Asia Pacific Oceania Network (APOnet)
Internet2 joined 10 global research and education (R&E) networks from North America, East Asia, Southeast Asia, and Oceania in June 2021 to support the creation of a high-speed, trans-oceanic network services delivery system that is more resilient, flexible, and consistent than any individual network on its own.
Since then, APOnet has expanded to include 12 networks and organizations:
- Australia’s Academic and Research Network (AARNet),
- Arterial Research and Educational Network in Asia-Pacific (ARENA-PAC),
- Hong Kong Academic and Research Network (HARNET),
- University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development d/b/a (Internet2),
- Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information (KISTI),
- National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT),
- National Institute of Informatics (NII),
- Singapore Advanced Research and Education Network (SingAREN),
- Pacific Wave International Exchange,
- Research and Education Advanced Network New Zealand (REANNZ),
- TransPAC, and
- University of Hawaii (UH).
The scope of this collaboration includes enabling multiple paths between R&E networks, providing backup connectivity in case of network outages, coordinating engineering and management activities, cooperating on the deployment of emerging network technologies and services, experimenting with and developing applications that serve high-bandwidth demands, supporting shared routing practices and sharing of measurement data.
The APOnet collaboration builds on Internet2’s previous work from 2017 to 2021 with the Asia Pacific Ring, a collaborative science support facility used to connect the R&E communities of Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan to the R&E communities in North America via Seattle, Washington, and Los Angeles, California. The Asia Pacific Ring provided access to a resilient, high-speed network system in excess of 100 Gigabit per second through major areas of the Pacific, and was made possible by four separate R&E network investments from the U.S., Singapore, and Japan programs.