The TransPAC2 Network was a US
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National ...
-funded high-speed international
computer network
A computer network is a set of computers sharing resources located on or provided by network nodes. The computers use common communication protocols over digital interconnections to communicate with each other. These interconnections are ...
circuit connecting
national research and education network
A national research and education network (NREN) is a specialised internet service provider dedicated to supporting the needs of the research and education communities within a country.
It is usually distinguished by support for a high-speed backb ...
s in the Asia-Pacific region to those in the US. It was the continuation of the TransPAC project which ran from 2000 through 2005.
History
The first TransPAC effort started in 1998.
The original link of 35 Mbit/sec connected to the
Very high-speed Backbone Network Service
The very high-speed Backbone Network Service (vBNS) came on line in April 1995 as part of a National Science Foundation (NSF) sponsored project to provide high-speed interconnection between NSF-sponsored supercomputing centers and select access po ...
(vBNS) near
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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, coordinates =
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, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
.
TransPAC2's
Network Operations Center
A network operations center (NOC, pronounced like the word ''knock''), also known as a "network management center", is one or more locations from which network monitoring and control, or network management, is exercised over a computer, teleco ...
was located in the Informatics and Communications Technology Complex in
Indianapolis, Indiana
Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Mari ...
on the
Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) campus. The NOC operated 24 hours a day and 7 days a week starting in October 1998.
In May 1999 link speed was expanded to 73 Mbit/s with funding from the Japan Science and Technology Corporation.
In June 2000 link speed increased to 100 Mbit/s, and in September to 155 Mbit/s.
In May 2001, equipment from
Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems, Inc., commonly known as Cisco, is an American-based multinational digital communications technology conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, manufactures, and sells networking hardware, ...
replaced that from
Juniper Networks
Juniper Networks, Inc. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. The company develops and markets networking products, including routers, switches, network management software, network security product ...
in Chicago.
The principal investigator for this first phase was
Michael McRobbie.
The NSF awarded a follow-on grant on December 20, 2004, with principal investigators James Williams and Douglas Van Houweling.
TransPAC2 was part of the NSF's International Research Network Connections (IRNC) program.
In April 2005, a single
OC-192 Optical Carrier transmission rates are a standardized set of specifications of transmission bandwidth for digital signals that can be carried on Synchronous Optical Networking (SONET) fiber optic networks. Transmission rates are defined by rate of t ...
circuit was provided by
KDDI
() is a Japanese telecommunications operator formed on October 1, 2000 through the merger of DDI Corp. (Daini-Denden Inc.), KDD (Kokusai Denshin Denwa) Corp. (itself a former listed state-owned enterprise privatized in 1998), and IDO Corp. It ...
America.
It connected to the
Asia Pacific Advanced Network in
Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...
and to a TransPAC2-managed router in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
. The Los Angeles
router, using the TransPAC2
Autonomous System number 22388, maintained a
10 Gigabit Ethernet
10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GE, 10GbE, or 10 GigE) is a group of computer networking technologies for transmitting Ethernet frames at a rate of 10 gigabits per second. It was first defined by the IEEE 802.3ae-2002 standard. Unlike previous ...
connection to the
CENIC
The Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC ( )) is a nonprofit corporation formed in 1997 to provide high-performance, high-bandwidth networking services to California universities and research institutions. Through t ...
managed Pacific Wave Ethernet switch. This connection enabled direct peering with the
Internet2
Internet2 is a not-for-profit United States computer networking consortium led by members from the research and education communities, industry, and government. The Internet2 consortium administrative headquarters are located in Ann Arbor, Mi ...
Abilene Network,
National LambdaRail and other high speed networks on the US West Coast.
Use of the TransPAC2 network was limited to the networks carried by other research and education network aggregators. In the Pacific region, this list includes APAN, TEIN2, and
AARNet
AARNet (Australian Academic and Research Network) provides Internet services to the Australian education and research communities and their research partners.
AARNet built the Internet in Australia. In 1995, the Australian Vice-Chancellors' Com ...
. In North America, the primary connection is via the Internet2 Abilene network, though TransPAC2 peers with other R&E networks at the Pacific Wave Exchange Point.
In February 2006, TransPAC2 established direct connection to JGN2 switch in Los Angeles.
The grant expired at the end of 2011. A total of about $6.3 million was awarded for TransPAC2.
References
External links
TransPAC2 Project PageTranspAC2 NOCIRNC ProgramsGlobal Research NOC
{{compu-network-stub
Academic computer network organizations