Fast La. Computer Network Due to Hire First Employee
Posted on: Tuesday, 1 February 2005, 18:00 CST
The management team organizing Louisiana's super-fast fiber- optic computer network is about to hire its first employee, the project's point man said Monday.
Bringing a full-time engineer on board marks the progress of the Louisiana Optical Network Initiative, the Board of Regents learned. The Regents approved the search last week.
Whoever is chosen for the spot will help organizers sift through proposals from companies hoping to lease underground tracks of fiber- optic strands to the state. Bids should be in by mid-February.
The tracks will link supercomputers at eight universities and make transferring data 100 times faster, according to Mike Abbiatti, who is in charge of the Regents' LONI project.
The first piece of the network should be in place by May.
"All of this is happening at a very rapid - but I would say judicious - pace," Abbiatti said Monday. "The whole structure is coming together nicely"The cutting-edge network will send information at the speed of light and will cost taxpayers $40 million over 10 years.
LONI will use fiber-optic strands that are already in place throughout Louisiana.
Supporters have touted it as an economic-development tool that will help the state pull down more federal grants and attract businesses that want to partner with research universities, among less-tangible benefits.
"In the long run, the biggest payoff for us is going to be in the way we see ourselves," Abbiatti said. "We have the intellectual capital statewide, now we'll have the infrastructure."
LONI will hook into a larger, national, high-speed network called the LambdaRail, a constellation of the country's fastest computers. By May or June, the national system should land in Louisiana - one of the 25 states in the nation to have a LambdaRail hookup - and at least LSU should be ready to connect, Abbiatti said.
LSU's SuperMike, one of the largest supercomputers in the nation, and the school's role as Louisiana's flagship university made it a natural choice for first to go online, but seven other institutions will link up as well.
Tulane, Southern, Louisiana Technical College, University of New Orleans, University of Louisiana at Lafayette and the health science centers at Shreveport and New Orleans are expected to sign on as the schools get the necessary hardware and software installed, Abbiatti said.
Network organizers are already shopping around for the proper components, he added.
"This network is going to be such a new cutting-edge type of network," he said. "It's just going to open up so many doors."
LONI Basics
Computer network that will link eight Louisiana universities
Will send information 100 times faster
Will connect Louisiana schools to supercomputers across the country through the LambdaRail
The first portion of the Louisiana Opticap Network Initiative should be complete by May.
Source: Advocate; Baton Rouge, La.
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