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Mumbai, India -- On Saturday, February 18, a special workshop will be convened in Mumbai to focus on the development of the global system of dedicated advanced national research and education networks (NRENS) - infrastructures, technologies and applications. This workshop, "Moving India into the Global Community through Advanced Networking: Science, Education and the Knowledge Economy," is being hosted jointly by the MCIT, National Knowledge Commission, C-DAC, ERNET & TIFR in cooperation with Internet2, the IEEAF (Internet Educational Equal Access Foundation), World Bank, AcrossWorld Communications, Caltech (The California Institute of Technology), MIT, Stanford, CERN, and the SCIC/IFCA (Standing Committee on Inter-regional Connectivity of the International Committee on Future Accelerators). Specifically, leaders from the science and technology research and education communities of India and the United States will assess the underlying drive of development of such NRENs, international collaborations in research and development that are enabled, and the accompanying outcomes in terms of technology development and economic vitality. The workshop will feature both presentations by international leaders in the effort, but also actual demonstrations of applications that can only be supported through high-performance, advanced networks. The importance of India joining the now global set of dedicated, high-performance national research and education networks (NRENs) around the world and possible next steps will be discussed. To support these leading edge demonstrations, a special new link from India into the global NREN infrastructure has been put in place for the workshop. Through the work of the IEEAF (Internet Education Equal Access Foundation), a link of 622Mbps has been sponsored by VSNL from Mumbai to the Tokyo Lambda Exchange (T-LEX) through which it connects with other international R&E backbones which interconnect other NRENS and researchers around the world. This effort to get the link up and all the equipment and software in place to support this demonstration included a truly international team: WIDE and TLEX (led by Professor Jun Murai, IEEAF vice-chair) have set up and are hosting the Tokyo end of the 622Mbps link; the PacificWave international exchange point at the Pacific Northwest Gigapop in Seattle, Washington ( led by Vice President Ron Johnson, IEEAF past vice-chair); and the Caltech and LHCNet team led by Professor Harvey Newman; and technical staff at TIFR in Mumbai. From Tokyo, this link has access to multiple international R&E networks, including multiple paths to North America: IEEAF-provided 10Gbps and 622 Mbps links to the PacificWave international exchange point in Seattle, Washington; JGN2 10 Gbps link to Seattle; and the TRANSPAC2 10 Gbps link through Los Angeles to the Chicago StarLight international exchange point. Through the US exchange points, these links then provide access to Internet2's Abilene backbone network, National LambdaRail, the LHCNet and UltraLight global networks, as well as other R&E networks in North America, Latin America, and Europe. Several prominent speakers from India will participate, including Sam Pitroda, Chairman, National Knowledge Commission, and Professor Ashok Kolaskar, Vice Chancellor, University of Pune, and other leading members from academia, research community, and government. Speakers from the US will include Doug Van Houweling, President and CEO of Internet2; Professor Harvey Newman, Caltech University, Professor Donald Riley, University of Maryland and chairman of the Internet Educational Equal Access Foundation (IEEAF), Michael Wellings, Chief Engineer, University of Washington and ResearchChannel, and Vijay Kumar, Assistant Provost, MIT. As part of the effort to establish better cooperation between the Indian and US advanced networking communities, C-DAC and ERNET will sign a memorandum of understanding with Internet2(R). Internet2 and IEEAF will work with ERNET and C-DAC's GARUDA initiative to ensure dedicated, high-performance network connectivity between their respective communities and work to foster more collaboration between researchers, faculty and students using and building new technologies and applications in both countries. Held in conjunction with the CHEP2006 conference on Computing in High Energy Physics taking place at the Tata Institute for Fundamental Research (TIFR) earlier in the week, the 18 February workshop will take advantage of the presence of a large number of reputed international and Indian scientists from the computational high-energy physics community - a community with some of the greatest demands for high-performance, high-bandwidth connectivity. For example, for an institution like TIFR to take part in the upcoming Geneva, Switzerland-based Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiments, it is predicted that at least a connection of 10Gbps will be needed to receive petabyte-size data sets from the LHC experiments. Some demonstrations on how high-performance research and education networks are being utilized in the US and other countries will be made over the new link provided for this meeting. Illustrating what is required to participate the in the international high energy physics community, Professor Harvey Newman and Caltech will demonstrate grid-enabled analysis monitoring through MonaLISA tool, as well as the VRVS-EVO collaboration suite, which provides a number of tools to support communities with a large number of collaborators - like the thousands of high-energy physicists engaged in the LHC experiment - with multipoint video-conferencing, presence, scheduling and other collaboration tools being used on a regular basis over research and education networks. The ResearchChannel, a nonprofit media and technology consortium based at the University of Washington, will demonstrate the distribution of high-quality video content using IP networks which can use up to 1.5Gbps of bandwidth to provide low latency, high-definition video content. The high-definition video shown for the demo will take viewers inside an operating room as physicians perform an actual brain surgery. This type of high-definition video is being routinely moved over Internet2-type networks in support of the education of new surgeons and the further education of medical professionals. Other demonstrations will include MIT's iLAB, which provides online access to remote laboratories and equipment for classes which, due to cost, space, and other reasons, do not include an on-site laboratory. iLAB provides educational benefits of hands-on experimentation to students anywhere, at any time, made possible through access to high performance R&E networks. Stanford Summit Project: Remote Stereo Viewer Remote Stereo Viewer is an educational tool that provides medical educators and students, in geographically dispersed locations, the ability to collaboratively view three-dimensional interactive stereo photographs of anatomical structures. About C-DAC C-DAC, after being set up as India's National Initiative
for the development of indigenous supercomputing technology has played
a pioneering role in development and delivery of PARAM series supercomputers
with performance up to a teraflop, till date. PARAM Padma is the latest
in this series and is housed at C-DAC's Terasclae Supercomputing Facility
at Bangalore, India. C-DAC has identified Grid Computing as a Major thrust
area for future and initiated "Proof Of Concept (PoC) phase of National
Grid Computing Initiative: Garuda" involving high speed communications
fabric; aggregation of geographically distributed resources (computing,
data, storage, software and scientific instruments); architecture, standards,
research and technology development; and end-to-end applications development
and demonstration. The fabric component set-up in partnership with ERNET
will provide high-speed access the grid resources, to the scientific and
engineering community across the country and also enable a collaborative
problem solving environment for the Grid users. About ERNET ERNET India has, in collaboration with leading academic
and research institutions in the country, pioneered the Internet Technology
in the country. It has developed expertise and core competence in computer
networking and has established a state-of-the-art Internet infrastructure
with a mandate to facilitate provision of modern computer networking infrastructure
with associated communication facilities for the education and research
community in the country. Continuous technological inputs through R&D
and training activities ensure high quality of service for the connected
institutions. ERNET India in collaboration with leading academic and research
institutions in the country (such as IITs, IISc., UGC, AICTE, ICAR, etc.)
has been building and operating a computer network for R&D Institutions
and Academia (including Universities), with introduction of variety of
applications and services from time to time. Sharing of Digital Library
resources, on-line learning materials and country-wide classrooms are
some of the areas of strong interest for ERNET. About Internet2 Led by more than 200 U.S. universities working with industry
and government, Internet2 develops and deploys advanced network applications
and technologies for research and higher education, accelerating the creation
of tomorrow's Internet. Internet2 recreates the partnerships among academia,
industry, and government that helped foster today's Internet in its infancy. About CHEP2006 CHEP conferences provide an international forum to exchange
information on computing experience and needs for the High Energy Physics
and Nuclear Physics communities, and to review recent, ongoing and future
activities. CHEP conferences are held every 18 months. About ResearchChannel ResearchChannel is a nonprofit media and technology organization that connects a global audience with the research and academic institutions whose developments, insights and discoveries affect our lives and futures. ResearchChannel was founded in 1996 by leading research and academic institutions so they could share the work of their researchers with the public while collectively participating in advanced distribution and interactive technology experiments. Programs are shared in their original form, unmediated
and without interruption. Today, more than 50 institutions participate
as members and affiliates, and that number continues to grow. Through
cable and satellite distribution, ResearchChannel is available to more
than 21 million U.S. households. The ResearchChannel website, with users
in 20 over 70 countries worldwide, provides programs on demand and through
a live webstream. The online video library houses more than 2,100 full-length
programs. About MIT and iCampus The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA has the mission to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century. The Institute is committed to generating, disseminating and preserving knowledge to bear on the world's great challenges. The iLab project at MIT, is part of the iCampus initiative at MIT sponsored by Microsoft Research to develop and disseminate technology and pedagogy for sustainable educational transformation.
The Stanford motto, "the wind of freedom blows", is an invitation to free and open inquiry in the pursuit of teaching and research. The freedom of scholarly inquiry granted to faculty and students at Stanford is our greatest privilege; using this privilege boldly is our objective. SUMMIT is a research and development lab dedicated to putting Stanford University at the forefront of medical and life sciences education through the innovative use of information technology. About Caltech With an outstanding faculty, including four Nobel laureates, and such off-campus facilities as the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Palomar Observatory, and the W. M. Keck Observatory, the California Institute of Technology is an independent, privately supported university, and is one of the world's major research centers. The Institute also conducts instruction in science and engineering for a student body of approximately 900 undergraduates and 1,000 graduate students. Caltech's 124-acre campus is situated in Pasadena, California, a city of 135,000 at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains, approximately 30 miles inland from the Pacific Ocean and 10 miles northeast of the Los Angeles Civic Center. http://www.caltech.edu About IEEAF The Internet Educational Equal Access Foundation (IEEAF)
is a non-profit organization whose mission is to obtain donations of telecommunications
capacity and equipment and make them available for use by the global research
and education community. The IEEAF TransPacific Link provided by VSNL connects Seattle and Tokyo at 10 Gbps transoceanic link;
the IEEAF TransAtlantic Link, also provided by VSNL, connects
New York City and Groningen, The Netherlands. IEEAF donations currently
span 17 time zones. About Pacific NorthWest Gigapop The Pacific Northwest Gigapop (PNWGP) is a not-for-profit
corporation serving leading-edge organizations and Research and Education
networks throughout the Pacific Rim. PNWGP provides robust, highest-speed
access to current state of the art Internet; Next Generation Internet
services and technology; and the exclusive R&D testbeds, where tomorrow's
Internet technologies are being developed. PNWGP is built to be the highest-caliber
Research and
WIDE Project, a research consortium working on
practical research and development of Internet related technologies, was
launched in 1988. The Project has made a significant contribution to development
of the Internet by collaborating with many other bodies - including 133
companies and 11 universities to carry out research in a wide range of
fields, and by operating M.ROOT-SERVERS.NET, one of the DNS root servers,
since 1997. WIDE Project also operates T-LEX, the Tokyo Lambda Exchange
(http://www.tlex.net/),
as an effort of stewardship for the IEEAF Pacific link in Tokyo. Contact:
press@wide.ad.jp |