A new, high-speed fiber-optic network capable of sending the equivalent of scores of encyclopedia sets per second is up and running in Boulder, connecting CU researchers with colleagues at major federal laboratories and the City of Boulder.
"This joint project is an excellent example of the goals of the administration聮s Information Technology Initiative," said U.S. Congressman Mark Udall, who spoke at a news briefing on the subject at CU-Boulder April 28. "It聮s a wonderful model for partnering among local, state and federal government agencies."
The news briefing detailing the capabilities of the Boulder Research and Administrative Network, or BRAN, was held at CU聮s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics facility at the CU Research Park. BRAN is a $1.5 million cooperative effort involving the U.S. Department of Commerce Laboratories, the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, the National Center for Atmospheric Research, CU-Boulder and the City of Boulder.
The U. S. Commerce labs include the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.
Work on BRAN began in July 1999 and construction and testing were completed in April 2000.
The project is unique in that it instantaneously links the city, university and major federal research labs in Boulder, allowing them to collaborate on research projects ranging from climate and weather research to the timing of atomic clocks.
The 11-mile network consists of a 96-strand bundle of fiber-optic lines 聳 each as fine as a human hair 聳 strung primarily through existing conduits owned by CU-Boulder and the City of Boulder. Each participating institution has been awarded a share of the strands for their particular uses.
"This is a unique project because of the unprecedented cooperation of four large non-profit institutions," said Kent Groninger, executive director of Boulder activities for the NOAA labs. "We have had a gleam in our eyes to interconnect all of these entities for some time now, and we finally got it done."
NOAA聮s Boulder labs are the focal point of much of the world聮s atmospheric and weather data, receiving multiple sets of weather information daily, said Groninger. "With BRAN, not only can we send out huge data sets to the Boulder institutions studying global change and other weather-related phenomena, we can make it available to the public at the speed of light."
The BRAN network is dramatically increasing collaboration among researchers at all participating institutions, allowing them to swap huge files instantly and work together in "real time." NCAR, which has two large facilities in Boulder located about seven miles apart, is now able to connect researchers instantly through the BRAN network and increase its scientific capabilities.
With NCAR's 28-fiber share of BRAN聮s 96-fiber total transmitting at maximum capabilities, a colleague of Groninger聮s calculated it would take only 71 seconds to transmit the entire U.S. Library of Congress holdings between NCAR聮s Mesa Lab and Foothills Lab, assuming there were efficient "buffers" at each end.
Richard Anthes, president of UCAR, credited Groninger for the original idea of BRAN and the other partners in the project for their cooperation. "This is a unique example of cooperation between city, state and federal governments and the private non-profit sector," said Anthes.
Marla Meehl, manager of NCAR聮s network engineering and technology section, said the institution previously had been leasing fiber-optic circuits from private vendors to swap research information between its Foothills and Mesa labs. "We have one of the largest climate and weather data archives in the world," she said. "BRAN eliminates our need to lease these circuits, saving us upwards of $5,000 a month."
In addition, the type of information being transmitted over BRAN is of great interest to the multitude of Boulder climate and weather scientists.
"We are doing things now like 3-D visualization of weather and turbulence modeling that can be shared by NOAA, CU and the other federal labs," she said. "And because we have our own fiber and facilities in Boulder, we have incredible flexibility for videoconferencing seminars, and other real-time events between our two NCAR laboratories in Boulder."
Larry Warner, plant manager for CU-Boulder聮s Information Technology Services, said the high-powered BRAN connection linking the institutions will save the university up to $4,000 a month.
Project directors believe there are countless uses for the new network 聳 including the potential for connections with public libraries, fire stations, police stations and recreation centers. "One of the things that I find most exciting is that the limits of BRAN are not known at this time," said Warner.
Leo Hollberg, a NIST scientist, said two of BRAN聮s fiber-optic strands will be dedicated to comparing atomic frequency standards of NIST聮s atomic clock with JILA, which is a joint institute of NIST and CU-Boulder.
Prior to BRAN, comparisons of the atomic frequency standards between the two labs have been achieved by global positioning satellites, which requires averaging the satellite signals for days. "With BRAN聮s fiber-optic capabilities, we anticipate that these comparisons can be done in less than 1 second and simultaneously achieve much higher accuracy," Hollberg said.
"Bran has tremendous potential," said Chris Puccio, assistant director of network services and information technology for the City of Boulder. "This fiber will be in use 20 or more years from now in better connecting the citizens with both the city and the quality educational and research facilities in Boulder."
BENEFITS OF BRAN
o BRAN will be an established fiber-optic infrastructure that can be quickly modified to support new projects as needed.
o It will improve collaboration between Boulder research institutions, reducing the time needed for results, and will improve the ability to attract research grants.
o The new fiber-optic project will be crucial for future networking, including the Next Generation Internet, the NASA Internet and Internet 2.
o BRAN will provide better service from the City of Boulder to its constituents.
o The network should lead to an enhanced and strengthened research community, improving the retention of high-quality jobs that benefit the city of Boulder.
o BRAN will result in an increased capability for telecommuting and video conferencing, reducing driving trips and subsequent costs between sites.
o The capacity potential of Bran communication has been likened to building a 100-lane expressway between Boulder and Denver.
o A project similar to BRAN, but lacking the research impact, is a network in Seattle that has resulted in expanded fiber routes to high schools, several universities, library systems and state information systems.
o BRAN will provide faster network connections to recreation centers to help speed up citizen registration and sign-up.
o Connections between the City of Boulder聮s public libraries to CU and other research organizations will allow the sharing of research information and other educational items with the public.
o BRAN will provide citizens with fast access to the city聮s Web site to conduct business, including downloading computerized city geographical information over the Internet.
o BRAN offers faster citizen access on the Internet to connect to the city聮s Web site to view city council meetings via computer and to explore other new technologies.