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2003-2004 Success Stories

The NB/PEI Research Grid: New broadband infrastructure will facilitate next-generation research

In Brief

The NB/PEI Research Grid, to which NRC-IIT – e-Business is a leading contributor, has provided a highly reliable research network backbone to Atlantic Canada. Launched on 16 February 2004, this multi-partner broadband initiative has significantly expanded the capacity for research and education in New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. NRC-IIT-e-Business worked with other regional and national organizations all of which, like NRC, needed a fibre-optic research and education network. NRC’s contribution was to facilitate an unusual partnership and to provide expertise towards the design of the shared infrastructure.

“The National Research Council was integral in building and deploying the New Brunswick/PEI Research Grid. The innovators from the NRC who collaborated on and contributed to the project were key players on a strong team who were able to get the initiative started and see it through to completion. The result is research labs and private industry in the region now have access to CA*net 4, one of the most advanced networks in the world. These organizations can participate in research and innovation projects regionally, nationally and globally. This is good for the NRC, good for the region, and good for Canada."
— Andrew K. Bjerring, President and CEO of CANARIE.

The NB/PEI Research Grid Story

Today, participation in advanced research depends on access to advanced infrastructure. NRC-IIT – e-Business needed broadband connectivity to all of its New Brunswick sites (Fredericton, Moncton, Saint John) and to Miramichi. As well, each of these sites needed broadband connectivity to Canadian and international research collaborators through CANARIE’s CA*net 4 advanced research network. Part of NRC’s role in the Atlantic initiative is to partner in providing that critical infrastructure, particularly in a landscape of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and other partners who might not have the resources to create the needed tools themselves.

Due to the considerable initial investment involved in deploying and lighting dark fibre, the NRC entered instead into a partnership with CANARIE, the New Brunswick/Prince Edward Island Educational Computer Network, the provinces of New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, and others to create a consortium to which NRC directed $3 million of the Regional Economic Development Agreement (REDA) portion of its budget. The resulting $11-million project included the spatially diverse CA*net 4 ring for New Brunswick.

NRC–IIT – e-Business provided design expertise from all three of its sites, in particular in simplifying and hence making more cost-effective the “edge design” (the design of NRC’s interface to the network). NRC staff from IMSB in Ottawa and IMB in Halifax also provided key input to the team at the University of New Brunswick who designed the network. By partnering in a larger connectivity project, the Council and its partners achieved a much better economy of scale and, therefore, were able to secure a longer term for use of the network for their available funds. The increased number of partners also increases use of the network, thus building innovation capacity in the region.

Officially unveiled on February 16, 2004, the NB/PEI Research Grid provides increased bandwidth to the research, industry and academic communities in New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, so they can collaborate and participate in research and innovation projects regionally, nationally and globally. The research grid will facilitate next-generation research in both provinces and deliver the associated scientific, economic and cultural benefits of that research to the region.

The NB/PEI Research Grid is a joint initiative among the Government of Canada, the provinces of New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, CANARIE Inc., the National Research Council Institute for Information Technology – e-Business, the University of New Brunswick (UNB) representing members of the New Brunswick/Prince Edward Island Educational Computer Network, the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, the Maritime Provinces Higher Education Commission and 360 Networks/Group Telecom.

From a university perspective the Grid has increased the bandwidth available to researchers by a factor of more than 30 times (from 30 Megabits per second to multiple 1000 Megabit paths) by providing initially four Gigabit optical rings. As a result, faculty members and students throughout New Brunswick will be able to participate in collaborative e-Science projects through the newly acquired ability to access, for example, large-scale genome databases and remote telescopes. The Grid will be a major factor in attracting high-quality researchers and students to the Province, and retaining them.

The Grid project has enabled coverage to be widespread throughout the province of New Brunswick; all partners now have access to CANARIE’s backbone, CA*net 4, which connects them to the rest of Canada and to the world. The infrastructure provided by the Grid project has laid the foundation for a New Brunswick research network that could be expanded in the future to connect private-sector researchers and members of the MUSH sector (Municipalities, Universities, Schools, and Hospitals) to other Grid members and to research networks regionally, nationally and around the world.

Contact

Greg Sprague
Research Officer
Research Programs, New Brunswick
NRC Institute for Information Technology
46 Dineen Drive
Fredericton, NB E3B 9W4
Telephone: +1 (506) 444-0492
Fax: +1 (506) 444-6114
E-mail: Greg.Sprague@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca