This award is made under the high performance connections portion of ANIR's "Connections to the Internet" announcement, NSF 98-102. Researchers at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), in collaboration with the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville (UAF), have formed a consortium, ARKnet2. ARKnet2 is to make available high bandwidth communication resources and will develop an interstate high bandwidth connections network for university researchers, which will have connections to a national high bandwidth network.
The Arkansas Consortium plans to build a ATM-based ARKnet2 backbone from Little Rock to Fayetteville. Arkansas is a member of the Great Plains Network (GPN), which will share resources among six states that are all qualified for EPSCoR funding. The GPN will connect ARKnet2 to its gigaPOP in Kansas City and will provide access to the vBNS and federal agency networks.
Research supported by the resulting network access includes: seismic analysis, nanodimensional molecular device modeling, combustion analysis and computational fluid dynamics, microscopy and biotechnology advances, fetal magnetoencephalography, and studies of physiological effects of microgravity. Collaborations will involve facilities and universities including: NASA Johnson Space Center, University of Florida, University of Tennessee, Old Dominion University, Yale, Louisiana State University, Temple University, and Argonne National Laboratory.
