June 3, 2004

IT news

The International Center for Advanced Internet Research (iCAIR), a branch of Information Technology, is playing a key role in a major international network project involving the United States, Russia and China.

As part of an historic cooperative endeavor, those three nations are developing “Little GLORIAD” (Global Ring Network for Advanced Applications Development), the first round-the-world computer network ring, which will be used for multiple joint scientific and educational projects. The project includes the first-ever fiber network connection across the Russia-China border.

“Little GLORIAD,” which provides 155 Mbps secure data connections linking the three countries, is a first step toward GLORIAD, a larger 10 Gbps “lightwave” network around the entire northern hemisphere to support science and engineering cooperation.

“GLORIAD will provide students and faculty from Northwestern and other universities with unique opportunities to directly participate in multiple science, engineering, and cultural projects with scholarly communities throughout Russia and China,” said iCAIR director Joe Mambretti.

GLORIAD will begin and end at the StarLight optical access point (www.startap.net/starlight/) on Northwestern’s Chicago campus. iCAIR is a partner in both GLORIAD and StarLight. StarLight is a National Science Foundation-supported research facility being designed by researchers, for researchers as a foundation for regional, national and international high-speed networks.