ONE of the architects of the internet, Larry Smarr, is pushing for Australia's universities to roll out new superhighways to ensure that scientists and innovators are not left behind "the revolution in global research".
Professor Smarr said the internet protocol was 30 years old and designed for emails and small-file transfers but networks in Australia cannot transfer the data needed for research in fields such as genetics, physics and astronomy. A failure to overhaul campus networks would prevent Australian researchers from keeping up with colleagues and developments around the world.
"It is the equivalent of building an interstate freeway system in addition to country roads," he told theHerald.
"The problem is that over the years, because the shared internet was so successful, you did not have a chemistry or an astronomy internet. We have realised we need a fibre overlay in addition to the regular internet we use every day … If Australia's researchers are going to remain competitive they need a similar system."
Professor Smarr, who arrives in Australia tomorrow as a visiting scholar for the Australian-American Leadership Dialogue, will urge governments, universities and research institutes to set up their own "last mile" optic networks that can plug into labs and equipment such as microscopes and telescopes. Some universities have begun to do this and the cost for an upgrade of all campuses is estimated at tens of millions of dollars.
"In the past 10 years the world of research has changed," said Professor Smarr, the founding director of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology.
"Around the world researchers are doing wonderfully innovative research comparable to what was being done in the past only in the United States, Europe and Japan. If you are working in particle physics, just being in Australia is not going to cut it … You can only be a part of it if your network is on a par with networks in the US, Europe and Japan."
Professor Smarr called last year for a nationwide roll-out of a fibre-optic network and believes that installing campus networks with speeds of up to 10 gigabytes a second could be extended to homes and businesses.
He said Australia should be preparing for the eventual end of the resources boom by moving towards an innovative economy.
"An innovative economy starts in the universities and the research sector. They are like cities living in the future … inventing applications of these speeds that others will want when the costs come down. It gives you a three- to five-year view into the future."
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