OMEN
01-17-2008, 10:37 AM
World-best collaborative research between Australian and United States universities has taken a giant leap forward with the successful launch today of a 1 gigabit per second data connection between the two countries.
The ultrabroadband optical-fibre link - roughly 250 times faster than the standard broadband connection offered in metropolitan Melbourne - was demonstrated at the University of California San Diego and at the University of Melbourne today.
Using large visual-display walls of high-definition screens in both cities, still images, audio, animations and video from Australian research conducted by neuroscientist Professor Graeme Jackson and water researcher Professor John Langford were presented in both cities at the same time.
Participants in San Diego were able to question Professor Langford and Professor Jackson in real time - as if they were in the same room.
The potential applications that will flow from the new technology are immense - from research into the brain using scans that can be shown at the cellular level through to drug discoveries and collaboration on high-end climate change research.
Excited researchers are already talking about sharing data from MRIs, synchrotrons, supercomputers and telescopes to interpret a range of complex data - previously beyond the reach of those in Australia.
The high-speed connection - the power of which will not be lost on those in the Australian community begging for next-generation broadband services - is a joint initiative of the Australian American Leadership Dialogue, the University of Melbourne, the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology at UCSD and the University of California Irvine, the Victorian Government and Australia's Research and Education Network (AARNet).
It is also the result of the passion for innovation held by the dialogue's founder and leader, Melbourne-based Phil Scanlon, UCSD professor and internet pioneer Larry Smarr, who developed the super-computer technology, and the University of Melbourne School of Engineering's Centre for Ultra Broadband Information Networks (CUBIN), empowered by vice-chancellor Glynn Davis.
The huge data files will flow across the high-capacity AARNet, Australia's academic and research network.
Professor Smarr led the UCSD team that built the revolutionary OptIPuter over the past five years - a super computer capable of facilitating optical networking, high storage, and fast processing and visualisation. The computer is linked to 55 high-definition display screens creating a total of 220million pixels. By comparison, a standard PC can show about 1 to 2million pixels.
An OptIPortal has been built in Melbourne over the past two months to receive data from the host site. It features a 96 million-pixel visualisation wall built from 24 LCD screens, has 100 times more memory than the average desktop PC, and almost 50 times greater resolution than the highest-resolution HD TV commercially available.
The University of Melbourne contributed $A500,000 to the project, with the Victorian Government submitting a further $A120,000.
The OptIPuter and its portals enable scientists and other researchers who are generating massive files - terabytes and petabytes - to visualise and correlate their data interactively from multiple storage sites connected to optical networks.
Glyn Davis led the praise in San Diego after today's launch. "This technology is a powerful communication tool which will push new boundaries for higher education and research in Australia," he said.
Australia America Leadership Dialogue founder Phil Scanlan said: "One of the goals of the leadership dialogue, which brings together some our most dynamic leaders across a range of endeavours, is to improve Australia's capacity and commitment to invest in education, science, technology, human capital and related areas. Clearly, higher education and Australia's participation in global research will be one significant driver of future performance."
Professor Smarr said the demonstration marked the entry of Australia into the growing OptIPlanet Collaboratory, enabling innovators around the world to work together on major data-intensive scientific, medical and environmental challenges.
"Based on today's success, we will connect other Australian universities together with universities in the United States and around the world using these advanced technologies in 2008," he said.
At the University of Melbourne, the Dean of Engineering, Professor Iven Mareels, said: "The technology means people on opposite sides of the world can work together on projects in real time. For instance, a surgeon in Australia could direct an emergency surgical intervention by operating a robot in Antarctica; scientists in Australia and Japan could share research tools such as the Synchrotron, or operate an underwater robot exploring the Great Barrier Reef - all from the comfort of an OptIPortal room."
In August last year, while a guest of the bi-national leadership dialogue in Melbourne, Professor Smarr pledged to help set up the 1Gigabit/sec link.
"The world can move at a speed that is breathtaking and if you are not committed to maintaining that speed yourself, and you begin to fall behind, it can become essentially impossible to catch up," Smarr said at the time.
Four months later, thanks to trans-Pacific cooperation, Melbourne has begun to come up to speed.
It is hoped that the 1 gigabit/sec link will become available to the broader Australian research and university community once it has been fully tested.
In the longer term, the goal is to bring data transfer of 10 gigabits/sec to Australian research institutions. Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Switzerland, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands are already achieving these speeds.
For Professor Smarr, 2008 is what he describes as a "step function year" - a year in which the world will be transformed to a new threshold of connectivity. "Australia will now be integral to that process," he said.
By 2010, says Professor Smarr, Australians should set themselves the target of 1 gigabit/sec links in their homes.
He says Japan's NTT will sign its 10 millionth customer next year to a service capable of 1 gigabit/sec.
Professor Smarr says digital cinema via the internet is not far away. "It comes out of the camera at 7.6 gigabits/sec but it can be compressed to 0.5 gigabits/sec."
He can imagine a time when the Australian Centre for the Moving Image at Federation Square will be able to create a real-time portal to display digital art from around the world.
The Age
The ultrabroadband optical-fibre link - roughly 250 times faster than the standard broadband connection offered in metropolitan Melbourne - was demonstrated at the University of California San Diego and at the University of Melbourne today.
Using large visual-display walls of high-definition screens in both cities, still images, audio, animations and video from Australian research conducted by neuroscientist Professor Graeme Jackson and water researcher Professor John Langford were presented in both cities at the same time.
Participants in San Diego were able to question Professor Langford and Professor Jackson in real time - as if they were in the same room.
The potential applications that will flow from the new technology are immense - from research into the brain using scans that can be shown at the cellular level through to drug discoveries and collaboration on high-end climate change research.
Excited researchers are already talking about sharing data from MRIs, synchrotrons, supercomputers and telescopes to interpret a range of complex data - previously beyond the reach of those in Australia.
The high-speed connection - the power of which will not be lost on those in the Australian community begging for next-generation broadband services - is a joint initiative of the Australian American Leadership Dialogue, the University of Melbourne, the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology at UCSD and the University of California Irvine, the Victorian Government and Australia's Research and Education Network (AARNet).
It is also the result of the passion for innovation held by the dialogue's founder and leader, Melbourne-based Phil Scanlon, UCSD professor and internet pioneer Larry Smarr, who developed the super-computer technology, and the University of Melbourne School of Engineering's Centre for Ultra Broadband Information Networks (CUBIN), empowered by vice-chancellor Glynn Davis.
The huge data files will flow across the high-capacity AARNet, Australia's academic and research network.
Professor Smarr led the UCSD team that built the revolutionary OptIPuter over the past five years - a super computer capable of facilitating optical networking, high storage, and fast processing and visualisation. The computer is linked to 55 high-definition display screens creating a total of 220million pixels. By comparison, a standard PC can show about 1 to 2million pixels.
An OptIPortal has been built in Melbourne over the past two months to receive data from the host site. It features a 96 million-pixel visualisation wall built from 24 LCD screens, has 100 times more memory than the average desktop PC, and almost 50 times greater resolution than the highest-resolution HD TV commercially available.
The University of Melbourne contributed $A500,000 to the project, with the Victorian Government submitting a further $A120,000.
The OptIPuter and its portals enable scientists and other researchers who are generating massive files - terabytes and petabytes - to visualise and correlate their data interactively from multiple storage sites connected to optical networks.
Glyn Davis led the praise in San Diego after today's launch. "This technology is a powerful communication tool which will push new boundaries for higher education and research in Australia," he said.
Australia America Leadership Dialogue founder Phil Scanlan said: "One of the goals of the leadership dialogue, which brings together some our most dynamic leaders across a range of endeavours, is to improve Australia's capacity and commitment to invest in education, science, technology, human capital and related areas. Clearly, higher education and Australia's participation in global research will be one significant driver of future performance."
Professor Smarr said the demonstration marked the entry of Australia into the growing OptIPlanet Collaboratory, enabling innovators around the world to work together on major data-intensive scientific, medical and environmental challenges.
"Based on today's success, we will connect other Australian universities together with universities in the United States and around the world using these advanced technologies in 2008," he said.
At the University of Melbourne, the Dean of Engineering, Professor Iven Mareels, said: "The technology means people on opposite sides of the world can work together on projects in real time. For instance, a surgeon in Australia could direct an emergency surgical intervention by operating a robot in Antarctica; scientists in Australia and Japan could share research tools such as the Synchrotron, or operate an underwater robot exploring the Great Barrier Reef - all from the comfort of an OptIPortal room."
In August last year, while a guest of the bi-national leadership dialogue in Melbourne, Professor Smarr pledged to help set up the 1Gigabit/sec link.
"The world can move at a speed that is breathtaking and if you are not committed to maintaining that speed yourself, and you begin to fall behind, it can become essentially impossible to catch up," Smarr said at the time.
Four months later, thanks to trans-Pacific cooperation, Melbourne has begun to come up to speed.
It is hoped that the 1 gigabit/sec link will become available to the broader Australian research and university community once it has been fully tested.
In the longer term, the goal is to bring data transfer of 10 gigabits/sec to Australian research institutions. Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Switzerland, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands are already achieving these speeds.
For Professor Smarr, 2008 is what he describes as a "step function year" - a year in which the world will be transformed to a new threshold of connectivity. "Australia will now be integral to that process," he said.
By 2010, says Professor Smarr, Australians should set themselves the target of 1 gigabit/sec links in their homes.
He says Japan's NTT will sign its 10 millionth customer next year to a service capable of 1 gigabit/sec.
Professor Smarr says digital cinema via the internet is not far away. "It comes out of the camera at 7.6 gigabits/sec but it can be compressed to 0.5 gigabits/sec."
He can imagine a time when the Australian Centre for the Moving Image at Federation Square will be able to create a real-time portal to display digital art from around the world.
The Age