Making quicker connections

KAREN stands for The Kiwi Advanced Research and Education Network.

It links New Zealand’s tertiary education and research facilities.

It is capable of data transfers of up to 10 gigabits a second: that’s 10,000 times faster than a standard broadband connection.

The high speed opens up a huge range of possibilities.

Robin Harrington, University of Canterbury’s advanced technology manager, has been involved with KAREN since its inception back in 2006 / 2007.

He’d spent nearly a decade arguing the need for a new network where people didn’t have to think about the costs involved in transferring or processing large amounts of data.

“TelstraClear built the network using fibre up and down the country,” he says.

“Between the universities and crown research institutes, we have 1-gigabit connections with plenty of capacity that sits in the background.

“Anyone on the university system can access through KAREN: it’s automatically selected when they visit a website and from the user’s perspective is totally transparent.”

KAREN may speed up website visits. But its real value is the huge capacity and speed that allows any university or research centre in the country direct access to the University of Canterbury’s super computer.

Beyond that, researchers can access fast connections to Australia and the US.

“Video conferencing is one of the most obvious benefits of KAREN,” says Harrington.

“For example, social scientists around the country got a grant to enable them to collaborate more effectively, using Access Grids.

“They have set up multi-point video conferences rooms at 10 sites around the country, each with three projectors, a couple of microphones and cameras.

“They can sit at a table and the projectors project their images life-size onto a wall. They can also use data sharing tools.”

Social scientists are using the technology for everything from routine management meetings to ‘virtual’ seminars involving post-graduate students and researchers from around the country.

Harrington calculated KAREN was saving the university $100 a day in time and travel costs while also increasing productivity.

Using the ultra-fast links to Australia and the US saved another $100 a day, while still using only a fraction of the network’s potential.

The technology is being used in a number of projects.

It is enabling children in isolated areas to access music lessons

Telescopes in New Zealand and Australia are being linked up to create a giant virtual radio telescope.

KAREN is the underlying technology in a project to map areas of poverty in China. Experts from as far away as Stanford University in the US and the Chinese Academy of Sciences are using KAREN to work collaboratively in real-time.

The technology is linking 19 people in six countries who, as members of the International Sheep Genomics Consortium, are mapping the sheep genome. Their work aims to identify the entire hereditary information of sheep.

This article originally appeared as part of ‘Virtual race to cross digital divide’, by Sharon Cuzens, in Bright magazine on May / June 2008. Issue 28.

More information

www.karen.net.nz