IRNC Core Improvement: SXTransPORT Pacific Islands Research and Education Network

University Of Hawaii, Honolulu

Investigators

Abstract

The SX-TransPORT Pacific Islands Research and Education Network (PIREN) project supports the primary Research & Education (R&E) network backbone connecting Australia, New Zealand, Guam, and points beyond. Based in Hawaii, the project enables major advances in astronomy, oceanography, coral reef research, high energy physics, biomedical research, and data science. Primary PIREN partners are the Pacific Wave distributed exchange, which ensures that all PIREN-connect networks have full access to the entire domestic and global R&E network fabric, and the Network Startup Research Center (NSRC), which supports the development of campus networks as well as training and education for Pacific Islander network engineers, a highly underrepresented group in STEM. the PIREN project leverages both the international fiber optic systems that connect to multiple Hawaiian islands as well as the unparalleled international astronomy resources on Maunakea and Haleakala. The PIREN project also established and operates, in partnership with the University of Guam, the Guam Open Research and Education Exchange (GOREX), strategic new R&E network infrastructure in the Pacific that interconnects multiple submarine cable systems from the US, Asia and Australia to provide more resilient and lower latency paths among major research partners including Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Southeast Asia. PIREN is also the principal U.S. initiative to advance R&E networking among underserved Pacific Islands, which now have increased access to fiber-optic systems that interconnect in major hub locations such as Hawaii and Guam, and which are on the forefront of sustainability challenges arising from climate change and sea-level rise. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.