Taj network now online

[IPB Corporation]

The Taj network, funded by the National Science Foundation, now
connects India, Singapore, Vietnam and Egypt to the larger Global Ring
Network for Advanced Application Development (GLORIAD) global
infrastructure, and "dramatically improves existing U.S. network links
with China and the Nordic region,"

The combined GLORIAD-Taj fiber-optic network is aimed at helping
government scientists collaborate, and to improve education in
universities. The network offers large-bandwidth connections for
scientists who seek to avoid the often bogged-down Internet.

GLORIAD started as a 1997 NSF-funded project that created MIRNET,
connecting scientists in the United States and Russia. In 2004, it was
expanded to China, Korea, Canada and five Nordic countries. The cyber-
network now reaches half the countries on the planet and 10 million IP
addresses for an estimated 30 million or more users. A new exchange
point in Alexandria, Egypt, allows ties throughout the Middle East,
Africa and Central Asia and the Caucasus regions.

Among other uses, the network is employed to remotely operate
telescopes and microscopes. It's particularly useful for data-
intensive visualizations. Researchers can carve out portions of the
network for specific, uninterrupted long-distance collaborations that
might include a lot of video conferencing and other intensive data
exchange.

Some data: The upgrade beefed up U.S.-China network service by a
factor of 4, from 2.5 Gbps to 10 Gbps.