Ontario researchers getting new high-speed network as construction of ORION begins

Ontario has moved from laggard to leader in high-speed research network infrastructure with the awarding of a $25-million contract to construct ORION. Billed as the largest fully privately owned and operated research and education network in the world, ORION is the centerpiece of the province’s multi-pronged strategy to become a global Internet and electronic business hub.

When completed this May, ORION will have 22 nodes or points of presence (POPs) in 21 communities across the province, with optical fibre stretching 3,700 kilometres and linking all major research and educational institutions.

The contract between Bell Canada, several smaller firms and ORANO – the network’s not-for-profit owner and operator – is part of a $78-million commitment to facilitate high-end research projects, education-related activity and the testing of new applications and services in the province. The bulk of the funding ($32.3 million) comes from the Ontario SuperBuild Fund via the Ministry of Enterprise, Opportunity and Innovation (MEOI).

The SuperBuild funding requires matching contributions of cash or in-kind from other sources such as Bell, Nortel Networks, Cisco and Hydro One. An additional $3.4 million has been committed by CANARIE Inc as part of its CA*net 3 funding to assist advanced networking at the provincial level.

“Ontario was falling behind in broadband between institutions and this puts us ahead of a large number of colleagues and competitors in research networks,” says Phil Baker, ORANO’s president and CEO, and a veteran of government telecommunications policy. “This project is not just about putting the network in place. It is enabling infrastructure to do research and education more effectively and to stimulate innovation.”

The funding covers the cost of providing a backbone connecting the 22 POPs as well as $7 million in seed funding to assist institutions in building their connections to the network.

“The work has started already. We’ve taken delivery of optical and routing gear at a number of sites and most of the fibre is already in the ground,” says Baker. “There are a lot of people who are now seeing the potential of using the network.”

One proposed project is SHARC Net, a group of universities led by the Univ of Western Ontario and including the Univ of Guelph and McMaster Univ. The high-end project will use ORION to connect their computers for projects that demand high bandwidth. Other high-end projects could involve bioinformatics, high-speed computing and genetic modelling. ORION will also be used for test bed research by private companies and public institutions to demonstrate and test new applications and technologies.

ORANO was established as a not-for-profit corporation in July/01 and has developed a business model to become self-sustaining within three years from fees collected from members. In return for fees ranging from $12,000 to $45,000, members can connect to CANARIE’s backbone CA*net 4 network at any speed, facilitating a wide variety of research projects and educational uses.

Baker hopes ORANO will have more than 100 members by the end of 2004, which will generate approximately $2.5 million annually and make ORION operationally self-sustaining. Membership funding does not address ongoing capital renewal.

The urgency of establishing a provincial high-speed research network was first identified in a major report by Ontario Jobs and Investment Board, released in March/ 99. The initial commitment to build ORION was made the next year (R$, May 26/00).

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