Gulf Central GigaPoP Network
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Frequently Asked Questions
| 1. What does GigaPop mean? | ||||||||||||||||
| 2. What is the purpose of Gulf-Central GigaPop? | ||||||||||||||||
| 3. What is GCG's contribution to our networking capability? | ||||||||||||||||
| 4. How can I benefit from GCG? | ||||||||||||||||
| 5. How was GCG launched? | ||||||||||||||||
| 6. What is Internet2 networks? | ||||||||||||||||
| 7. What can I do with Internet2? | ||||||||||||||||
| 8. Can you give me a statewide picture of GCG? | ||||||||||||||||
| 9. How does the GCG map and topology look like? | ||||||||||||||||
| 10. What is the central infrastructure of GCG? | ||||||||||||||||
| 11. How is GCG going now? | ||||||||||||||||
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"Giga" is stemmed from the word "Giga-bit". It implies high-speed. "Pop" stands for Point of Presence, which is a point on the network that other regional/local networks can connect to. |
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| 2. What is the purpose of Gulf-Central GigaPop? Back to top | ||||||||||||||||
| The Gulf-Central GigaPop Network connects Alabama to "Southern Crossroads", a national connection point in Atlanta, linking to UCAID/Abilene national network and NSF-sponsored vBNs national netowork, providing high-speed network connection to the research institutions within the state of Alabama. | ||||||||||||||||
| 3. What is GCG's contribution to our networking capability? Back to top | ||||||||||||||||
| To get an idea of GCG's contribution, we'd
better do a comparison. Before GCG was launched, the campus network
bandwidth ranged from 1.5 to 3.0 M bps (million
bits-per-second). And now, we have 155 M bps'
bandwidth for UA, UAB, UAH, and Auburn respectively;
45 M bps' bandwidth for Alabama A&M, Tuskegee, and South Alabama.
Prof. Willian Keel from the department of Astronomy at UA once said, "I just had a chance to use our new and vastly improved Internet connection. Over the weekend I was working with some collaborators at the telescope on Kitt Peak, near Tucson, Arizona. The detector was a CCD array of 8192 * 8192 16-bit pixels, 135Mbytes every time the shutter opens. To general astonishment, I could keep up with the data for 10-minute exposures." |
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| 4. How can I benefit from GCG? Back to top | ||||||||||||||||
| GCG provides high bandwidth network capacity, which benefits mostly such applications as high resolution audio and video, remote manipulation and virtual reality, distribution and use of large data sets, distributed computing, etc. | ||||||||||||||||
| 5. How was GCG launched? Back to top | ||||||||||||||||
| In 1997, campus connections to the
Internet used T1, which offered a bandwidth of 1.5Mbps. We had a lot of
problems with the Internet access. Both UA and UAB are charter memebers of
Internet2 association of research
universities. At Southeastern Universities Research Association (SURA)
meetings, Southern Crossroads (SoX) was organized......
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| 6. What is Internet2 networks? Back to top | ||||||||||||||||
| 7. What can I do with Internet2? Back to top | ||||||||||||||||
| 8. Can you give me a statewide picture of GCG? Back to top | ||||||||||||||||
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The figure on the left is a map of the state of
Alabama. The colored straight lines are connections between the research
institutions within the state. The connection speeds are as follows:
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| 9. How does GCG map and topology look like? Back to top | ||||||||||||||||
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| 10. What is the central infrastructure of GCG? Back to top | ||||||||||||||||
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| 11. How is GCG going now? Back to top | ||||||||||||||||
| Please visit our recent activities and news reports. | ||||||||||||||||