Institution: University of Kansas Center for Research Inc.
This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
The Kansas Research Infrastructure Improvement Inter-Campus and Intra-Campus Cyber Connectivity project will increase the backbone bandwidth, reliability, and redundancy of the internet connectivity across Kansas. The institutions that will directly benefit include universities, 2- and 4-year colleges, school districts, libraries, hospitals, and museums that are engaged in informal science and technology education. The increased cyber capability provided by this project will facilitate multi-institutional research and research training collaborations and virtual organizations. Emerging cyberinfrastructure initiatives such as remote instrumentation, statewide and regional computing and storage grids, shared real-time sensor data and telepresence activities will be strengthened by this project.
Intellectual Merit The research and education initiatives that will be facilitated by this award are in the areas of ecological forecasting, climate change, and renewable energy sources. Ecological forecasting models are being developed through collaborations among researchers in Kansas and Oklahoma. The proposed upgrades would enable better communication among the researchers in sharing the data from different environmental sensing stations. Climate change studies include social, natural, and physical scientists and engineers from universities in Kansas. The work involves developing new model systems for understanding and predicting climate change scenarios using state-of-the-art modeling techniques that include climate and human variables. Renewable energy research focuses on efficient conversion of solar energy. Nanotechnology based solar energy conversion devices fabricated at different sites would be characterized through remote, interactive sharing of research equipment by collaborating universities.
Broader Impacts The enhancements to cyber connectivity will positively impact research, research training and education and facilitate interactions among a broad range of educational institutions in Kansas. This project is well aligned with the state interests in climate change and renewable energy issues. The Kansas Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research will be strengthened by the cyberinfrastructure investments. The project activities will train the next generation of network professionals and increase participation by Native Americans, African Americans, Hispanics and women in STEM disciplines. The outreach activities will reach beyond the academic sector to public and private sector stakeholders.
was to upgrade shared network infrastructure connecting Kansas institutions of higher education. The upgrades increase the backbone bandwidth of the Kansas Research and Education Network (KanREN) tenfold, from 1Gbps to 10Gbps and provide additional reliability and redundancy directly affecting 39 member organizations and hundreds of K-12 schools in the state. In addition to core network connectivity improvements, backbone connections for five research intensive universities at eight sites in Kansas were brought to 10Gbps. KanREN is a non-profit consortium of colleges, universities, school districts and other organizations in Kansas, organized for the purpose of facilitating inter-institutional communication and collaboration, and to provide connectivity to the Internet via a statewide Internet Protocol (IP) network. The upgrades directly improve the support for research, research training and education at a broad range of educational institutions in Kansas. In addition to aligning with the current Kansas NSF EPSCoR (KNE) RII Track 1 and the recently completed Track 2 initiatives as well as state interests in climate change and renewable energy issues, Prairie Light leverages additional outreach and external engagement initiatives by facilitating internet interactions between and among K-12 and higher education institutions. In addition to upgrading the KanREN ring to an all-optical 10Gbps network, eleven backbone nodes were upgraded providing access to all direct-connector institutions included in the original proposal plus one more, Washburn University in Topeka, KS. A diagram of the grid, including the new additions is attached as Figures 1 and 2. Figure 1 shows the original KanREN ring prior to the Prairie Light upgrades, and Figure 2 depicts the network as it is today. Through careful planning and negotiation with vendors a significant improvement in the outcome of the project was implemented. The connection to Emporia State University, which was planned to receive a second 1Gbps connection doubling its bandwidth to KanREN along the same fiber path as its existing connection, instead received an upgraded 10Gbps connection to KanREN with additional connectivity to Wichita State University. For no additional cost over what had been budgeted for the second 1Gbps connection Emporia State University is now connected at five times the planned bandwidth through much more reliable (diverse) fiber paths. Emporia State University is now provided with appropriate internal network changes to take advantage of this upgrade and will sustain the improved connection after the term of this grant. The improvements also add increased redundancy and connectivity at Wichita State University thereby providing backbone connectivity parity among the three research-intensive institutions in the state. Additional 10GigE Port capacities at K-State, KU, and Kansas City were also installed to take full advantage of the additional 10Gbps waves as integrated into the KanREN backbone. The two additional 10Gbps paths add greater reliability and offset high-volume science traffic around the KanREN backbone nodes at the KU, K-State, and the Intenret2 interconnection in Kansas City. The KanREN and Prairie Light projects are the primary mechanism by which research results and educational content reaches the people of the state of Kansas and beyond. As such Prairie Light has tremendous impact on transfer of knowledge from the participating institutions of higher education to the general public and to economic development interests in the state and region. The Prairie Light improvements to the KanREN backbone ring directly support the efforts of the 800+ member institutions of Kan-ed. Kan-ed is a Kansas statewide networking organization that encompasses two and four year colleges, most of the unified school districts and schools, libraries, and hospitals. It provides support for distance education, interaction between K-12 schools and institutions of higher education, as well as better connectivity between the state’s libraries, education institutions and museums supporting science and technology informal education opportunities.
