Wednesday, March 22, 2006

World-class information sharing is coming to NMT

Argen Duncan El Defensor Chieftain reporter

A new connection to a fiber-optic communications network is removing geographic isolation and bringing world-class information sharing to New Mexico Tech.

The university will have a completed link to the National LambdaRail in 90 days, said Tech Information Services Department Director Bob Tacker. The system allows high-speed communications between the entities connected to it. New Mexico's connection has been under construction for some time.

Employees will be able to use the network for such things as transferring images from the Very Large Array to other institutions around the nation and world, or sharing data from other research universities.

"So it means that a place like Tech is no longer geographically isolated," Tacker said. "We now have communications equal to the best in the world."

Vice President of Research and Economic Development Van Romero said LambdaRail solves the university's bandwidth problem by removing limitations.

"It also provides us new opportunities," he said.

Tech has already been contacted to respond to additional work, and the network makes us a candidate to do more research, Romero continued.

Tacker said LambdaRail would help Tech win more research grants because of the removal of isolation, with the university having the same communications as an institution in downtown Chicago.

Students will also have faster Internet, with network speed expected to more than double by the fall semester.

Tacker also said the network will make communications more reliable because cutting a single fiber won't take it off line.

Romero said the system would allow the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology-Program for the Array Seismic Studies of the Continental Lithosphere to receive and access data much more efficiently in its role as a back-up information repository.

The University of New Mexico is representing Tech and New Mexico State University, according to an article in the Albuquerque Journal. Tacker said New Mexico's connection to the national network would be in Albuquerque.

Tech will not directly access the main New Mexico cable, which he described as a 20-lane super highway. The state has leased existing fiber optic lines that run from El Paso through Las Cruces, Socorro and Albuquerque to Denver.

However, Tech will have a second pair of cables, a frontage road so to speak, to take communication traffic to Albuquerque, Tacker said. From there, the information can go to the national network.

The second pair of cables won't run at high speed because it will only carry traffic from Tech. Therefore, the university can use cheaper electronics and upgrade later if necessary.

The state of New Mexico must pay $1 million a year for five years to join the network. The legislature has already appropriated $3 million, and Tacker said he expects the group to also provide the rest.

The universities involved are to pay the operating costs. For Tech, participation will cost an estimated $60,000 a year.

The smaller "frontage road" cable makes up part of the Rio Grande Fiber Project, a companion venture to the LambdaRail work. Tech will pay for those cables.

"But we think the Rio Grande Fiber Project will pay for itself in three year's time," Tacker said.

He said the university would save money by using the smaller cables to move data to Albuquerque instead of paying Qwest Communications to do the job.

Also, the cost of high-speed communication once prevented the university from using it. The fiber optics, however, fall within the university's price range.

LambdaRail is available to any public entity. Socorro entities could connect through Tech and pay a pro-rated share of the operating costs.

aduncan@dchieftain.com

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