University College Dublin (UCD) has become the first Irish higher-education institute (HEI) to avail of a 10Gbps (10,000Mbps) connection to HEAnet, the Irish national education and research network.
This sets a new standard of connectivity for Irish HEIs, greatly increasing the amount of data they can share with other institutions in Ireland and around the world. Previously, UCD connected to HEAnet at 1Gbps.
To illustrate the difference the new connectivity makes, HEAnet provides the following example: 10Gbps connectivity allows the equivalent of the entire 20 terabytes of published material in the US Library of Congress to be transferred in a little under five hours.
HEAnet is providing UCD with two diverse 10Gbps connections to ensure high availability of this service. “HEAnet is pleased to be able to provide new standards of connectivity to the academic and research communities in Ireland, and anticipates new and innovative uses being made of such high-bandwidth connectivity,” it said in a statement.
“As research and educational pursuits produce and consume ever-increasing volumes of data, HEAnet must deliver network capacity in line with these challenging demands. HEAnet will roll out 10Gbps connectivity to its other members as required.”
The seven major universities, with the support of the Higher Education Authority, established HEAnet in 1984 to promote the interchange of information electronically within third-level education. It has recorded a doubling of capacity every year.
By Sorcha Corcoran
