The Centre for Networking Technologies for the Information Economy (CeNTIE) and local communications carrier Flowcom have signed an agreement to provide a dedicated broadband link from the University of Technology to Artarmon, through Sydney's CBD. The link will allow optical wavelength division multiplexing and up to 10Gb data transfer along a -dark fibre", one with nothing else on it.
The deal is part of CeNTIE's project to link research, education and health organisations to demonstrate what technology can offer them in the future.
-The idea is for prime Australian industries to see what the future holds and adopt to the new technology quicker," Dr Terry Percival, director of CeNTIE told ZDNet Australia. -The link will be used to trial new ideas, facilitate research collaboration and explore tele-health. We hope to go into hospitals and trial with them."
-The leading-edge users we're trying to hook up are in the 'Global City' corridor," said Percival. Sydney's 'Global City' corridor is the number one region for wealth generation in Australia, according to the last State of the Region report. It runs from the technology-rich area around North Ryde down to the airport, via St Leonards and the CBD, and includes universities such as Macquarie, UTS and UNSW.
Infrastructure has also been laid in Perth.
-Some of the research will be adopted in coming years," said Percival. -We'll commercialise the results of this work." He gave an example of virtual reality training systems being developed that require a lot of processing power and, if done remotely, a large amount of bandwidth, which can be handled by the link.
-This was demonstrated recently when two people, miles apart, were able to work together on a virtual 3D object, each being able to feel the object and see what the other person was doing to it. At the same time they could use a studio quality video and audio link to communicate."
-This is the start of a revolution," said Percival. -The industrial revolution began in the 1800s, the manufacturing revolution began in the 1900s, and the knowledge revolution is happening now."
-If you look at the value knowledge workers bring to the GDP it's much greater than other workers. It's a growing trend, and that's why it's of such importance to Australia."
