*This report is excerpted from the WIDE Project Report 2023
Chapter 1. Introduction
This paper reports on the operation of ARENA-PAC (Arterial Research and Educational Network in Asia-Pacific), a broadband backbone network for research and education purposes in the Asia-Pacific region. ARENA-PAC, which is operated by the WIDE Project, is a broadband backbone network for research and education purposes using a submarine cable network contracted for long-term use by the Asia Pacific Internet Development Trust (APIDT), a fund for the development of the Internet in the Asia Pacific region. In addition to the submarine cable network contracted for long-term use by APIDT, ARENA-PAC aims to become a wide-area high-capacity backbone network that can be called an “artery” extending across the Asia-Pacific region, as the name suggests, through interconnection with other research and education networks.
This paper reports on the current operational status, future expansion plans, and international collaborative cooperation, including the inauguration of a 100 Gbps communication bandwidth line between Indonesia (Malang) and between the Philippines (Manila) and Guam, which has enabled all originally planned lines available.
Chapter 2. Operational Status and Network Status
The current ARENA-PAC backbone network is shown in Figure 1. By 2022, the Tokyo-Guam and Singapore-Guam (Singapore-Guam is operated by a joint consortium of AARNet, Internet2, and Indiana University) 100 Gbps lines were in operation. In addition to these, in 2023, the 100 Gbps line for Indonesia-Guam (connected to Brawijaya University and Indonesia Research and Education Network (IDREN)) in February, and the 100 Gbps line for the Philippines-Guam (connected to Philippine Research, Education, and Government (PERG)) in September (opened in April): Philippine Research, Education, and Government Information Network (PREGINET) and DOST Advanced Science and Technology Institute (ASTI)). The ARENA-PAC network is now in operation. With this, all four lines initially planned by ARENA-PAC with Guam as the hub are now in operation.
Figure 1 ARENA-PAC backbone network
A ceremony was held to commemorate the opening of the new lines, which began operation in 2023, hosted by the organizations to which each line is connected, which are also partners in the SOI Asia/AI3 project.
First, on August 9, 2023, a ceremony was held at Brawijaya University, Malang, hosted by Brawijaya University and IDREN, to commemorate the opening of the Indonesia-Guam line under the title “Operational Inauguration of ARENA-PAC Indonesia 100Gbps.” The ceremony was held at Brawijaya University in Malang and hosted by Brawijaya University and IDREN to commemorate the opening of the Guam line. The ceremony was mutually relayed in real time between Brawijaya University and Keio University Hiyoshi Campus through the 8K uncompressed video transmission experiment described below, using this line and the Tokyo-Guam line. H.E. Heri Akhmadi, Ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia to Japan, and Dr. Hidefumi Okada, the Vice President of Keio University, gave congratulatory speeches at the Hiyoshi Campus.
On December 13, 2023, the “3rd Joint PREGINET and COARE Stakeholders’ Meeting” was hosted by DOST-ASTI in Manila to celebrate the opening of the Philippines-Guam line. The ceremony was held during the “3rd Joint PREGINET and COARE Stakeholders’ Meeting” organized by DOST-ASTI in Manila. Presentations were also made by the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) and the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Research Network (MAFFIN) at the ceremony, which emphasized the importance of collaboration among high-speed networks and research and education networks. In addition, a demonstration using the ARENA-PAC line was scheduled to be held at the ceremony. However, the demonstration using the ARENA-PAC line could not be held because the Philippines-Guam line was not available due to a circuit outage that occurred on December 3, 2023. As an alternative, with the cooperation of MAFFIN, a demonstration of music sessions and data transfer between Japan and the Philippines was conducted using MAFFIN’s Tokyo-Manila line. The results showed the importance of redundancy and robustness through mutual backup in research and education networks.
Chapter 3. Activity report for 2023
Here are some major activities and progress in 2023.
3.1 8K Uncompressed Video Transmission Experiment
During the aforementioned ceremony held on August 9, 2023, to commemorate the opening of the Indonesia-Guam link, an 8K uncompressed video transmission experiment was conducted. Uncompressed 8K video and audio were transmitted bi-directionally between Keio University Hiyoshi Campus and Brawijaya University, achieving ultra-high quality and low latency real-time video transmission between the two locations. The realism of the 8K video enabled the ceremony, which was divided into two venues, to be carried out smoothly. In addition to connecting the two venues and relaying the ceremony, an a cappella chorus demonstration was successfully conducted between the two venues (between Japan and Indonesia), taking advantage of the low latency characteristic of uncompressed 8K video.
Figure 2 shows the amount of traffic during the preparation, rehearsal, and day of the ceremony for this experiment. As shown in this figure, the 8K uncompressed video has a traffic volume of approximately 42 Gbps. It was demonstrated once again that this kind of experiment can be realized only with a high bandwidth line.
This experiment was made possible with the cooperation of Astrodesign, Seiko Solutions, Juniper Networks, Arista Networks, SINET, and GXP-Tokyo.
Figure 2 Traffic during the opening ceremony in Indonesia
3.2 Telesurgery Trial
ARENA-PAC and the WIDE Project, together with SINET, JGN, and SingAREN, cooperated in the telesurgery trial between Fujita Health University and the National University of Singapore that took place from October 9 to 12, 2023. In this demonstration experiment, ARENA-PAC and the WIDE Project not only provided the line, but also contributed to the collaboration with SingAREN, SINET, and JGN research and education networks.
Figure 3 Network topology of the tele-surgery demonstration
The network topology is shown in Figure 3. The cockpit was installed on the Singapore side and the surgical robot on the Japan side, and they were connected by VPN. In this demonstration experiment, three paths with different latency ((1)-(3) in the figure, with (4) as a backup) were used while switching between them to demonstrate the feasibility of telesurgery over long distances with high latency.
3.3 Interactive Volumetric Live at SIGGRAPH Asia 2023
ARENA-PAC also contributed to an interactive volumetric video-based live performance (demonstration) at SIGGRAPH Asia 2023 on December 15, 2023. Since this demonstration required fast and stable information transfer, which is difficult to achieve with ordinary Internet connections, a network was constructed to meet the requirements through the collaboration of research and education networks. Specifically, in collaboration with Australia’s Academic and Research Network (AARNet) and the Guam Open Research & Education eXchange (GOREX), a network was established to connect the conference venue in Sydney, Australia, to the International Convention & Exhibition Centre (ICC Sydney) through Guam (GOREX) and prepared a 100 Gbps path to Otemachi. In addition, the connection was extended from Otemachi to a studio in Tokyo (TOKYO NODE), and a VLAN was set up between ICC Sydney and TOKYO NODE for this demonstration, creating an L2 network.
Figure 4 Interactive Volumetric Live at SIGGRAPH Asia 2023
As shown in Figure 4, this demo was to deliver a live performance using volumetric video to an audience approximately 7,800 km away from the studio. In this demo, performers in Tokyo and the audience in Sydney were able to co-create improvised music.
Chapter 4. Summary
This paper reported on the operation of ARENA-PAC, a broadband backbone for research and education purposes in the Asia-Pacific region. The WIDE Project will continue to contribute to the development of the international Internet through the operation of ARENA-PAC and collaboration with APOnet and other RENs.
Excerpts from the WIDE Project Report 2023 