1. Who are you and which organization are you with?
Australia’s Academic and Research Network (AARNet) is the Australian representative for APAN. AARNet is a national research and education network – an NREN and a not-for-profit company owned by 38 Australian universities and CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency.
For more than 30 years AARNet has provided advanced telecommunications services, along with an expanding range of data, collaboration and cyber security services, all designed to meet the unique and ever-changing needs of the research and education sector.
AARNet’s customers include Australian universities and CSIRO, as well as most publicly funded research agencies, such as Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Geoscience Australia and Australian Institute of Marine Science, several state government agencies, thousands of schools, many vocational training organisations and teaching hospitals, as well as state and federal galleries, libraries, archives and museums.
AARNet infrastructure interconnects over two million users—researchers, faculty, staff and students—at institutions across Australia with each other and research and education institutions in Asia and worldwide, the public internet, and resources such as scientific instruments, data storage and high-performance computing facilities. We also interconnect content and service providers and organisations that collaborate with the research and education community.
For researchers and educators working in today’s increasingly globalised data-intensive world, AARNet services remove barriers to discovery and innovation.
2. How long have you managed APAN-AU?
AARNet has been the Australian APAN representative since the very early days of APAN.
3. What are the significant/outstanding achievements/research/projects under APAN?
AARNet’s major achievement is the building the ultra-fast, high-quality, and highly available national and international research and education network that connects Australian researchers and educators to APAN members in Asia Pacific region, and on to the rest of the world.
More recently, AARNet has invested in ownership of submarine cables connecting Australia to Singapore and Guam (Indigo and JGA-South), with connections to Japan and other countries in Asia. In addition, we have participated in collaborative initiatives with our APAN member NREN partners to establish backup paths and increase diversity, as well as optimise routing policies and configurations between international endpoints. Our overarching goal is to build a more resilient research and education network in the Asia Pacific region and globally.
AARNet has contributed to development of research and education networks in many ways through APAN. For example, in recent years, as Steering Committee Co-Chair of the Mutually Agreed Norms for Routing Security (MANRS) initiative, AARNet has shared information with network operators and provided crucial fixes to reduce routing threats, including route hijacking, route leaks, and IP address spoofing. MANRS is a global effort, supported by the Internet Society, with the aim of protecting the stability and reliability of the internet.
AARNet was also a key participant in the Eduroam in Asia project, funded by TEIN*CC, which provided training for network operators to introduce and expand eduroam in many more countries in the Asia Pacific region.
4. What are your plans for APAN-AU?
We will continue to collaborate with APAN member NRENs to build diversity and capacity in the Asia Pacific region. The aim is to provide highly available high-performing research and education network connectivity that meets the unique and changing needs of research and education into the future.
5. How do you think APAN should improve, develop and add to what it does?
APAN could broaden its reach and grow the community to include more universities, research institutions and government agencies in the Asia Pacific region. This would help to increase opportunities for collaboration and knowledge sharing, an encourage the co-development of and uptake of services and resources provided by APAN members.
