December 1, 2017, the first 100G international research and education “backbone” network in Asia was launched

December 1, 2017 – NICT, NSCC and SingAREN, working together have completed a highspeed
100G international network linking Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan – infrastructure that
will be the backbone of the North to South-East Asia network for international Research and
Education Networks (RENs) in the region. This backbone will enable nodes in Singapore and
Japan to become Asia’s global hubs for trans-continental R&E connectivity at the fastest ever
speeds of 100G.
The link enables the research and education community to complete a new ring network, the Asia Pacific Ring (APR), across the Pacific between Asia and North America. (Refer to Figure 1 for the APR diagram.) The network will facilitate high-end research and education, bioinformatics, and supercomputing collaboration, for example, between the National Supercomputing Centre (NSCC) Singapore and the Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech), RIKEN, RIST and JAXA comprising Japan’s flagship research institutions. Researchers and scientists in Singapore and Japan can now collaborate and share data faster and more efficiently to derive research outcomes to benefit our community, e.g. in weather/ climate studies, advanced manufacturing and engineering, healthcare and biomedical sciences, robotics/ AI, machine-learning, big data analytics, and precision engineering.
The network, which was provisioned by PCCW Global, the international operating division of HKT, Hong Kong’s premier telecommunications service provider, is ten times faster than the current 10G networks in the region. The SingAREN and NICT network will make use of PCCW Global’s vast submarine cable capacity – providing fast, quality interconnections and network resilience for various RENs across the Pacific. Dr Fumihiko Tomita, Vice President, NICT said, “With this 100Gbps link between Japan, Hong Kong, and Singapore, NICT is anticipating further collaboration with international research institutes.” Dr John Kan, President, SingAREN said, “ With the establishment of the 100Gbps Research and Education network linking Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan, SingAREN looks forward to collaborating with our international partners to advocate joint advanced research, development, and education initiatives.”