TransPAC5

TransPAC5: 20 years of partnership in the Asia-Pacific region

In fall 2020, the United States’ National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded Indiana University a five-year grant of $4.75 million to support TransPAC5 and research and education collaborations between the U.S. and Asia. This initiative extends a 20+ year partnership in the Asia-Pacific region and will enhance U.S.-Asia network capacity by providing multiple high-speed circuits plus end-to-end services and shared resources to support research.

International Networks at Indiana University will co-lead the TransPAC5 expansion. Dr. Jennifer Schopf, Director of IN@IU, is the Principal Investigator on the award. Co-Principal Investigators include Hans Addleman at IU and Bu Sung "Francis" Lee at the Singapore Advanced Research and Education Network.

An important distinction of TransPAC5 is that it represents a broad coalition of partners providing the foundation for the project’s networks and services. This includes the Asia Pacific Advanced Network and the Trans-Eurasia Information Network, large community organizations in the region, as well as the recently formed Asia-Pacific Ring collaboration, which consists of Internet2, National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, National Institute of Informatics/Science Information Network, Pacific Wave, Singapore Advanced Research and Education Network, and the Widely Integrated Distributed Environment.

In addition to continuing support for a broad suite of large-scale science projects, including high-energy physics, bioinformatics, and astronomy, TransPAC5 will facilitate end-to-end data transfers for researchers in any field of science. IN@IU’s staff members will actively support the collaborations to use the network most effectively. Any group working together internationally will be able to contact the IN@IU team for this assistance. The IN@IU project will use NetSage to measure and monitor network performance to resolve data transfer problems.

This award is part of the U.S. National Science Foundation's International Research Network Connections Core Improvement program. To read more about the award, including more quotes from partners across the Pacific, click here.

Read the press release