On May 11, the Brazilian National Research and Educational Network (RNP), the Academic Network of the State of São Paulo (ANSP) and the Florida International University (FIU) announced the delivery of the first international 100G connection between Latin America and the United States. The new interconnection, which links the cities of Fortaleza and São Paulo to Miami, is one of the components of the AmLight Express project, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), by the Research Support Foundation of the State of São Paulo (Fapesp) and by RNP, which is intended to provide a high-performance network infrastructure for scientific collaboration between both regions.

The 100G connection expands the international outflow of the Brazilian academic network, the Ipe network, and is added to the international channels that currently connect Miami to São Paulo. The links in the subsea cables are maintained by the AmLight consortium, which manages the international connections between the United States and Latin America, for educational and research purposes.

The group is formed by local, regional and national universities and academic networks: the Florida International University, RNP, ANSP, the academic networks of Chile (Reuna), of Florida (FLR), of the United States (Internet2), of Latin American Cooperation of Advanced Networks (RedClara), which connects the academic networks in Latin America, the Association of Universities for Astronomy Research (Aura) and telecommunications operator Latin American Nautilus.

According to the vice-president of FIU, Robert Grillo, the international 100G channel establishes new parameters for high-capacity and performance connectivity in the Americas and allows new scientific collaboration opportunities. One of the initiatives that benefited from it is the international Astronomy project Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), of which 50 Brazilian researchers are part. The LSST is a telescope being built in Cerro Pachón, Chile, scheduled to go into operation in 2022, which shall be able to map out almost half of the sky in six filters, for a ten-year period.

For the RNP’s R&D director, Michael Stanton, the links operated by the AmLight consortium are the main support for the collaboration between Brazil and the international community. “The adoption of 100G links this year represents an increase of the band capacity by up to 500%, which demonstrates the ample support to the growth of international scientific collaborations with intense data traffic”, said Stanton.

According to the ANSP project coordinator, Luis Lopez, the 100G channel operated by the AmLight consortium benefits over 50 teaching and research institutions of São Paulo connected to the ANSP, responsible for over 40% of the national academic production.

Source: AmLight