UH Demonstrates Hawaii's First 10GBPS External Network Connection

University of Hawaiʻi
Contact:
David Lassner, (808) 956-3501
UH Information Technology Services
Posted: Jan 20, 2005

HONOLULU — The University of Hawaiʻi demonstrated Hawaiʻi‘s first 10Gbps (billions of bit per second) connection outside the state on January 10 when it conducted a remote microscopy between the Lariat project participants meeting at the East-West Center on the UH Mānoa campus and the National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research (NCMIR) at the University of California at San Diego.

The Lariat project is being conducted by the Pacific NorthWest Gigapop as part of a $10 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) award to Montana State University to enhance the capability for biomedical research in Alaska, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Nevada and Hawaiʻi.

The new link, which connects Hawaiʻi to Australia and the U.S. mainland, is part of the SX TransPORT project, a partnership between the Southern Cross Cable Network (SCCN) and AARNet, Australia‘s Academic and Research Network.

"Through SX TransPORT, our colleagues at AARNet and Southern Cross have provided the foundation for Hawaiʻi to begin to participate in the continuing transformation of research and education through advanced broadband connectivity," said David Lassner, UH Chief Information Officer and chair of the PTC 2005 conference. "Our collaborators in the Pacific Northwest and California have made it possible for Hawaiʻi and Australia to leverage this capability by assisting in acquiring the additional resources and support to connect SX TransPORT to US-based advanced networks and exchange points that reach the rest of the world."

The remote microscopy demonstration permitted participants to view real-time images from a multi-million dollar multi-photon laser scanning confocal microscope at the NCMIR in San Diego. This demonstration used 800Mbps (millions of bits per second) to send the uncompressed data from San Diego to Honolulu. This type of remote instrumentation monitoring is an important first step for enabling remote instrumentation control, allowing the remote use of one of a kind instrumentation not available in the islands. The Lariat meeting also included remote video participants from Canberra, Australia and the NIH in Maryland.

Between January 17 and 19, the link was demonstrated for a variety of applications at the 27th Annual Pacific Telecommunications Council (PTC) 2005 conference at the Hilton Hawaii Village in Waikīkī. PTC is the longest running annual telecommunications meeting for the Pacific hemisphere.

Demonstrations of the new link at PTC from Canada focused on e-Learning applications of broadband including a real-time demonstration of remote piano control, high-quality real-time audio and video for coaching music students, multiparty collaborative virtual reality, and a sharing of indigenous culture and educational performance events.

The new link was also used to demonstrate High Definition Television (HDTV) over the Internet at speeds of up to 270 Mbps, including live streaming of PBS Hawaii‘s "First Light" documentary about Mauna Kea from a server in Seattle and HDTV videoconferencing, PTC participants also enjoyed wireless Internet-based car racing technology from Japan that permitted drivers in Alaska, Japan and Hawaiʻi to compete against each other in real-time using a physical race-track in Honolulu. Additionally, Internet2 demonstrated its new "DVGuide," which shows the digital video programming available on global research and education networks from around the world.

The SX TransPORT network is currently in "pre-production" for these and other demonstrations. Work is planned on the production configuration of the link to support connections to Internet2 and other international education and research networks after the conclusion of PTC 2005.