SCIENCE
Indiana University Chosen to Lead High Performance Research Network Between US and China
The project will link the China Education and Research Network (CERNET) with Internet2 and U.S. research and education networks, allowing researchers and educators in both the U.S. and China to more easily collaborate and share research data.
"International networks do not currently operate at the levels needed to fully support growing collaborative scientific research between the U.S. and China," said IU President Michael A. McRobbie. "With more than 400 current NSF projects involving China and many new projects planned, a high-speed connection between the countries has become very important to leading American scientific and medical collaborations which promise technical innovations and breakthroughs in healthcare."
The award is the latest in IU's series of large-scale international networking grants received within the past decade. The IU GlobalNOC currently leads international networks such as TransPAC3 to Asia and America Connects to Europe (ACE).
"I'm delighted that the National Science Foundation has again chosen IU to lead this important international network project," said Brad Wheeler, vice president for information technology and CIO at Indiana University. "For over a decade, IU has developed the expertise and relationships to lead at these international levels."
An ongoing partnership between IU GlobalNOC, CERNET and Internet2 made this project possible. In the last 10 years, the partners have worked together on a range of efforts to support research and education networking for scientific collaboration, including solving access problems caused by China's large, growing population.
"This is, of course, not the first network connection between the U.S. and China -- but it is the first specifically dedicated to university scientific research," said Jim Williams, director of international networking at the Indiana University GlobalNOC. "This will allow university scientists to move larger sets of data between the U.S. and China more quickly and easily."
Internet2, the world's most advanced network for global scientific research, is also a critical partner in the rollout. Internet2 has collaborated with more than 50 countries to enable access to its advanced network and next-generation networking technologies for U.S. universities and researchers working in China.
"Global collaboration among data-intensive researchers is simply the new standard in today's world. One of Internet2's foundational principles is supporting global research and enabling new dimensions of collaboration," said Dave Lambert, Internet2 president and CEO. "Our current upgrade to the Internet2 Network will create the world's first 100 Gigabit Ethernet production network -- and is key to the future of supporting global scientific research collaboration with China and all of our global partners."
CERNET is leading implementation of the network and creating the needed cyberinfrastructure within China, with financial support from the Chinese government.
The network is expected to be operational in late fall or early winter 2011.