| Communications and Development |  |
Published by Communications and Development
An interdepartmental research group at the University of Canterbury has been awarded $200,000 by REANNZ (Research and Education Advanced Network New Zealand Ltd) to establish PlanetLab in New Zealand.
PlanetLab is a global research network infrastructure that operates as an experimental testbed for studying novel networking mechanisms and applications. It was established in 2002 and as of June this year comprised 880 nodes at 460 sites worldwide.
The UC group, led by Professor Krys Pawlikowski (Computer Science and Software Engineering) will use the funding to introduce PlanetLab to New Zealand scientists and to advance UC research on new network services and technologies. The group also includes Professor Harsha Sirisena from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Tony Dale from BlueFern, the University's supercomputer centre.
Professor Pawlikowski said UC joined PlanetLab in late 2002 using donated hardware but high charges for internet connections made any use of the node impractical.
The introduction of KAREN, the Kiwi Advanced Research and Education Network, has opened up ultra high-speed data links, making it now viable for scientists to access the vast worldwide distributed computing resources of PlanetLab.
Professor Pawlikowski said the funding would be used to replace UC's old node and install new nodes at Auckland and Otago universities.
“This will form the initial structure of PlanetLab NZ, comprising of New Zealand scientists who will conduct their research via KAREN.
“We plan to facilitate such research activities and co-operation by establishing a consultation centre for sharing our experience and expertise within New Zealand.
“At UC, our PlanetLab-related research projects involve work on distributed quantitative discrete-event simulation and performance of large scale peer-to-peer systems. Researchers at Otago University are working on new Internet multimedia streaming protocols while at Auckland University the focus is on issues related with network traffic measurements and performance of the Internet's domain name systems.”
Professor Pawlikowski said an international workshop showcasing PlanetLab research would be held mid-2009.
For further information please contact:
Jeanette Colman
Communications Manager
University of Canterbury
Ph (03) 364 2260
jeanette.colman@canterbury.ac.nz