iTWire - Astronomers move live data 41,000 kilometres at 250Mbps

Astronomers move live data 41,000 kilometres at 250Mbps

By Stephen Withers
Thursday, 30 August 2007 12:20

Scientists have successfully carried out the first very long electronic baseline interferometry (e-VLBI) observations by connecting telescopes in China, Australia and Europe with dedicated fibre optic links.

The EXPReS project (Express Production Real-time e-VLBI Service) was demonstrated at the Asia-Pacific Advanced Network (APAN) meeting in Xi'an, China.

As there is no competing traffic on the fibres, large amounts of data can be transferred in real time. The demonstration spanned 41,000km and achieved a consistent speed of 250Mbps.

Previously, data was recorded at each location and shipped on disc or tape. "What was achieved yesterday allows scientists to have immediate access to data in real time, even while experiments are in progress," said Chris Hancock, CEO of AARNet.

"Today was a first for researchers and the astronomy community in Australia and it demonstrates the real value of investing in high-speed infrastructure. To connect across such a vast area via dedicated lightpaths to such far-away telescopes is a phenomenal achievement."

The observations were conducted by JIVE (Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe) in The Netherlands, with participating radio telescopes including the Mopra and Sheshan during the Chinese-Australian part of the experiment, and Sheshan, Darnhall, Jodrell Bank, Medicina, Torun and Westerbork telescopes in the European-Chinese part.

"This is a fantastic achievement," said Huib van Langevelde, director of JIVE, from the APAN meeting in China. "When we started doing e-VLBI we wondered whether we would ever be able to connect to these far-away telescopes, because there are not only various oceans to cross but also many different network providers."

EXPReS aims to implement up to 16 simultaneous 1Gbps network connections between the central processor at JIVE and partner telescopes across Europe, Asia, Australia, South Africa, South America and the USA by 2009.