[IP] China, Russia, U.S. Jointly Build, Manage Fiber-optic Network
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China, Russia, U.S. Jointly Build, Manage Fiber-optic Network
(Links in Northern Hemisphere promote cooperation in science, education)
(840)
By Cheryl Pellerin
Washington File Staff Writer
This article is one in a series
(http://usinfo.state.gov/eap/east_asia_pacific/china/us_china_trade_relatio
ons.html?id=nl20050316) on U.S.-China economic relations.
Washington -- China, Russia and the United States have joined forces to
build and manage a fiber-optic network that circles the Northern
Hemisphere, creating a high-bandwidth Internet-like system that links
scientists, educators and students worldwide.
The Global Ring Network for Advanced Applications (GLORIAD) is funded by
government agencies in all three countries. The network also has industry
partners in Korea, the Netherlands and Canada.
“At its simplest level, just think about fiber-optic cable around the
Northern Hemisphere,” said Greg Cole, research director at the Joint
Institute for Computation Science in the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge
National Laboratory. “We're under the ocean in the Atlantic and the
Pacific and across the tundra.”
The emphasis is on connecting science communities, particularly those
that do not have a long tradition of working well together.
“It's not as much about networking as it is about getting our
scientists, educators and students working openly and together,” Cole
added. “The network is something we leverage to bring people to the table
so we can open new areas of cooperation.”
GLORIAD began in 1997 as NaukaNet (Russian for ScienceNet), a network
funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Russian
Ministry of Science.
In 2003, the United States and Russia invited China to join the GLORIAD
partnership, and the network was extended to China in 2004 - with
trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific telecommunications services provided by
Tyco Global Networks. Later in 2003, the network crossed the Russia-China
border to complete the ring.
Funding for GLORIAD comes from NSF in the United States; the Russian
Ministry of Science; the Kurchatov Institute and the Russian Academy of
Science in Russia, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
“Money is a problem for us on this project in the United States and in
Russia,” Cole said. “In China, it hasn't seemed to be.”
The network supports a range of scientific applications, including the
most advanced areas of collaborative research in peaceful applications of
high-energy, nuclear and fusion-energy physics; atmospheric science;
astronomical observation; geological sciences; environmental monitoring;
bioinformatics; protection of nuclear materials; epidemiology, and others.
These data-intensive applications -- too massive to work across the
commercial Internet -- require a dedicated network. GLORIAD now supports
such applications and is still being improved.
“The [commercial] Internet is called a packet-switched network,” Cole
said. “You do something and your packets go into the network and come out
the other side. You don't care how they get there; you just want them to
get there reliably.
“The network we're building now will support that model -- general
traffic, web, e-mail. In the new [hybrid] network, you'll be able to get a
dedicated circuit across the network for two hours, so you'll have quality
guarantees in terms of available bandwidth,” he said.
The Chinese “have been very reliable partners,” Cole said, “doing what
they've promised -- completing circuits to the U.S. and completing the
circuit with our Russian partners across the Russia-China border.”
But more than that, he added, “China is rapidly developing its domestic
infrastructure to support science cooperation with the U.S., and the
importance of that cannot be overestimated.”
Just a few years ago, China did not have much in the way of a
telecommunications infrastructure, Cole said, but that has changed.
Today, he said, “they are putting in 1-gigabit links all over the
country ... they have demonstrated a real eagerness backed by resources to
develop good telecommunications to their science facilities.”
GLORIAD has high-level government support in both Russia and China. In
China, Jiang Mianheng, a vice president with the Chinese Academy of
Sciences (CAS) responsible for computing, networking and information
technology issues, leads the GLORIAD effort for CAS.
Yan Baoping directs the 360-member staff of the China-wide Computer
Network Information Center. She is responsible for developing the CAS
network and related programs and operating GLORIAD in China.
“Moving into these much higher-performance networks,” Cole said,
“involves tying together computation facilities and more closely
integrating our science communities. In Russia and China, you need very
senior leadership to make sure it stays on the right track.”
Although it is mainly a science-and-education project, Cole said,
GLORIAD's economic impact is potentially enormous.
“For example, in China it means we're going to be that much more engaged
and that will lead to business deals,” he said. “Any project that
encourages sharing and cooperation, as we're trying with GLORIAD, leads to
increased business cooperation. We don't do this project without business
involvement.”
Already, he added, GLORIAD is fostering stronger ties and working
relationships among the three countries and helping build trust from the
highest levels of government to the next generation of leaders.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International
Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site:
http://usinfo.state.gov)
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