PRAGMA 21 Meeting, Sapporo, 19 October 2011

Catalysing network-enabled collaboration

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

PRAGMA and Networks

George McLaughlin

PRAGMA 21 Meeting, Sapporo, 19 October 2011

Good networks aren’t enough Well supported networks without compelling applications that provide

new/enhanced opportunities for research, education and societal benefit are of limited value

Need an enthusiastic user base and champions that have the tools and capabilities to exploit the opportunities presented

Need a framework that ensures that applications benefit researchers, educators and society in a powerful, inclusive, reliable and easy-to-use way

The underlying complexities of the routing/switching infrastructure and collaboration tools should be transparent to the end users

2

PRAGMA 21 Meeting, Sapporo, 19 October 2011

Current R&E networks within Asia & to US/EU Note – In Asia there is no continent-wide equivalent of the NSF or the

European Commission - different approach to putting things in place Show maps

3

PRAGMA 21 Meeting, Sapporo, 19 October 2011

The story from the maps US is a beneficiary of network investment by Asian countries for network-

enabled collaborations with Asia A “free” service may have a significant network cost in Asia (depending on

location relative to content source) Japan, Korea, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, India have multiple

multi-Gbps international circuits BUT – Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Laos, Philippines, Indonesia

have only 45-155Mbps AND Mongolia, Myanmar, Papau New Guinea, East Timor and most South Pacific Islands have satellite only (cost)

This latter group are among the most susceptible to natural disasters (floods, tsunamis, typhoons, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, sea level rise)

4

PRAGMA 21 Meeting, Sapporo, 19 October 2011

Observations/Assumptions PRAGMA isn’t just about high-end services/applications – wider scope It is an organisation with a social conscience It is one where members with greater resources can make (some of) those

resources available to others Natural disaster modelling/prediction/impact mitigation is high on everyone’s

agenda Application systems allow for different bandwidth constraints?

5

PRAGMA 21 Meeting, Sapporo, 19 October 2011

Predictions about networks over next 5 years Individual circuit capacities will continue to grow but at a slower rate, but still

by at least an order of magnitude Total utilised fibre capacity (number of circuits) will grow massively, largely

as the result of increased demands to backhaul huge traffic increases from wireless and cellular networks

LTE (4G) already providing “real” 30Mbps to smartphones/tablets in several countries, and this is early days – LTE (or other 4G, maybe 5G) will be the norm within this timeframe (note - CSIRO (802 devlopers) and others already demonstrating multi-gigabit wireless technology

Even in countries poorly connected internationally, often have a high penetration of cellular devices within country (videocomms, built-in sensors, positioning, processing - wide scale alerts for DM)

6

PRAGMA 21 Meeting, Sapporo, 19 October 2011

7

PRAGMA and Network Collaborationthings that we have found to work

Identify a defined and manageable number of disciplines/topics for meaningful progress toward developing action plans

Bring together researchers, network professionals and funding agency people Network professionals get good understanding of real needs of user

communities - ensure that the optimal engineering, protocols and performance attributes are in place in a way that provides intuitive user experience

User communities exposed to opportunities for network-enabled collaboration Funding bodies involved early to get buy-in Identify effective champions Demonstrate exemplars of effective network-enabled collaborations

PRAGMA 21 Meeting, Sapporo, 19 October 2011

Some examples and events Firewatch Indonesia – Using satellite data from NASA/others and systems

developed for Au bushfires, provide near realtime “hotspot” maps and alerts when wildfires start – massive cut in response time and improved mitigation

Specialist paediatric teleconsultation between Royal Children’s Hospital, AU and National Paediatrics Hospital, Hanoi

Astronomical transient events using sky survey data and comparing with historical data to identify transients (up and running in short period between Caltech and Inter University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune)

US-India Network-enabled Collaboration Workshophttp://internationalnetworking.iu.edu/us-india-workshop (skype ref)

8

PRAGMA 21 Meeting, Sapporo, 19 October 2011

Some thoughts/suggestions Tack on a one day PRAGMA/Networks workshop to a PRAGMA or APAN

meeting (APAN also has applications as well as future Internet working groups)

Network people from APAN Members and US would be involved Homework on both PRAGMA and Network sides needed to flesh out and

scope Indentify topic area of focus for network-enabled PRAGMA cloud

collaboration (Disaster Management?)

9

PRAGMA 21 Meeting, Sapporo, 19 October 2011

Common concerns including: transboundary water management; infectious diseases (like dengue and pandemic influenza); vulnerability to climate change and natural disasters

the LMI seeks to support a common regional understanding of these issues and to facilitate an effective, coordinated response

10

Another thought - Lower Mekong