore and the Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech), RIKEN, RIST, and JAXA, which make up Japan’s flagship research institutions. Researchers and scientists in Singapore and Japan can now collaborate and share data faster and more efficiently to derive research outcomes to benefit our community, such as in weather and climate studies, advanced manufacturing and engineering, healthcare and biomedical sciences, robotics and AI, machine-learning, big data analytics, and precision engineering.
“Completing the ring in Asia marks a significant milestone in building the reliable and robust infrastructure needed for US researchers and their Asian colleagues to collaborate and innovate by breaking down the vast geographic barriers of time and distance across the earth’s largest ocean,” said David Reese, managing director of Pacific Wave.
Figure 1: Asia Pacific Ring (APR). The parties to the APR collaboration include these international research and education networks: SingAREN, NICT, NII, Internet2, WIDE Project, Pacific Wave, and TransPAC.
The network, which was provisioned by PCCW Global, the international operating division of HKT, Hong Kong’s premier telecommunications service provider, is ten times faster than the current 10 Gbps networks in the region. The SingAREN and NICT network will make use of PCCW Global’s vast submarine cable capacity — providing fast, quality interconnections and network resilience for various RENs across the Pacific.
Dr. Fumihiko Tomita, vice president at NICT, noted, “With this 100-Gbps link between Japan, Hong Kong, and Singapore, NICT is anticipating further collaboration with international research institutes.”
Dr. John Kan, president of SingAREN, said, “With the establishment of the 100-Gbps research and education network linking Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan, SingAREN looks forward to collaborating with our international partners to advocate joint advanced research, development, and education initiatives.”
“This is likely to be just the first of many significant accomplishments over the next few years,” noted Reese, “as it will link the research and education networks of countries bordering the Pacific Ocean, and will begin serving many Pacific Island nations, expanding opportunities for research and education engagement.”
About the Collaborating Networks
National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT)
NICT, as Japan’s sole National Research and Development Agency specializing in the field of information and communications technology, is charged with promoting ICT sector as well as research and development in ICT, which drives economic growth and creates an affluent, safe, and secure society.
National Supercomputing Centre (NSCC) Singapore
The National Supercomputing Centre (NSCC) Singapore was established in 2015 and manages Singapore’s first national petascale facility with high-performance computing (HPC) resources to support science and engineering computing needs for academic, research, and industry communities. NSCC aims to democratize access to supercomputing. NSCC works with local and international organizations to catalyze collaborative HPC projects and programs which support national research and development initiatives, attract industrial research collaborations and enhance Singapore’s research capabilities.
Singapore Advanced Research and Education Network (SingAREN)
SingAREN is the sole provider of local and international networks dedicated for serving the research and education community in Singapore. SingAREN’s members consist of the institutions of higher learning, research organizations, government, and network industry players. SingAREN facilitates high-speed transfers of large datasets across international boundaries for scientific research and enables advanced network technology demonstrations through its resilient international links and high-speed fiber network. SingAREN Open Exchange (SOE) interconnects Singapore’s research and education community to the Research and Education Networks (RENs) in other countries, ranging from bandwidths between 1 Gbps to 100 Gbps, to Asia, Australia, Europe and the USA.
Internet2
Internet2 is a non-profit, member-driven advanced technology community founded by the nation’s leading higher education institutions in 1996. Internet2 serves 324 U.S. universities, 59 government agencies, 43 regional and state education networks and through them supports more than 94,000 community anchor institutions, over 900 InCommon participants, and 78 leading corporations working with our community, and 61 national research and education network partners that represent more than 100 countries. Internet2 delivers a diverse portfolio of technology solutions that leverages, integrates, and amplifies the strengths of its members and helps support their educational, research and community service missions.
National Institute of Informatics (NII)
NII operates the Science Information Network (SINET) that is an information and communication network connecting universities and research institutions throughout Japan via nationwide connection points (nodes). It is designed to promote research and education as well as the circulation of scientific information among universities, research institutions, and similar entities. SINET is also connected to research networks such as Internet2 in the U.S.A., GÉANT in Europe and Asian Research and Education Networks to facilitate dissemination of research information and collaborations over networks.
Pacific Wave is a distributed international network peering facility for the Pacific Rim and beyond with peering points for network connections in Seattle, Sunnyvale, Palo Alto, and Los Angeles. Supporting 29 networks representing over 47 countries, Pacific Wave is a joint project between CENIC and the Pacific Northwest Gigapop. Pacific Wave supports advanced services including connectivity with the Pacific Research Platform (PRP), AutoGOLE dynamic circuit provisioning, experimental interdomain SDX collaborations, and access to 100 Gbps Data Transfer Nodes (DTNs) to accelerate large data transfers over long-haul high-capacity international links.
TransPAC
TransPAC project is a collaboration that is composed of a cooperative partnership with numerous research and education networks that will be connected through the project to continue and enhance the existing, highly successful previous iterations. The TransPAC Collaboration proposes a powerful, straightforward plan to provide multi-gigabit bandwidth and services connecting researchers in the US with their counterparts in Asia. The R&E networks included in the TransPAC Collaboration cover all of Asia excluding only North Korea.
Widely Integrated Distributed Environment (WIDE) Project
WIDE Project is a research consortium of Internet-related research based in Japan. Established in 1987, it has been connected to the global Internet since 1989 through PACCOM Project in University of Hawaii. It operated the M-Root DNS Server (jointly with JPRS) since 1997, played a steward role of the Tokyo side of IEEAF Pacific circuit in 2004-2009, and hosted T-LEX as a GOLE of GLIF. With NAO-J it is hosting the Pacific Wave-WIDE switch for 100 Gbps TransPAC/Pacific Wave circuit in Tokyo, collaborating with Pacific Wave, TransPAC, and APANJP.
CENIC
CENIC connects California to the world — advancing education and research statewide by providing the world-class network essential for innovation, collaboration, and economic growth. This nonprofit organization operates the California Research and Education Network (CalREN), a high-capacity network designed to meet the unique requirements of over 20 million users, including the vast majority of K-20 students together with educators, researchers, and others at vital public-serving institutions. CENIC’s Charter Associates are part of the world’s largest education system; they include the California K-12 system, California Community Colleges, the California State University system, California’s Public Libraries, the University of California system, Stanford, Caltech, USC, and the Naval Postgraduate School. CENIC also provides connectivity to leading-edge institutions and industry research organizations around the world, serving the public as a catalyst for a vibrant California.
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