From: axl867@huxley.anu.edu.au (Albert Langer)
Newsgroups: aus.aarnet,comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: Upgrading AARNet - PM's Announcement
Followup-To: aus.aarnet,comp.org.eff.talk
Date: 15 Dec 1992 02:48:52 GMT
Organization: Guide Mark IV - Pilot Study, Room 42
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: 150.203.2.12
Summary: For the SNARC *was* a Boojum, you see.

[Following excerpts from announcement by the Australian Prime Minister 
include everything directly related to the AARNet upgrade RDN-CRC].

                   ***

FOR MEDIA                                   14 DECEMBER 1992

JOINT STATEMENT WITH THE HON ROSS FREE, MINISTER ASSISTING 
THE PRIME MINISTER

The third and final selection round for the Cooperative
Research Centres Program was completed today, with the
selection of a further seventeen Centres, the expansion of
two CRCs established in 1991, and the establishment of a
Research Data Network CRC (RDN-CRC).

[...]

As announced in the Government's recent White Paper on 
Science and Technology, "Developing Australian Ideas", a
Research Data Network CRC is to be established. It will
conduct research into telecommunications and computing
technologies and services, and have access to
experimental broadband facilities essential for the
development of the next generation communications
networks.

The Centre's research nodes are located in Brisbane,
Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide. The CRC for
Broadband Telecommunications and Networking announced
today is also expected to collaborate in these
developments, thus adding a node in Perth to the network.

The Research Data Network CRC will also provide $3.4
million for the immediate upgrade of the existing 
research data network, which links up researchers
(including universities) throughout Australia.

This initiative will address one of the major needs for
research and infrastructure identified by the Australian
Science and Technology Council in its report on national
research facilities. The importance of the establishment
of a high speed data network for innovative R&D in
advanced systems engineering, computing software and
telecommunications, for use by researchers, was
recommended by an expert group to the Prime Minister's
Science and Engineering Council earlier this year.

[...]

     Successful CRC Applications (in bold print) together with
      the 34 established Cooperative Research Centres 
         (by six broad fields of research) 

Name of Cooperative Research Centre     Location of Core    Attachment
                                        Participants           (a)
[...]
======================================================================
Information and Communications Technology
======================================================================
[Successful in bold]
CRC for Broadband Telecommunications    WA/VIC/NSW              C
 and Networking
CRC for Advanced Computational Systems  ACT/NSW                 D
 (ACSys)
Research Data Network CRC               QLD/ACT/NSW/VIC/SA      E

[Already established]
CRC for Intelligent Decision Systems    VIC
CRC for Robust and Adaptive Systems     ACT/NSW/SA
CRC for Distributed Systems Technology  QLD/SA/SA/VIC/NSW
Australian Photonics CRC                NSW/VIC/ACT
CRC for Sensor Signal and Information   SA/VIC/QLD
 Processing

=====================================================================
[...]
(a) Details on each successful application are provided in the
relevant attachment.
[...]


                                                          Attachment E


Research Data Network CRC


The Research Data Network (RDN) CRC will conduct research and education
programs in areas relating to communications network technologies, 
applications and services. It will also support network infrastructure
development, including the upgrade of the Australian Academic and Research
Network, AARNet.

The CRC will be established as a network of nodes, some of which are
associated with other CRCs, with a Management Committee to foster
cooperation between the different groups, to oversee the funding and
reporting requirements of the CRC, and to manage access and connections
to experimental broadband network capacity.


Participants

The participants in the research programs include: the CRC for Advanced
Computational Systems; the CRC for Distributed Systems Technology;
CSIRO Macquarie Joint Research Centre for Advanced Systems Engineering;
the Department of Parliamentary Reporting Staff; the South Australian
Centre for Parallel Computing; Microsoft Institute; Thinking Machines
Corporation; Australian Supercomputing Technology; Softway; Film Australia;
CSIRO Division of Information Technology; Fujitsu Australia; AOTC; Siemens;
and the Australian Computing and Communications Institute (ACCI). (Not all
participants are involved in every research program).

In addition, the Australian Vice Chancellor's Committee and AOTC are
expected to participate in the Management Committee in connection with
their role as network service providers.


Research Activities

There are four research programs:

The _Distributed_Interactive_Multimedia_Information_Services_ program and
the _Distributed_High_Performance_Computing_ program will be established
as Demonstration Projects of the CRC for Advanced Computational Systems.
The Multimedia program will focus on systems architecture, tools and
techniques for interactive multimedia access and navigation. This is an
area which is of major importance for future broadband networks. The High
Performance Computing program will integrate the high performance computing
resources of Australia through broadband connections (as seen in the
embryonic national cooperative supercomputer facility), and the management 
of data on the distributed computer network.

The _Resource_Discovery_ program will be established as an additional
program of the CRC for Distributed Systems Technology. The program aims
to develop resource discovery prototypes that enable users to access the
vast amounts of information scattered in repositories throughout Australia
and the rest of the world.



The _Network_Performance_ program will involve research and development
into the utilisation and performance of high speed telecommunications
network technologies such as frame relay, DQDB and ATM. This will assist
in the design of the future AARNet.

These four programs will enable an integrated approach to the solving
of some important problems, as networks are faced with increasing
demands in relation to capacity and services.


Network Infrastructure Development

Funding will be provided for an immediate upgrade of the existing
research data network, AARNet, and to assist meeting the projected cost
of providing upgraded services over the next few years.

Funding will also be provided to the RDN CRC to fund access to broadband
facilities such as the proposed AOTC Experimental Broadband Network, at
some 10 sites. This reflects the fact that each of the recommended
proposals will investigate technologies and applications which will
require access to broadband testbed facilities beyond those available
at present. This will make a significant contribution to the development
of the next generation of network applications and services.


Funding

The funding provided is as follows (all figures are five year totals):


Proposal                                            | Funding recommended
                                                    | (5 year total)
____________________________________________________|____________________
Multimedia program                                  |  $1.5 million
Distributed High Performance Computing program      |  $1.5 million
Resource Discovery program                          |  $2.0 million
High Speed Network Applications program             |  $1.6 million
____________________________________________________|____________________
Funding for AARNet development                      |  $3.4 million
____________________________________________________|____________________
Provision for broadband network access to CRC nodes |  $3.0 million
====================================================|====================
TOTAL                                               | $13.0 million

-------------------------------------------------------------------------


Contact

Multimedia, and Distributed High    Professor Michael McRobbie
Performance Computing programs      Centre for Information Science Research
                                    Australian National University
                                    CANBERRA ACT 2601
                                    ph (06) 249 2035, fax (06) 249 0747

Resource Discovery program          Mr Rob Cook
                                    CRC for Distributed Systems Technology
                                    University of Queensland
                                    QLD 4072
                                    ph (07) 365 4321, fax (07) 365 4399

Network Applications program        Professor F J W Symons
                                    Department of Electrical and Computer 
                                     Systems Engineering
                                    Monash University
                                    CLAYTON VIC 3168
                                    ph (03) 565 3481, fax (03) 565 5757

AARNet                              Mr John Mullarvey
                                    Australian Vice Chancellor's Committee
                                    1-5 Geils Court
                                    DEAKIN ACT 2600
                                    ph (06) 285 8200, fax (06) 285 8211

                          ***

-- 
Albert.Langer@anu.edu.au, Room 42, Red Cedars Motel, Watson ACT 2602, AUSTRALIA
Voice: +61 6 241 3222,  Fax: +61 6 241 2355, Telex: 62542 N-ISDN:? B-ISDN:????? 
Disclaimers: Nobody speaks for me, and vice versa. Totally unauthorised. 
RDN-CRC Narrow Bandwidth WG official statements: Try Roger_Clarke@anu.edu.au