COLUMBUS, Ohio, Dec. 12 – During an unveiling of the completed upgrades to OARnet's ultra high-speed fiber optic network backbone, Governor John Kasich showcased how the technology will create and enhance academic partnerships with businesses statewide.

Ohio has invested approximately $13 million to harness innovative technology that "opens the faucet" of Ohio's current broadband infrastructure from its current 10 Gbps capacity to 100 Gbps. This expansion leverages the 1,850-plus miles of fiber optic network operated by OARnet, a member of the Ohio Board of Regents Ohio Technology Consortium and a multidisciplinary research center under Ohio State's Office of Research.

Ohio Board of Regents Chancellor Jim Petro and Ohio State University President E. Gordon Gee shared the importance of the high-speed network, which is expected to advance research and job growth across Ohio's medical research, higher education, manufacturing, engineering and technology networking corridors. Petro and Gee were joined by university and business representatives from Akron, Athens, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dayton, Portsmouth, Toledo, Wooster and Youngstown, who participated via videoconference.

Also with the Governor were two businessmen who established companies in Ohio, in part, because of access to Ohio's robust statewide technology infrastructure. Ken Murray Jr., president and CEO, Transformatix, established a new company in Columbus to develop virtual microscopy technologies in collaboration with Nationwide Childrens' Hospital, and Ray Leto built TotalSim in Dublin, Ohio, to provide modeling and simulation services for automotive research and development ventures.

"When you're talking about modern health care research industry – medical imaging, genomics, DNA sequencing – you're talking about enormous data sets that require huge bandwidth," said Murray. "One reason we located our new company in Ohio, rather than California, is because Ohio demonstrated the most forward-thinking approach to technology and high-speed innovation."

The 100 Gbps network connects Ohio's major metropolitan areas to northern and southern connection points of Internet2, a nationwide advanced networking consortium led by the research and education community, spanning leading U.S. and international institutions in the worlds of research, academia, industry and government.

"I applaud Ohio Governor Kasich's announcement about the state's connection to the 100 Gbps Internet2 Network and platform that provides the state's researchers, students and educators with advanced capabilities," said Internet2 President and CEO H. David Lambert. "Our network recently recorded a real-time transfer of genomic data between China and the United States in 30 seconds rather than the current 24 hours it takes over the commercial Internet. It's easy to see how U.S. research competitiveness and global science collaboration in human genomics and other fields will be drastically enhanced by the Internet2 community's advanced technologies."

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Source: OARnet