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Trans-Pacific Agreement Between Pacific Wave and APAN to Increase Global High-Performance Networking

SEATTLE, WA and LOS ANGELES, CA – Representatives of Asia Pacific Advanced Network Ltd. (APAN) and Pacific Wave have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) building on their longstanding relationship by agreeing to promote their respective and mutual objectives by providing for appropriate collaborations and peerings between their participants/members.  They will collaborate on the development, deployment, and communication of network technologies, services and applications to support the global research and education community.

As part of this MOU, they will encourage the use and development of common standards and their technical implementations; the development of next-generation networking and applications in research and higher education; the encouragement of technology transfer to accelerate leadership in research and higher education; and collaboration with each other and government agencies and departments to promote and encourage the interconnection of advanced networks and deployment of advanced technologies around the world.

“The APAN membership is of enormous significance to global research and education, including CENIC members in California, and the Pacific Wave Internet Exchange provides the perfect venue to facilitate collaborations between APAN and other research and education networks in the Pacific Rim, the United States, and even Europe and South America ” said Louis Fox, President and CEO of CENIC, the nonprofit corporation which, together with the Pacific Northwest Gigapop, runs Pacific Wave with the support of the University of Washington and the University of Southern California.  “Strengthening the relationship between APAN and Pacific Wave in areas like collaboration, next-generation technology, and tech transfer will help maintain the Pacific Rim and their collaborators as major forces for innovation in the coming century.”

Pacific Wave is a joint project between the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC) and the Pacific Northwest Gigapop (PNWGP), and is operated in collaboration with the University of Southern California and the University of Washington.

With a total of five exchange points located in Seattle, Sunnyvale, and Los Angeles and connected by a 100G fiber backbone, the Pacific Wave international peering facility provides research and education networks throughout the Pacific Rim and beyond the opportunity to peer with one another, removing international borders as boundaries to network-enabled global collaboration and innovation.  Current participants represent networks and agencies from Australia, Canada, China, Japan, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Qatar, Singapore, South America, Taiwan, and the United States.  Many multi-national networks such as GLORIAD, NORDUnet (Nordic countries), and redCLARA (Central and South America) also participate, bringing the total of nations whose research and education communities can collaborate on network-enabled projects via Pacific Wave to more than 40.

About APAN • www.apan.net

APAN (Asia Pacific Advanced Network) is the name both of the network itself and of the non-profit organization created in 1997 to undertake the network’s creation and development on behalf of its members.  The APAN network is designed to be a high-performance network for research and development on advanced next generation applications and services. APAN provides an advanced networking environment for the research and education community in the Asia-Pacific region, and promotes global collaboration.  The international members of APAN represent the global research and education network interests in the countries and economies of Asia and Oceania.

APAN’s objectives are to coordinate and promote network technology developments and advances in network-based applications and services, to coordinate the development of an advanced networking environment for research and education communities in the Asia-Pacific region, and to encourage and promote global cooperation to help achieve these.  APAN also coordinates developments and interactions among its members and with international peering organizations both in networking and applications.

About Pacific Wave • www.pacificwave.net

“Pacific Wave was created by organizations with a vested interest in serving research and education along the West Coast of the United States, as APAN was created on behalf of the Pacific Rim,” said Pacific Northwest Gigapop CEO Ron Johnson.  “Enabling vibrant collaboration between our respective communities is among the most important ways we can serve them in today’s landscape of boundary-free innovation.”

“APAN was founded not just to connect devices but to connect people,” said Dae Young Kim, Chairman of APAN and professor of Information Communications Engineering at Chungnam National University in Korea.  “As an organization, we must build pathways for collaboration and cooperation as well as for fiber-optic cable, including those between academic and commercial researchers.  This will maintain not only network-dependent research but the network itself in its most cutting-edge state.”