Innovation agenda expected to drive demand for next generation network

The president of CANARIE Inc says he’s still optimistic the federal government will ante up between $50-$150 million this year for a new national optical research network, despite being passed over in the recent feeding frenzy for year-end money. Although there is no formal process to secure any funds remaining in departmental budgets, CANARIE officials were among the hundreds of groups quietly lobbying for a share of the leftovers. The biggest recipient of year-end money, of course, was the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), which received a whopping $750 million to boost research capacity at Canadian institutions. Dr. Andrew Bjerring, who’s also CEO at CANARIE, says some of that money will be used to upgrade university networks which connect to his group’s CA*net 3 fibre backbone. "Campus networks (for teaching and for research) do find their way into CFI, and with more money for CFI, presumably, some of it would end up in networking," Bjerring told Network Letter. "Some of the research applications themselves that are being supported through CFI are the very ones that will lead to increased utilization of high speed networks and increased collaboration between researchers." CANARIE is pitching the feds on three alternatives that could replace CA*net 3, ranging in price from $50 million to $150 million (NL, Nov. 20/00). Topping its list is a new national Internet network – called CA*net 4 – that would include wavelengths to Europe and parts of the Asia Pacific region. CA*net 3, which connects universities and points of presence in each province, is quickly reaching peak capacity and its contract with Bell Nexxia runs out in June 2002. "One way or another we have to do something at that time… If we could know (on federal funding) sometime between September and December, that would give us lots of time to get our RFIs on the street, and bring people together," says Bjerring. He adds that while it would have been nice to know now that the funding will be available, "there’s no reason for us to conclude that the funding will not be available. The signs are as positive as they have ever been." Some industry insiders fear the government’s Connectedness agenda is taking a back seat to its innovation agenda, which focuses on R&D. Bjerring doesn’t agree, saying Canada’s universities cannot conduct high-level research without high-speed telecommunications networks. "I really see (CA*net) as being such an obvious project to continue. It’s a benefit to so much of the research that is being undertaken across the country, from genomics to bioinformatics as well as the collaborative projects between the Europeans and the National Research Council," he explains. "There are applications being developed which couldn’t proceed if the only network that institutions had access to was the commercial Internet. They just don’t have the bandwidth." Ottawa circles are buzzing with talk of a white paper on innovation, which could be released by June. While R&D will comprise a core component of such a strategy, Bjerring speculates it could also include a commitment for CA*net 4. "By reading the tea leaves and watching the news reports, it does look like the Innovation Agenda would be a possible place for it."

Innovation agenda expected to drive demand for next generation network

News | 04/09/2001 4:00 am EDT

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