Kasich Lights Upgraded Broadband Network
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Darrell Wallace likens the difference between the data transmission capability of the new OARnet 100-gigabit-per-second network and what was available before to the difference between broadband and dialup.
“This represents a tenfold increase in our data-carrying capacity within the state,” Wallace said.
Wallace, director of advanced manufacturing workforce initiatives for Youngstown State University and acting deputy director for workforce and educational outreach for the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Center, and YSU President Cynthia Anderson joined university officials and their guests across Ohio for Gov. John Kasich's remote broadcast to “light up” the new broadband network.
“When everyone had dial-up, the idea of being able to watch high-definition movies at home was unimaginable,” Wallace said. “By going to the current level of broadband, we can watch movies on a streaming basis effortlessly. That same order of magnitude increase is going to be enabled by this order of magnitude increase of data density.”
“This is like 4G times a billion,” the enthused Kasich said. “People don’t really know across the country about OARnet but they’re going to find out. People are going to want to flock here.”
The network’s 1,850-mile fiber-optic backbone connects the cities of Akron, Athens, Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Dayton, Portsmouth, Toledo, Wooster and Youngstown. Ohio invested $11.2 million for the upgrade, according to an information packet. At 100 Gbps, 300,000 X-rays or 8.5 million electronic medical records can be transmitted in a minute, and the data equivalent of 80 million file cabinets filled with text can be transferred daily.
“This data highway speed boost is a big win for Ohio,” remarked Tom Lange, director of corporate research and development modeling and simulation for Procter & Gamble in Cincinnati. Ohio’s supercomputing capacity and high speed network allow P&G to model and simulate products and production systems, enabling the company to lower costs and improve customer experiences, he said. For small and medium-sized firms, many of which are P&G suppliers, the data upgrade will give them greater access to use modeling and simulation for their products and production systems, helping them to become more competitive.
Michelle Greenfield, CEO of Third Sun Solar, Athens, noted her industry uses “massive engineering files” that need to be transferred.
“This represents a very dense data pipeline that allows us to exchange information with industry, with other academic institutions, with research partners on a level that we can’t currently do,” Wallace said. That will benefit both YSU as well as NAMII “because of the very dense data applications that we’re working with there,” he noted.
Copyright 2012 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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