OneNet’s Connection to Pacific Wave Enhances Scientific Collaborations for Oklahoma’s Research Institutions

With support from the National Science Foundation’s International Research Network Connections (NSF IRNC) program, OneNet will be directly connected to the Pacific Wave International Exchange and its peering and high-performance, scientific networks. OneNet is the comprehensive digital communications initiative of the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, and this new connectivity to the Western U.S. and Asia-Pacific region will enhance scientific collaborations for Oklahoma’s research institutions.

Research and education projects within the state of Oklahoma, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Weather Center, and the National Severe Storms Laboratory will benefit from OneNet’s ever-expansive global connections. Researchers at the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University will be connected to the Pacific Wave through OneNet’s 100Gbps high-speed optical network.

“Through this new connection to the Pacific Wave network, many of OneNet’s member institutions will benefit from the enhanced connectivity to the Asia-Pacific region and beyond,” said Chancellor Glen D. Johnson. “Researchers at Oklahoma’s higher education institutions can further leverage existing research in areas like high energy physics, atmospheric science and predictive modeling, hydrology and water resources, machine learning, bioinformatics and genomic research.”

OneNet will connect to Pacific Wave via the Western Regional Network (WRN).  WRN is an extension of Pacific Wave, created by a collaboration of the Western regional research and education optical networks: Front Range Gigapop (CO and WY), New Mexico Gigapop, University of Hawaii, Pacific Northwest Gigapop (WA, AK, MT, ND) and CENIC (CA). The Pacific Wave connects most international Asia-Pacific networks, key Western U.S. regional networks and leading national-scale research networks like Internet2 and ESnet. The NSF IRNC program will also connect Texas’ Lonestar Education and Research Network (LEARN) to WRN and Pacific Wave.

“An explicit goal of Pacific Wave, and a goal shared by OneNet and LEARN, is to develop and deploy a curated set of advanced networking components and architectures that reach across large geographies. These efforts will empower researchers to achieve the network effects required to enable and accelerate the next waves of discovery in science, engineering and medicine,” said Louis Fox, principal investigator of the NSF-funded Pacific Wave IRNC, and president and CEO of CENIC, California’s research and education network.

One organization that will benefit from the new connection is the National Weather Center, a unique confederation of the University of Oklahoma, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and state organizations that work together in partnership to improve understanding of events occurring in Earth’s atmosphere. The scientific data collected, analyzed and generated within the programs housed at the National Weather Center are leveraged extensively globally and will benefit from the new connection to the Pacific Wave. At Oklahoma State University, expanded connections such as the Pacific Wave enhance opportunities for university research scientists.

“OneNet’s connection to Pacific Wave will enable Oklahoma’s researchers to collaborate globally on a variety of initiatives through international partnerships,” said Vonley Royal, OneNet executive director and higher education chief information officer.  “The requirements of Oklahoma’s research community, related to high-performance computing, are diverse and demanding.  The enhanced connection to the Asia-Pacific region is another way OneNet is leveraging collaborations to meet these requirements.”

For more information on OneNet, visit www.OneNet.net or call 800-5-OneNet.

-30-

Media Contact: Angela Caddell
Office: 405.225.9346
Cell: 405.919.5957