ANNUAL REPORT 2011

AARNet National Network

Darwin

Cairns

Townsville

Mackay

Rockhampton Alice Springs Gladstone

Maroochydore MRO

Geraldton Brisbane

Armidale Broken Hill Sydney Adelaide Mildura Victor Harbor Shepparton Key AARNet PoP < 155 Mbps Melbourne < 622 Mbps < 1 Gbps < 2.5 Gbps <10 Gbps WDM Transmission Hobart

02 A message from Deane Terrell, Chair 24 Chair Retires Content 04 A message from Chris Hancock, CEO 25 Welcome to Professor Gerard Sutton 08 Operating the Network 28 Reaching our communities 13 New products and applications 33 AARNet advisory committee 20 Our Team 36 Appendix A London

Beijing Seoul Tokyo Islamabad

Hong Kong Taipei Hanoi Mumbai Vientiane Phnom Quezon City Bangkok Penh

Kuala Lumpur

Singapore

Bandung

Cape Town

Perth

AARNet International Network Seattle

New York Tokyo Palo Alto San Jose Los Angeles

Honolulu Mauna Lani Quezon City Guam

Suva

Key Other R&E PoP Sydney Other R&E Network Auckland AARNet PoP < 155 Mbps < 622 Mbps < 1 Gbps < 2.5 Gbps <10 Gbps WDM Transmission AARNet - a confident and mature organisation, so difficult to achieve yet impossible to emulate Message from the chair

Dear Shareholders

It is with a tinge of sadness but with a great deal of satisfaction that I present my last Annual Report for 2011 to the Shareholders of AARNet.

As I reflect on my last 16 years as the Chair of AARNet and the high goals that we set when we established AARNet Pty Ltd as an independent company in 1989, the dominant and recurring image is of the extraordinary achievements of the Executive Management within AARNet who have continually realised our ambitions. Each year and every year I have watched the AARNet Management team working to exceed the expectations we have set, building thousands of kilometers of national infrastructure and expanding the reach of the network both nationally and internationally. We have developed products and services that have strengthened our communities and together, working with researchers and educators we have made a positive impact on their ability to innovate for the benefit of the wider Australian community.

My personal journey with AARNet started with my own research in time series and econometrics and my simple need to connect with the relatively few international colleagues around the world in the early ‘70’s. It was clear to me then, as it is now, that without communications the tyranny of distance would forever bedevil research in Australia.

We have aspired to be a company recognized for developing a world class National Research and Education Network (NREN); excelling as a trusted and loyal partner to strengthen the nation’s research and education capabilities; and creating exceptional shareholder value in the process. As the Shareholders, and owners of AARNet, we share a commitment to create from this value a better world.

In 23 years we have come a long way and these are exhilarating times for all of us who are committed to using science and technology as the instruments of change in our society.

2 I am proud of what we have built. I am proud They have not built AARNet for their own In the many annual reports that we have of the commitment of our Shareholders, and use, they have done so for generations of produced we have focused on our physical I am most proud of the open and trusted Australian scientists and educators all of scientists, physicists and astronomers, all of relationship between the AARNet Board and whom can now participate and communicate who have spoken of the importance of AARNet’s executive team. It has been an around the world and will continue to do so AARNet as the major enabler of collaboration. extraordinary achievement and a wonderful for many years to come. This year we are proud to showcase the work exemplar of collaboration. In comparing of our medical researchers, medical science AARNet to the NREN’s around the world, During the past two years, the Board has and education all of whom are increasingly while it is not the biggest; some NRENs been progressively developing three-year dependent on AARNet to achieve seamless particularly in Asia now have more rolling strategic plans, imposing greater connectivity to the rest of the world. customers, some have more products and expectations on management with a greater services - it is simply the best. It is the best degree of discipline and transparency. On behalf of the Board of Directors, our because it has something far more important Transparency and openness have always Executive Management and the Staff of than the sheer number of people it serves, been an underpinning philosophy of AARNet’s AARNet I would like to thank each and every far more important than the number of pair operations, and the cornerstone of the great Member of the AARNet community for his or kilometres it has built and far more important relationship with our customers. her contribution over the past years. I than the quantum of products it has express my sincere thanks to Professor Alan developed. AARNet has heart and strength During 2011, we sharpened the company’s Robson AM from the University of Western and that heart comes from the CEO Chris strategic focus on wider education and Australia, Professor Ian Goulter from Charles Hancock and the talented team who have health research opportunities that provide Sturt University, Associate Professor Richard built AARNet into what it is today – a great growth potential. Constantine from Swinburne University and confident and mature organisation – that is Mr JF Kropp, all of whom retired from the We finished the year with strong momentum. usually so difficult to achieve and almost Board during the year. We also welcomed Traffic between our customers well always impossible to emulate. Mr John Rohan and Mr Paul Campbell during surpasses that of the commercial internet, the year. Finally I would like to thank the In recent years the growth has been indicating the rise in collaborative Commonwealth Government for its support. extraordinary. Today AARNet is home to e-research. As a company, we are financially some of Australia’s most skilled network stronger than we have ever been in our I offer my successor Professor Gerard Sutton engineers and talented professionals who history, and we are capitalizing on the and all at AARNet my very best wishes for have had the foresight to invest wisely in opportunities in front of us. The financial the future. With the genuine cooperative long term sustainable infrastructure, the headline indicators following tell a story of partnership of our Shareholders, I am knowledge to architect and equip a world growth and sustainability. Record growth in confident that our past endeavours will class network, operating the length and internet traffic, improvements in productivity continue to inspire tomorrow. breadth of this vast country. It is their and a disciplined investment strategy have all dedication and sense of purpose that sets contributed to AARNet’s continuing ability to them apart. effectively manage its telecommunications charges to Members.

Deane Terrell AO Chair AARNet Board

Selected Financial Data 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 $m $m $m $m $m $m $m $m * $16.3m was earned during the year due to an IRU with Southern Net Assets $36.8 $43.5 $60.2 $65.1 $66.6 $76.6 $89.1 $101.3 Cross Cable Networks Net Income $11.2 $6.6 *$16.8 $4.9 $1.5 $9.0 $13.5 $12.4 ** (net assets $89,808,000 - less intangible assets $47,480,000) Net Tangible Assets $11.6 $19.5 $21.2 $20.8 $28.1 $34.9 **$41.6 #$49.1 # (net assets $101,317,946 less Cashflow from Operations $6.9 $10.8 $14.7 $19.2 $21.0 $26.3 $31.5 $22.4 intangible assets $52,264,422) 3 Building and Operating the Network The performance of the network continues to be outstanding with the key measure, of average network availability across all capital cities, coming in at 99.983% for the year. This was higher than the 99.95% target and translates into 1 hour and 28 minutes of downtime for the entire year. Even the January floods in did not affect overall availability as connectivity to Queensland was maintained throughout using a temporary, pre-emptive bypass circuit from Sydney.

Planning commenced for AARNet4 which will see AARNet move to the next generation 100 gigabit backbone to cater for exponential traffic growth in the research and education Our strategy comes to life… community. The rate of data transfer is fundamental to the way in which we now A message from the CEO live. It is commonplace for every member of society, but the demands of our leading 2011 marked the first year of AARNet’s new Strategic Plan and another year of researchers and educators far outweighs significant achievement for the company. But before outlining to you our anything we have witnessed in the past. performance against these key deliverables, I must acknowledge the end of an incredible journey for our outgoing Chairman, Professor Deane Terrell. Our Network Operations Centre (NOC) that we established in Perth and Sydney last year Every long and successful journey requires astute navigation, has developed into a professional service and congratulations must go to Deane in steering the course offering for our customers, with initial take of the AARNet ship in a decade of unprecedented growth and up showing enthusiastic interest. AARNet change. Strong Leadership has been the hallmark of Deane’s pushed the boundaries with a 100gig optical contribution to AARNet and his standards of excellence trial that replicated the path for the Square ensured that the AARNet Board and its Management team Kilometre Array (SKA) and conducted a “live” were in no doubt as to the level of contribution required. demonstration to Banff, Canada connecting telescopes across Australia and New Zealand As we look back over the history of AARNet, its successes to the Murchison Radio Observatory in and of the development of the , the name Western Australia with a sustained data rate Deane Terrell will figure prominently in those conversations. of 5.5 Gbps over a 12 hour period. Congratulations to Deane on a wonderful contribution, not only to the development of AARNet but to his contribution to setting the standards for the formation of a national icon in Australia’s technology landscape.

Once again the AARNet team delivered against its 4 key accountabilities:

4 Developing the Roadmap for Future In the video applications arena, AARNet Full credit must go to the energy and skill of Connectivity developed a desk top solution based upon the AARNET staff who have made a major Skype audio protocols with a company called contribution to the internet in Australia. The National Research Network projects Vivu and launched its enhanced conference AARNet was officially accredited as an NBN commenced with thanks to the Commonwealth scheduling service to facilitate the growing service provider and has worked on projects Governments foresight in injecting $38million demand for sector wide videoconferencing with IBES and ACBI to develop new to address networking “black spots” in the services. Interoperability is now the key technology solutions that will be a part of Australian Research and Education Network. agenda to ensure seamless connectivity to the rollout of the NBN. all the major vendor conferencing bridges. Detailed plans were established for the The array of video collaboration strategies Finally, in a year of achievements such as Sunshine Backbone Tails Project for across the sector varies enormously in scope those outlined above, is not possible unless Queensland, the outer Brisbane Metropolitan and to this end AARNet has established a you have a committed group of stakeholders link, the Sydney Basin Rings, the upgrade of “Unified Communications Exchange” with the supporting your activities. I must thank the AARNet’s Adelaide to Perth optical network, ultimate goal of allowing people to connect AARNet Advisory Committee headed by the Western Australian fibre rings and voice and video irrespective of the end user Richard Constantine and Paul Campbell, lighting the fibre from Perth to . device. By year end almost half of the CAUDIT and its Chair Paul Sherlock and the All of these are major construction projects shareholder institutions were actively a part CIO’s and IT Directors across the sector for scheduled for completion by the end of of this project. their astute leadership and support of 2013. AARNet also concluded the 400km AARNet. The AARNet Board has been fibre build for the CSIRO to Boolardy Station, outstanding in working through the tough the site of ASKAP and the SKA. Reaching new Communities issues and providing their continuing support AARNet has had an outstanding year in its and to our staff at AARNet; a sincere thanks AARNet continued its partnership with the for their magnificent efforts once again. Trans Eurasian Information Network (TEIN) engagement with the stakeholders that collaborate the most with our Shareholders. I believe we have the best technology people establishing a Korean domestically registered in the country and we could not achieve entity to ensure continued European This includes significant projects with schools, TAFES , the health sector and what we do without the dedication and drive Commission funding for the developing that our employees demonstrate each and countries of Asia. Australia’s major cultural institutions. This part of the AARNet strategic plan has been every day. AARNet worked throughout the year to an extremely valuable contribution to the secure IRU’s on the Regional Backbone AARNet community both from a content and Blackspots Programme (RBBP) to address a cost perspective. long term connectivity to Geraldton, the Northern Territory, Mildura and Broken Hill. Increasingly many private, Catholic and Chris Hancock Independent Schools across Australia are CEO joining the AARNet community allowing them Developing Leading Edge to interact with the outreach projects and Applications and Services engage with our national universities and leading cultural institutions. AARNet has always been at the forefront of future applications above the continues as a key mobility by providing efficiencies and cost benefits to differentiator and the Queensland Health the sector through the roll out of new Access Project proved an extremely valuable technologies. Cloudstor, AARNet’s new large exemplar of what can be achieved with the file transfer service was successfully bought connection of over 5000 staff and student into full production and by year end had over placements across the major hospitals in 2000 researchers sending large data files Brisbane. across the network.

5 The Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute Professor Richard Harvey and his team discovering a new population of adult stem cells in the heart for heart regeneration and repair therapies

Sydney researchers at the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute discovered a new population of adult stem cells in the heart, which could augment the development of new regeneration and repair therapies for people who have suffered heart attack or heart failure, the leading cause of death in Australia.

The team is led by Professor Harvey, Head of the Developmental & Stem Cell Biology Division at VCCRI (pictured opposite) and Sir Peter Finley, Professor at UNSW. “The first part of our study was the discovery and characterisation of a new population of multi-potent, adult stem cells that live in the heart – that is, stem cells that are extremely powerful in dividing, and responding to their native environment to form whatever tissue is needed for repair”.

“The fact that this new group of cells are multi-potent, and highly specific to the heart, gives us great hope that when we translate these cells into the human setting, they will work well at regenerating and repairing a broken heart – or a heart that has suffered injury through heart attack or heart failure,” added Professor Harvey.

Image courtesy of VCCRI. 6 Heart disease claimed the lives of over “We believe this population of cells are very AARNet provides VCCRI with opportunities 22,500 Australians in 2009, killing one high up in the stem cell hierarchy, and can to share, communicate and collaborate with Australian every 23 minutes. generate a number of progenitor cells that its peers nationally and internationally, would exist in a healthy heart, ready for enabling research and knowledge in heart The research findings come following recent action,” added Professor Harvey. “This could disease and cardiovascular biology research. reports in scientific literature and news bode very well for regeneration therapies that media that stem cells harvested from human are just beginning to be trialed around the Established in 1994, the Victor Chang hearts during surgery show promise for world with other populations of stem cells.” Cardiac Research Institute (VCCRI) is reversing heart attack damage. committed to excellence into heart disease Professor Harvey will be working as part of and cardiovascular biology research, This is the first time this new population of a new Australian Research Council (ARC) cardiovascular research training and stem cells has been formally described, and funded initiative, Stem Cells Australia, to facilitating the rapid application of research its origins clearly defined. explore the potential for these cells to discoveries to patient care. In Australia participate in cardiac regeneration. He says alone, heart muscle diseases - the cause of “These cells appeared to have the next step will be to characterise the heart failure - are responsible for the death characteristics that were very similar to human cells and test them in animal models, of over 130,000 people annually with 400 cells that normally live in bone marrow, before exploring the viability of clinical trials new cases being added each week. For more which acts as a reservoir for cells that can for patients who have had heart attacks or information visit www.victorchang.edu.au help to repair damaged tissue in many heart failure. It’s hoped this would begin in organs around the body. What we wanted to the next 3-5 years. know was, did these cells derive from those general bone marrow cells, or were their origins from much earlier on and specific to the heart?”

Using the mouse model, the researchers applied genetic tools that produce indelible marks to track the origins of cells from very early in embryonic development, right through to adulthood.

“We found that the adult heart stem cells have their origins not in the bone marrow, but in an early embryonic stem cell population that gives rise to the heart itself. This means that the functions of these adult heart stem cells are likely to be highly dedicated to that organ, and thus highly tuned to its regenerative processes,” continued Professor Harvey.

Regeneration therapies involve ‘waking up’ resident stem cells and stimulating them to migrate to the site of injury in the organ or tissue itself. This differs from cell therapies in which stem cells are extracted from the heart and grown in a tissue culture dish before being directly injected or infused into the damaged area. Professor Richard Harvey and his team at the VCCRI.

7 Battling the worst floods and cyclones in Queensland’s history Managing the network is our primary function. Our operations group and the Network Operations Centre (NOC) is the engine room of our organisation. Our focus on diversity Operating the Network and the fruits of AARNet’s strategy really paid off when a series of disasters hit Ensuring service continuity during a terrible year of Queensland. natural disasters Starting on 12 January, an ‘inland tsunami’ hit the town of Toowoomba with devastating Operational highlights effects on every aspect of South East Queensland’s infrastructure. AARNet’s • Battling the worst floods and cyclones in Queensland’s history inter-capital fibre west of Brisbane was • Extending the inter-capital Backbone with 10Gbps to washed away by one of the worst natural • Upgrading international capacity into Singapore and Fiji disasters in Australia’s history. At the same • Extending the life of AARNet3 time, the ever rising Brisbane River threatened AARNet’s PoP site at Gardens Point in the • Building many kilometers of fibre Brisbane CBD which caused Queensland • …and many more 10Gbps customer connections University of Technology to close the site; • Installation of the Google Cache potentially leaving AARNet without any connectivity into Queensland. AARNet’s • Promoting and supporting world IPV6 day engineers quickly established a temporary • AARNet appointed one of the first NBN Retail Service Providers fibre path around the flooded areas ensuring continuity of service to Queensland.

8 On February 2 severe Cyclone Yasi, with Incredibly, annual network reliability during datacenter in Hobart to deliver capacity winds of up to 290km per hour, damaged 2011 still delivered 99.989% uptime when commensurate with other capital cities in and took out of service Powerlink’s 132kV measured over 365 days x 24 hours, and as Australia. coastal electricity transmission network seen from our monitoring platform in Dallas south of Innisfail. Despite having capacity on Fort Worth in Texas. This is well in excess of Under an agreement with Basslink Telecoms, the above ground high voltage power lines, our target availability of 99.95% and this AARNet investment will enhance the AARNet’s network largely escaped without translates into only 1 hour and 5 minutes of research and collaboration opportunities for serious damage. While James Cook University outage over the entire year. its customers in Tasmania, to participate in took the precaution of closing their campuses, collaborative research of global significance; AARNet’s services continued without Total network traffic growth for 2011 was astronomy marine research, Antarctic disruption with the diverse inland backbone just over 40%, with On Net (Research and research and climate change. network to remaining unaffected. Education) achieving a healthy 60% growth and Off Net (commodity internet) The University of Tasmania’s (UTAS) Continuity in performance, and over such vast contributing 35%. The most dominant trend research community is actively involved in geographic distances, can only be delivered of 2011 traffic was the continued growth in astrophysical exploration, conducting by a well-architected network. AARNet has unmetered traffic as a proportion of total cutting-edge research in the areas of radio relentlessly pursued electrical and physical traffic, averaging 82% for the year and still astronomy, optical astronomy and cosmic diversity on all sections of the network, both trending upwards following the extension of ray physics. UTAS owns and operates two nationally and internationally to combat the the Off Peak classification to weekends radio observatories – the Mount Pleasant increasing weather events and outages coupled with the continued emphasis on Radio Observatory and the Ceduna which are completely beyond our control. peering with our major content providers. Observatory – which comprise 40 percent of Australia’s Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) network. Extending the inter-capital Backbone with 10Gbps to Hobart The increased bandwidth capacity in our network is expected to boost the ability to In March 2011 AARNet established a 10Gbps share data gathered by the observatories and link between its Point of Presence (PoP) site greatly benefit the broader research in and a new PoP at the PIPE community.

...continues on page 12

Brisbane Floods - Milton and Brisbane River.

Opposite page: Satellite image of tropical cyclone Yasi off the coast of Queensland.

9 This was new and ground breaking, being the first experience for CTEC to be connected to the advanced academic and research network in Australia. We strongly believe that AARNet will help the expansion APAN Medical Working Group of telemedicine activities both domestically and internationally.

Dr Shuji Shimizu and the APAN Medical Working Group teaching and We have also been able to expand our demonstrating advanced endoscopic procedures across Asia collaborations to the field of nursing. Our collaborators to date have been with doctors and it was truly exciting to see nurses AARNet was a founding member of APAN and has communicate with each other over the been a strong collaborator and supporter of many NREN. A teleconference was established in events during 2011. October between Australia and Japan to enable nurses to discuss differences and similarities in patient care, in different cultural backgrounds. The result was very successful with nurses seeking to have subsequent teleconferences with Malaysia, The first and the most exciting was the Singapore and Thailand. Westmead Endoscopy Symposium in March 2011 where live demonstrations of To date the APAN Medical Working Group, gastrointestinal endoscopy were transmitted has established links to 13 hospitals and from Westmead Hospital in west Sydney to institutions in Australia over AARNet and the Hilton Hotel in downtown Sydney. The held 30 teleconferences and live main venue hosted doctors who were able demonstrations following our initial to witness the skilled performing of collaboration with Flinders University advanced endoscopic procedures and Hospital in 2005. With the capability of high gastrointestinal endoscopy techniques. quality image streaming, which is key in Remote Asian countries and regions joined telemedicine, there is no doubt that this from Thailand, Hong Kong, Korea, and Japan advanced technology is essential for over AARNet and APAN networks to share continuous global medical education and the experience, techniques and interactive will grow further under the cooperation of discussions. The images transmitted were healthcare providers, engineers and national superb, enabled by stable 30Mbps Internet research and education networks around bandwidth. the world.

The second event of interest was the workshop for endoscopic ultrasonography in August 2011 demonstrating the newest examination techniques to explore disorders hidden under the surface of gastric or colonic mucosa. The main venue was Royal Brisbane Hospital which was connected to the Clinical Training and Education Centre (CTEC) in Perth as well as to Chulalongkorn University Hospital in Bangkok, Thailand.

10 Live demonstration of endoscopy from Westmead Hospital to the Hilton Hotel in Sydney, transmitted live over AARNet and other R& E networks to Thailand, Hong Kong, Korea and Japan. Dr Michael Bourke Chairman of The Organising Committee of Westmead Endoscopy.

11 Upgrading capacity into Singapore This build is through some of the harshest AARNet appointed one of the first and Fiji terrain in Australia, but necessarily so, for its NBN Retail Service Providers known radio quiet zone. With the demise of the APCN submarine cable AARNet has been well engaged with NBNCo between the North West of Australia and The crews building for AARNet suffered since its inception and was one of the first Singapore AARNet procured diverse capacity the heat, flies, locusts and floods. Our 6 Retail Service Providers to use the built from Sydney to Singapore via Guam connecting Infrastructure Development Team is a infrastructure through the Government’s to our all important TEIN hub in Asia. dedicated group of optical specialists who considerable investment in the National enable the significant growth in our optical Broadband Network (NBN). The first NBN In October 2011 AARNet upgraded capacity backbone and will be instrumental in the customer was the Cathedral School in from Sydney to Fiji from 155Mbps to ASKAP Project. who connected to AARNet on 622Mbps in a protected ring via Hawaii 31 August 2011. Our continued interest is to connecting the University of the South use NBNCo services to provide last mile Pacific and its outlying islands in the region. …and many more 10Gbps customer connections and staff and students in the connections NBN release sites and small research and Extending the life of AARNet3 AARNet continued to replace and upgrade education sites who do not have close customer connections from 1Gbps to 10Gbps proximity to the AARNet backbone. AAARNet3; the third generation of the extending capacity and performance out to AARNet domestic network, is now in its 8th the network edge, facilitating the ever year and continues to perform well. AARNet increasing bandwidth intensive applications. continues to extend its life with the sheer number of 10Gbps links and connections and improvements in diversity and redundancy. Installation of the Google Cache This year we continued to move content Building hundreds of kilometers closer to the user. In April 2011 we added of fibre 2 additional AKAMAI farms in Melbourne and Perth and extended the Google global cache While the network design builds in diversity program by installing servers in Melbourne, and redundancy across all elements of the Perth, Brisbane and Sydney. This significantly backbone, the last mile will continue to be a reduced latency between the content and significant undertaking for AARNet. We built the end user. more than 900 kms of dark fibre netting a great asset of some 15 million pair kilometers Australia wide. As well we have collaborated Promoting and supporting World with councils, with other carriers and utilities IPV6 day to build or swap fibre in order to connect AARNet promoted and supported the first customers in the most cost-effective manner IPV6 day on June 8 2011. IPV6 is the next and extend our reach to new areas. generation of and will This year we completed some major fibre overcome the shortage of IP address space builds in the Sydney Basin, Perth, and built as well as other refinements. Subsequently countless fibre tails for schools, cultural AARNet has peered with both commercial institutions and medical research in just and research networks using IPV6. AARNet about every State of Australia. AARNet also upgraded its video infrastructure to completed its longest single fibre build for support dual stack IPv4/v6 connectivity for the ASKAP Project, to a new radio telescope AARNet customers to be able to participate (the Murchison Radio Observatory), which in a worldwide IPv6 megaconference video has been designed and built by CSIRO, as an event as part of WorldIPv6 Day. important test-bed for the SKA.

12 AARNet’s National Video Conferencing Service continued New Products and Applications its impressive growth AARNet launched its new conferencing- scheduling platform mid year. The new Emmersive applications demand a Unified Communications eXchange service added greater functionality and to connect voice and video irrespective of end users devices support to schedule conferences, streaming and recordings on both Cisco (formerly Codian) and Polycom platforms, offering Cloudstor has been a real winner for researchers greater flexibility, capacity and redundancy options for customers. AARNet extended its After a thorough testing period, AARNet proudly announced in April the conferencing services to support mobile general availability of CloudStor, AARNet’s new large file transfer solution. and tablet video devices following close CloudStor has been a model development in collaboration with the participation in beta tests with the free Norwegian and Irish research networks. Android and IPAD2 based Polycom RealPresence applications enabling home Development is continuing with an ever expanding consortium; 12 different and remote customers to join via national research networks at last count, and there are more new features broadband, wifi and mobile networks. yet to come. ...continues on page 16 CloudStor is fully web based, which makes it immune to the quirks of email size limitations and firewall problems. CloudStor is hosted by AARNet, so foreign data and privacy laws do not apply and works by allowing users to securely upload files to a central storage node on the AARNet network. From that central point, a unique URL is automatically distributed by email to a list of recipients to allow them to download their file. So far, testing has confirmed the ability to upload files of up to 100 GB, but there is Above: AARNet Telepresence session. virtually no limit.

13 Flinders University Professor Colin Carati and Flinders University – Demolishing distance in education

Some knowledge is very difficult to acquire without meshing the eye, the hand and the mind in a ‘hands on’ experiential way. This is particularly true in the learning of a science such as anatomy, which only really gels after physical manipulation of 3 dimensional anatomical objects within a meaningful context, by content experts, tutors and mentors.

Students in Adelaide and in a classroom in Darwin (next page) work through complex anatomical relationships under the expert guidance of Dr Chris Lunam.

14 Accessing this type of learning environment creates a problem for distributed health education programs, such as those run by Flinders University. Flinders has ‘campuses’ from Darwin (northern NT) to Mt Gambier (southern SA), and in many regions in between. It covers the middle of the Australian continent, but much of the material and expertise required for experiential learning is based at Flinders’ largest campus, Adelaide, or distributed in a way that requires collaboration over great distances.

One solution to this ‘tyranny of distance’ is to use audio-visual technologies and Professor Colin Carati. advanced communications networks to share learning environments between remote venues. Prof. Ian Gibbins and his team at the Department of Anatomy have choreographed a learning environment that blends traditional mentored self-discovery Here students at Adelaide and a class in with modern audiovisual technologies to Darwin (opposite) work through complex extend the reach of the Anatomy facilities anatomical relationships under the expert at the Adelaide campus. guidance of Dr Chris Lunam. The location of the groups, or the expert, becomes Small groups of students work secondary to the shared learning experience. collaboratively within bays containing anatomy specimens and materials, linked Clinical simulation is another setting where through video capture and presentation physical manipulation of, and reaction to, equipment to allow interactions between simulated scenarios are required, as if they bays. Add remote links, courtesy of the are real. Using the Clinical Simulation AARNet network, and the anatomy class can network at Flinders, a clinical scenario can be extended over thousands of kilometres, be recorded in Mt Gambier in country SA, by replicating learning bays at remote sites. and relayed to any remote site for review by an expert, synchronously or asynchronously, depending on their availability. When mixed with additional contextual material, these interactions provide invaluable learning experiences for all those who participate.

By connecting through advanced networks such as AARNet, remote sites learn from each other, demolish distance and drive the democratisation of distributed education.

Colin Carati, Flinders University

15 University CIOs located in Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne engage in a video conference using multi VC platforms.

The rise of Telepresence AARNet officially joined as a member of the This is in addition to the current eduroam Open Visual Communications Consortium, a deployment at Mater Health Services South AARNet installed for Cisco a Telepresence global group of commercial Brisbane campus, which has 750 placements. Exchange service to connect Cisco telecommunications carriers and managed Telepresence units across the network and service providers that are engineering a The Queensland Regional Network Organisation world-wide. Polycom Telepresence suites services platform to enable a highly available, (QRNO) collaborated with the Queensland were deployed at AARNet offices in Sydney, highly connectable quality video and Department of Health to implement the Canberra and at Curtin University in Perth, telepresence conferencing experience. eduroam SSID on QH wireless infrastructure and the first Huawei Telepresence suite in across the State. AARNet assisted with the Australia was installed at AARNet’s deployment and provides the gateway Melbourne office. In September, AARNet Eduroam provides home base between the QH network and AARNet. connected Polycom and Huawei platforms access for 60% of Queensland together in an Australian first for University Health placements eduroam now forms part of the QH wireless CIOs located in Sydney, Canberra and standard, and will be released as the new Melbourne to engage in an immersive The Queensland Health (QH) Research Access wireless standard with the aim of full coverage experience with Dr. Tim Williams who spoke Project has been an important first for to hospitals in South East Queensland. about his research findings and how Australia. QH committed $2.3M over 2 years broadband will redefine Australian’s work to support the deployment and configuration and interactions using High Definition video. for eduroam to be approved for incorporation into the QH wireless standard. AARNet also participated in a number of initiatives to drive the uptake of the latest By 31st December 2011 some 5700 staff and web and social media solutions for student placements (about 60% of all QH community engagement. placements) had access to eduroam at Princess Alexandra Hospital, the Royal Children’s Hospital and the Skills Development Centre.

16 Leon Li conducting a QUESTnet SIP Workshop 2011.

AARNet delivered SIP workshops AARNet established a Unified AARNet extends the NOC as a A SIP technical “hands on” workshop took Communications Exchange service to Customers place at QUESTnet and in Malaysia to A trial service commenced for customers to Operating a Network Operations Centre (NOC) encourage the deployment of SIP based extend video calls beyond the enterprise to has long been a core competency of AARNet Voice and Video services across AARNet and other participating AARNet connected and last year the NOC moved to a fully other NRENs in the APAN region. AARNet and customers, irrespective of the vendor staffed 24/7 operation. Staff and facilities QCIF (Queensland Cyber Infrastructure product deployed. An early adopters’ are located in both Sydney and Perth. Foundation) co-hosted a series of workshops customer group (AIMS, CSIRO, Curtin, Deakin) Responding to interest from customers, to generate awareness of current services established SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) AARNet has developed NOC services into a and to consult on future collaboration service connections with the exchange and were new customer service offering. needs within the Australian research and making successful video test calls by the education community. year end. After a 2 month trial the Australian Catholic University (ACU) became AARNet’s first customer. AARNet monitors a range of hosts and services, including routers, switches, a VMware host and a DHCP server and produces a range of monthly KPI reports. ACU expects to achieve improved fault isolation, overall ICT availability and cost savings, through greater network visibility and information.

As NOC Services develop further, KPI reporting and trend analysis will lead to Bill Efthimiou and better capacity planning and fewer Leon Li - Malaysia SIP Workshop. incidents for each customer. University of Sains Malaysia. 17 New frontiers in medical research Stylised view of a stem cell surrounded by red blood cells Professor Martin Pera is the Program Leader of Stem Cells Australia and Chair of Stem Cell Sciences at the .

Stem Cells Australia Professor Martin Pera bringing together Australian scientists to tackle the big questions in stem cell science

Launched in November 2011, Stem Cells Through collaborations with Australia’s leading experts in bioengineering, Australia links Australia’s premier life scientists nanotechnology, stem cell biology, advanced in a seven year $21m Australian Research molecular analysis and clinical research, the Council Special Research Initiative. SCA initiative will explore the fundamental mechanisms involved in stem cell regulation and differentiation, and translate this knowledge into innovative biotechnological and therapeutic applications. Not only will this collaboration support excellence in stem cell research but will also lead public debate and discussion about important ethical, legal and societal issues associated with stem cell science. The unique multidisciplinary approach of this initiative will also foster and train the next generation of Australian stem cell scientists, cementing Australia’s future position in the field.

SCA has been established by the University of Melbourne, Monash University, University of Queensland, University of New South Wales, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute for

18 Heart muscle cells (shown in green), regress to a more youthful state after Medical Research, Victor Chang Cardiac AARNet is instrumental in facilitating SCA’s injury, start dividing again (indicated by a red marker) to replenish lost Research Institute, Florey Neuroscience collaborations with Australia’s leading experts cells and then mature a second time Institutes and the Commonwealth Scientific and all members of Stem Cells Australia by into cardiomyocytes. and Industrial Research Organisation. providing reliable, and high capacity internet communications delivered by AARNet members The University of Melbourne is the such as University of Melbourne, Monash Administrating Institute and host of Professor University, University of Queensland, Pera, who also holds the Chair of Stem Cell University of New South Wales, and customers, Sciences at the University of Melbourne. who work with Stem Cells Australia.

The key areas of scientific research include: Given the high profile of stem cell research, • Pluripotency and Reprogramming SCA also views public engagement and • Cardiac Regeneration and Repair research into related ethical and societal considerations as essential component of the • Neural Regeneration and Repair initiative and has established an Education, • Haematopoiesis Ethics, Law and Community Awareness Unit that will undertake important work in SCA’s research endeavors are supported by collaboration with sociologists and ethicists central infrastructure such as the dedicated from around the country. bioinformatics platform, Stemformatics, and a new computational approach to explore gene Visit the SCA website established to promote regulatory networks in stem cell the initiative and facilitate greater differentiation. understanding of Australian stem cell science: www.stemcellsaustralia.edu.au Walter and Eliza Hall Institute Dr Tony Papenfuss at WEHI – Bioinformatics is making sense of massive data sets

Melbourne’s Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, Australia’s oldest medical research institute, is home to scientists studying some of the newest fields of biology. More than 40 researchers in the institute’s Bioinformatics division are developing methods to analyse huge volumes of data derived from biological experiments.

Genomics — the study of the entire DNA “We are now expanding this work to content of cells — is one area which analyse metastatic tumours which have increasingly requires input from spread from the main ‘primary’ tumour bioinformaticians to make sense of huge to other parts of the body. This may volumes of data. Over the past three provide information about how cancer years, Dr Tony Papenfuss has focused on transitions from a single solid mass to a analysing genomic sequences derived potentially harder-to-treat metastatic from human tumours to provide insights disease. It may also explain why some into the causes of and potential metastatic tumours are unresponsive to treatments for cancer. treatment.”

“We are collaborating with clinicians and Each genome sequence generates a researchers at the Peter MacCallum compressed file of around 100 gigabytes Cancer Centre to obtain sequences of the (equivalent to the amount of data held genomes of tumours taken from a on about 150 CDROMs). The project has variety of cancer types,” Dr Papenfuss expanded to now sequence up to eight said. “Initially, we just compared the samples per patient, generating as much tumour genome with the genome of the as 800 gigabytes of data. High speed and normal, non-cancerous cells to reliable internet connections are determine genetic changes which essential for the transfer of these Dr Tony Papenfuss, a bioinformatician at the occurred during cancer development.” massive files from the Peter MacCallum Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, analyses tumour Cancer Centre to the Walter and Eliza genome sequences to discover changes that Hall Institute for analysis. lead to cancer development. Picture credit: The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute. The genomes of tumours are being analysed by bioinformaticians at “Our experiments are limited by the cost of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute to discover how cancers develop. sequencing each genome, and the time it Picture credit: WEHI.TV, The Walter takes,” Dr Papenfuss said. “In 2003, the and Eliza Hall Institute. completion of the first human genome sequence was announced. This followed 13 years of work and billions of dollars of investment in the Human Genome Project. The reductions in sequencing costs and time required to sequence a genome since then have really been amazing.”

“Our projects are becoming more complex, and involving larger amounts of data. Our data transferring capacities have to keep up with this. For this reason, the institute affiliated with the University of Melbourne, values the services and network capability provided by AARNet, enabling the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute with reliable communications to transmit research data and collaborate with its peers and researchers.”

19 QUESTnet 2011.

Our Team

The Organisation The AARNet Board of Directors AARNet Pty Ltd [ACN 084 540 518] is the not-for-profit company that The Board of Directors is responsible for the operates the AARNet network, providing high-capacity Internet services to overall direction of AARNet and for providing Australia’s universities, research institutions including CSIRO, DSTO and benefits to the Shareholders as required ANSTO, and many other related organisations. Shares in AARNet Pty Ltd under the Constitution. [AARNet] are held by the thirty-eight Australian Universities and the CSIRO as listed in Appendix A. AARNet is a licensed Australian telecommunications carrier [#61 under the Telecommunications Act 1997 Cth]. Our role in managing the AREN AARNet is Australia’s National Research and The Chief Executive Officer reports to the Board of Education Network [NREN]. As the owner and Directors listed in Appendix A. The AARNet Advisory operator of the network infrastructure, Committee [AAC] represents the interests of the Members AARNet’s primary function is to manage all and is a source of advice on policy and business matters. layers in the national network. AARNet is the Regional Network Organisations, which are generally state managing operator of the Australian based, elect one representative to the AAC. Research and Education Network [AREN]. From time to time this is a co-coordinating and management role aggregating the interests of the various initiatives such as the National Research Network.

20 …And our team The AARNet Infrastructure team is an AARNet staff as at December 2011 established and skilled group providing The skill of our people and the culture they expertise and connectivity to our customers Australian Capital Territory - 7 have created, has resulted in a small nationally. effective group of highly motivated, dedicated and expert staff. The CEO, together AARNet continues to work with user New South Wales - 26 with the Executive Management Team has communities in many ways, to draw on the transformed the strategy of the organisation, collective expertise of universities, research resulting in one of the largest operational organisations and industry. footprints of any national research and education network in the world. Queensland - 7 Important Publications As at December 2011 the total number of • AARNet Strategy staff in AARNet was 58; the growth in our http://www.aarnet.edu.au/about-us/ South Australia - 1 numbers reflects the need to efficiently publications.aspx resource the organization for improved customer service and infrastructure growth. • Previous Annual Reports Owning and operating our own infrastructure http://www.aarnet.edu.au/about-us/ - 7 has transformed AARNet into an asset owner publications.aspx and operator and with this capability AARNet • AARNews requires skilled and competent network and http://www.aarnet.edu.au/about-us/ Western Australia - 10 infrastructure resources, to continue to publications.aspx deliver to our customers freedom of • AARNet’s Access Policy connectivity not previously seen in Australia. http://www.aarnet.edu.au/about-us/ Total = 58 policies.aspx AARNet will continue to require higher financial resources and a greater number of • AARNet’s Peering Policy expert and skilled staff for long-term planning ht tp://www.aarnet.edu.au/about-us/ and operation of the network in order to policies.aspx meet the growing dependence on networking technology for research and education. In parallel AARNet will continue to foster and develop its technical staff and management who are working to deliver enhanced customer service, network and infrastructure growth to the Australian research and education community.

During the year AARNet staff participated in national events such as QUESTnet 2011, the AusCERT conference and a number of international conferences and meetings, representing Australia in international research and education forums including TEIN APAN and TERENA.

24x7 NOC – Since its introduction in 2010, AARNet continues to provide steady proactive Network Operations and monitoring services through its 24x7 NOC team and services. QUESTnet 2011.

21 The Vision CRC Australian researchers at the Vision Cooperative Research Centre are leading the charge to tackle the myopia ‘epidemic’ PhD student Cathleen Fedtke working on the optical bench in the technology lab to assess an objective refraction method; photo courtesy of Australian researchers are developing an effective Brien Holden Vision Institute. treatment for the estimated 1.45 billion (3.5 million Australians) people who need vision correction for the condition myopia (or short-sightedness) – one of the most common eye conditions and one which is rapidly growing in prevalence.

22 In 2010, researchers at the Brien Holden Vision Institute and Vision Cooperative Research Centre (Vision CRC), both based at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney, developed an innovative new spectacle lens that may help address the explosion in myopia numbers worldwide.

Myopia causes difficulty in seeing distant Optometrist conducts eye objects clearly and is commonly first examination at the Institute’s clinical detected amongst school children aged six to trials Centre; photo courtesy of Brien Holden Institute. seven. If undetected and uncorrected, myopia can severely impact a child’s education and social development. High myopia (over -6.0D) significantly increases the risk of cataract, glaucoma, and retinal detachment, all potentially blinding conditions.

The lenses demonstrated an ability to the slow the rate of progress of myopia by 30% in children six to 12 years of age, where the The organisations are also involved in Preceding the Vision CRC was the child had a history of parental myopia. The efforts to deliver eye care to people in need Cooperative Research Centre for Eye spectacles, released commercially as the worldwide and provide postgraduate research Research and Technology (CRCERT), MyovisionTM lens by partner and industry training in the areas of vision research, established in 1991 at UNSW. With a giant Carl Zeiss Vision, won an Excellence in science and public health for outstanding stronger focus on Australian partners – Innovation Award in 2011 from the students from around the world. including the CSIRO and several other Cooperative Research Centres Association. university based organisations – CRCERT Originally established in 1976 as the Cornea was perfectly placed to capitalise on the AARNet has enabled the Vision CRC and and Contact Lens Research Unit at UNSW, new possibilities for collaboration offered by Brien Holden Vision Institute to bring the Institute (and, since 2003, the Vision the AARNet network. Its research successes, together leading researchers and industry CRC) have benefitted greatly from the such as the development of the organisations from the U.S., China, India and capabilities created by AARNet. The breakthrough silicone hydrogel contact lens Australia, to collaborate in the myopia communication possibilities it facilitates (which now accounts for more than 25% of programme, and further partners and with its global partners and access to online all contact lenses sold and has delivered humanitarian organisations to participate on resources are key to co-ordinating the over $150 million in royalties to Vision CRC other research projects to deliver cutting-edge research that the Institute and partners), have been underpinned by this. breakthrough vision correction solutions to Vision CRC have been able to pursue. the most common eye conditions.

23 Emeritus Professor Deane Terrell AO and AARNet’s inaugural Chair retires after 16 years

Rhodes Scholar • Officer of the Order of Australia • Chairman, The CEO Mr Chris Hancock paid a personal tribute to Deane “Deane has not only performed General Sir John Monash Foundation Investment Committee • the role of a highly astute Chairman to me as a Chairman, Board of the Sir Roland Wilson Foundation • Chairman, CEO who joined AARNet, and new to the higher Canberra Symphony Orchestra • CEO, Quarry Hill Wines education sector, but he provided me with significant personal mentorship that has allowed me to grow and develop in the role of CEO. It is hard to remember a time in AARNet without Professor Deane Terrell. Deane has From AFL player to the Symphony Orchestra to steered AARNet for some 16 year of its winemaking, Deane’s interests and achievements 23 years, firstly as Chair of the AARNet Board are too numerous to list and he is delighted to of Management under the AVCC then as the welcome Professor Gerard Sutton as the new inaugural Chair of AARNet Pty Ltd following its Chair of the AARNet Board. incorporation in 1998. The last words must go to Deane - This has been a period of immense growth and “There is no doubt that AARNet has change; from a handful of people to over 50 grown strongly and the research and and through many cycles of technology that have built AARNet into one of the largest and education community is the beneficiary most physically diverse National Research and - I could not be leaving AARNet in more Education Networks in the world. capable hands”.

24 Professor Terrell at Admiralty House at the launch of the book AARNet - 20 years of the internet in Australia.

We welcome Professor Gerard Sutton

AARNet is most fortunate to have Professor Gerard Sutton as the second Chair of the AARNet Board. Gerard who last year retired after 17 years as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Wollongong is delighted to be back on the AARNet Board having served as a Director from 2000 to 2004.

These were the years of great change for Gerard has an engineering background and AARNet and Gerard widely credits the before moving into senior administrative Commonwealth Government’s investment in posts he worked as a naval research AARNet “as one of the most significant scientist. His career included a period as a investments the Commonwealth has made Visiting Research Scientist in the Admiralty for education in Australia”. Underwater Weapons Establishment in the United Kingdom. Gerard is an admired and respected leader with a great commitment to the cause of At his farewell from the University of education. Before taking over the role as Wollongong, NSW Governor Professor Marie Vice-Chancellor, Gerard was Deputy Bashir remarked “Professor Sutton’s Vice-Chancellor at UOW and earlier was engineering background clearly played a role Foundation Pro Vice-Chancellor at the in his success. “Engineers are the quiet University of Technology, Sydney (UTS). His achievers,” she said. “They keep the world great interest in technology lives on in such running without wanting to be thanked initiatives as the Innovation Campus, the – and that epitomises Professor Sutton.” Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute and SMART Infrastructure Facility Professor Sutton was awarded an Officer of that will serve the University of Wollongong the Order of Australia (AO) as part of the and the Illawarra community for generations 2008 Australia Day Honours. to come.

25 Genomics is emerging as a major consumer of international bandwidth and is making major headway. Genomics is making major headway in our understanding of the causes of many common human diseases. With a new genomics centre of excellence at our Institute, cutting-edge sequencing genotyping and proteomic technologies are being used to research a myriad of complex diseases including cancer, arthritis, diabetes and other chronic diseases.

The University of Queensland Diamantina Institute is home to the UQ Centre for Clinical Genomics; the most sophisticated and largest human genomic facility in the southern hemisphere. The Centre embarks on truly impressive cutting-edge genetics and genomics studies to better understand the complex interplay of genes, the environment and physiology in the development and progression of disease.

UQDI Research Assistant Jessica Harris sets up a microarray staining and extension reaction on a Tecan robot. 26 The University of Queensland Diamantina Institute Professor Matt Brown and his team using genomics to make major in-roads into understanding the causes of common human diseases

The Centre provides an extremely valuable Researchers focus on chronic disease states The Institute investigates the developmental resource for the Australian genetics, and conditions that grossly affect a human causes, as well as diagnostics, treatment and bioinformatics and systems biology being’s ability to live life, including cancers, prevention of a range of diseases including communities and provides training and arthritis, diabetes, bone and joint diseases cancers, diabetes, infection and arthritis. career development opportunities for young and the body’s ability to respond to infection. researchers who would otherwise have to UQDI’s unique approach has enabled us to AARNet enables The University of seek career opportunities overseas. The UQ develop global and world-changing discoveries Queensland Diamantina Institute to share Centre for Clinical Genomics subsequently such as the world’s first cervical cancer their research and foster the exchange of provides a sophisticated suite of vaccine, pioneered by UQDI researcher and ideas and collaborate across the world and technologies and capabilities that underpin 2006 Australian of the Year, Professor Ian nationally in genetics and genomics studies, the Institute’s exciting advances in the area Frazer, and clinical trials for the world’s first by providing high capacity, reliable of genomic medicine. Rheumatoid Arthritis vaccine. networking and communications.

The University of Queensland Diamantina www.di.uq.edu.au Institute is a world-leading biomedical translational research facility, bringing together leading biomedical researchers with clinician scientists, creating a nexus of expertise driven to translate the findings from model systems to the development of novel therapies and clinical practice.

Based on the Princess Alexandra Hospital campus in Brisbane, UQDI provides an innovative research environment by stimulating interaction between biomedical, clinical researchers and clinicians, with the shared vision of discovering new ways to treat and prevent disease.

Professor Matt Brown (Director) and his student are studying laser images of microarray chips on the Illumina Beadarray scanner. 27 Cathedral School in Townsville, Queensland connected to AARNet via an NBN connection, collaborating with Questacon in the ACT.

An opportune investment in building a fiber path up the North Shore of Sydney enabled AARNet to connect most of the independent schools including Monte Sant Angelo, Wenona, Knox Grammer, Ravenswood, Pymble Ladies College, Abbotsleigh, and Barker. Other schools Reaching our communities include PLC Croydon, The Kings School, Newington, Chavalier College and Southern AARNet becomes a community of “well connected schools” Highlands Christian School.

In Victoria more than 70 schools are Many hundreds of schools benefit connected through the Victorian Association from an AARNet connection of Independent Schools. In Tasmania schools such as The Hutchins School, Friends, AARNet continued its engagement with Launceston Grammar, Launceston Christian schools, and special education content School, St Michaels Collegiate, and St providers to bring together a national network Patricks, all now benefit from access to of ‘Well Connected’ schools, the first of its AARNet’s 10Gb circuit on Basslink. In the kind in Australia. More than 700 schools are ACT, apart from the ACT DoE , directly now connected to AARNet in a variety of connected schools include Brindabella ways. The most beneficial is dark fibre, College, Radford College, and the Catholic consistent with higher education. Providing Diocese. In Queensland a range of private schools with this level of capability has schools including John Paul College, ignited a paradigm shift in the way teaching St Aidans, and St Peters Lutheran are also and learning is provisioned and accessed. directly connected to AARNet.

28 QUESTnet K12 Stream For these sessions the medium is the Clickfest message, the power of the network to bring AARNet again hosted a K12 stream at this together young Australians to engage directly Clickfest is designed to connect regional year’s QUESTnet Conference on the Gold with those in positions of responsibility in schools throughout Australia with specialists Coast in July. managing issues that directly impact their lives. in various fields of study using high definition videoconferencing. This immersive As in previous years the highlight of the K12 The inaugural Digital Outreach Stream was an technology enables students to learn from stream was the student collaboration sessions. exciting extension to QUESTnet and was experts across Australia as if they were in This year there were two sessions each structured to bring together a broad national the same room. As part of the Clickfest bringing together presenters and students representation of Museums, Libraries, program, AARNet partnered with the NSW from Tasmania, Victoria and New South Historic Trusts, Cultural Organisations, Department of Education and Training (NSW Wales via High Definition videoconferencing. Education Systems and Vendors to share DET) and the Australian Museum to deliver their experiences in establishing Digital interactive video content to schools. The first session titled ‘Why Music Matters’ Outreach programs. brought together Sabiene Heindl (Music To mark the official launch of Clickfest, Industry Lawyer) and Nick O’Byrne (Australian This event was the first national forum of AARNet hosted a national videoconferencing Independent Record Labels Association this community who pushed their specialised session which engaged students in sessions Executive and Musician) to discuss with knowledge resources into classrooms and involving explosive science experiments, students issues around intellectual property, lecture theatres both nationally and talking to Dinosaurs and contributing to a creativity and music distribution. internationally. Presenters included NSW DET discussion with researchers on the problem Connected Classrooms, National Film and of the Tasmanian Devil Facial Tumour In the second session entitled the ‘21st Sound Archive, Great Barrier Reef Marine Disease. The interactive lesson was streamed Century School’ the discussion was led by the Park Authority, Australian Museum, History simultaneously to remote schools throughout Minister for School Education, Early Childhood SA, Field of Mars, Questacon and Polycom. the country and signified the inaugural and Youth, the Hon. Peter Garrett. Sadly there collaboration of the first four schools were no ‘Midnight Oil’ performances. connected to the National Broadband Network (NBN).

AARNet utilised its high capacity network and National Video Conferencing Service to connect students to a wealth of learning experiences from high profile organisations such as the Australian Museum, Powerhouse Museum and the Historic Houses Trust.

The Clickfest launch was attended by regional schools located throughout Australia including some already connected to the AARNet network via the National Broadband Network (NBN) including Presbyterian Ladies College (Armidale, NSW), The Cathedral School (Townsville, QLD), Willunga High School (SA), Circular Head Christian School (Smithtown, TAS) and Bees Creek Primary School (NT).

...continues on page 32

K12 Stream at QUESTnet 2011, with Ivanhoe Grammar (VIC), Bowral High School ( NSW) and Hutchins School (TAS) participating. 29 The HEARing CRC The Hearing Cooperative Research Centre on a mission to reduce the economic and health impacts of hearing loss

The HEARing Cooperative Research Centre (HEARing CRC) is an internationally unique consortium of research, clinical and industry organisations, comprised of five core and 21 support members. Its mission is to reduce the economic and health impacts of hearing loss through more effective prevention and improved remediation.

The HEARing Cooperative Research Centre has a proud track record in innovation including the development of technologies behind advances in Cochlear Implants and hearing aids. It continues to contribute to industrial, commercial and economic growth in Australia by identifying new commercial pathways for its advances in hearing technologies and clinical practice.

The HEARing CRC is also developing new strategies and tools to change the behaviour of Australians to make them more aware of the dangerous listening environments that cause hearing loss. In 2005, hearing loss was estimated to cost the Australian economy about $11.75 billion.

Headquartered at Core Member, The University of Melbourne’s Department of Audiology, Hearing and Speech Sciences, the HEARing CRC management team oversees its research and commercialisation activities with its many collaborators (Members) throughout Australia.

Having access to reliable information technology infrastructure is integral to its daily communications such as teleconferencing Anatomically correct human hear model and video conferencing. AARNet is a key showing semi-circular canals and cochlea contributor to those functions enabling not of the inner ear, auditory ossicles from the only communications but collaboration across middle ear, tympani membrane and temporal and tympani muscles. core members of the Hearing CRC which include Cochlear Ltd, Macquarie University, Australian Hearing, Siemens and the University of Melbourne. 30 The HEARing CRC anticipates its use of HEARLab™’s Aided Cortical Assessment (ACA) AARNet will increase through the test measures the electrical activity that HEARLab™ can accurately incorporation of cloud computing occurs in the auditory cortex when a sound measure a baby’s ability to hear opportunities in the near future. Already, is detected. This means that babies as well the sounds of speech, with or without wearing hearing aids or the HEARing CRC has set up a collaborative as adults, who are unable to respond Cochlear Implants. cloud environment for the development of verbally to test signals, can now be assessed. online content for HEARnet – a website designed to increase the use of HEARing CRC HEARLab™ is becoming a valuable device for research and create a greater understanding hearing health professionals enabling them of how hearing loss can be prevented. to determine whether a baby is able to hear speech. Early detection of hearing loss and HEARLabTM the type of hearing loss, in infants means that children receive hearing remediation The HEARing CRC has developed a world- and follow a normal pathway to language first device called HEARLab™ that accurately development and learning. measures a baby’s ability to hear the sounds of speech, with or without wearing hearing The device is now being rolled out nationally aids or Cochlear Implants. through the paediatric centres of HEARing CRC Core Member, Australian Hearing. Developed by the National Acoustics Laboratory (the research division of HEARing CRC Core Member Australian Hearing), 31 AARNet focuses on education all who use these connections to access the Research Partnership to explore the outreach and content rich services AARNet National Video Conferencing Bridge. NBN opportunities AARNet now has a well defined engagement Critical to the success of the SCEN is their AARNet partnered with researchers at the model focusing not only on connectivity but conduct of regular weekly sessions covering University of Melbourne’s Institute for a on the teaching and learning benefits of high developments in research and patient care. Broadband-Enabled Society (IBES) to explore band-width. With a body of newly connected Given the geographical separation of the key the opportunities presented by the National schools and their access to the ‘culture clubs’ members and their home campuses, the Broadband Network in Health and Education. such as the Victorian Cultural Network SCEN recognized a need for high quality AARNet will connect a number of homes comes the opportunity to demonstrate the videoconferencing capabilities between the using the NBN, back to the Australian benefitsof connecting to AARNet. AARNet has sites. These capabilities critically needed to Broadband Applications Laboratory at IBES. recently welcomed the Powerhouse include the transmission of high quality Museum, the National Maritime Museum, the streams of EEG data, DICOM and jpeg images Parliamentary Education Office, the Bradman as well as conventional PowerPoint slides for Customer Forums provided valuable Museum, the State Library and National heath education. insight into customer needs Gallery in Victoria and many others. Our thanks to the University of NSW and the Each year AARNet’s customer forums bring This not only provides exciting learning University of Sydney both of whom together a variety of IT professionals and end opportunities for children but contributes encouraged the connections and made users [academics and researchers] from content to the world’s education sector in an available their fibre infrastructure to enable AARNet customer organisations in each un-metered manner. Over the last year AARNet the completion of the circuits. State. These customer forums provide has also connected specialist education service valuable feedback on current AARNet providers such as Scootle, The Learning services, the performance of these services, Federation, Mathletics, Openwonderland, eResearch Australasia and the applications and services being considered for future development. Teachers TV and many more. The 5th annual eResearch Australasia Conference took place in Melbourne from 6-11 Five real time communications road shows November, with over 500 delegates and a took place again in 2011, with keynote NSW State-wide Complex broad spectrum from Deputy Vice-Chancellors Epilepsy Service addresses accessible live via video. Last year to software developers, from a range of tangible feedback resulted in AARNet Academic teaching and epilepsy services in institutions in Australia and New Zealand. extending the off peak charging model from New South Wales like many other medical 5pm to 9am to encourage usage away from The Conference followed closely on the super specialties has grown out of a mosaic the peak periods of the day, on which AARNet release of the 2011 Strategic Roadmap for of medical specialists, allied health staff and bases its network provisioning and investment. Australian Research Infrastructure, which hospital services whose disparate natures This has been an extremely successful updated the 2006 and 2008 editions. A key resulted in less than optimum outcomes. customer communication event. element of this Roadmap is the enabling In 2008 in an effort to improve access and capability, eResearch Infrastructure care of patients with epilepsy in New South (previously called Platforms for Collaboration). Wales, NSW Health established a state-wide Presentations focused on implementing network, the NSW State-wide Complex various aspects of the Research Epilepsy Network (SCEN) to bring together e-Infrastructure agenda such as NeCTAR expertise from five comprehensive epilepsy (National eResearch Collaboration Tools and centres in New South Wales. These consist of Resources), which aims to build a “Research adult services located at the Prince of Wales Cloud” for the rapid initiation of research Hospital, the Royal Prince Alfred and The projects, without acquiring and deploying Westmead Hospital and two paediatric expensive hardware and software, and services at the Sydney Children’s Hospital scaling up and down as the project unfolds. and the Children’s Hospital at Westmead,

32 AARNet Advisory Committee 2011 Annual Report

The AARNet Advisory Committee (AAC) represents ICT management across the Charging Model AARNet Member community. The AAC makes recommendations, advising and representing a consensus of views held by the committee, and Member community. The AAC Charging Committee assisted APL in The AAC also assists AARNet to effectively communicate with its members, both moving the charging model to what is now directly and via regional network organisations (RNOs) where they exist. largely a subscription based service. This has been achieved despite the substantial During 2011 the AAC met on four occasions, providing advice to the AARNet Board increases in the amount of network traffic and APL senior management on a range of operational and strategic matters. year-on-year. The charging rate per gigabyte Meetings were held in Hobart, Canberra, Adelaide and Cairns. Each meeting remains the same from 2010 to 2011. From included a presentation from a local Researcher to better understand how AARNet 2011 onwards AARNet will provide a 3 year services enable members, and the research and education community. forecast for charging to assist members with their budget planning.

Looking to 2012 and beyond, the AAC will Initiatives focus on improving the effectiveness of Following the 2010 focus on feeding into the communication between AARNet and the development of the AARNet Strategic Plan, in AAC, and AARNet members. The main focus 2011 AAC activities focused on advising on of this initiative is to redefine information the implementation. This included AARNet’s flowing to and from RNO and state based IT initiatives of Monitoring Services, eduroam Director/CIO groups. The AAC also seeks to improvements, implementing the National work with AARNet senior management to Research Network (NRN): Tasmanian refine its relationship management and connectivity upgrade, participating in the communication plans. National Broadband Network (NBN), a Mobile AARNet can be justifiably proud of its Broadband pilot, planning for AARNet4, and successes during 2011 and it has been very considering international connectivity rewarding for me, as Chair of AAC, to upgrades for US and Asia. facilitate the advice and support arising from the Committee. In this respect I would also Health Project like to thank members of the AAC for their commitment and contributions during 2011, The Heath Project was lead by Mary Sharp and in particular the previous chair Richard from Newcastle University and Mike Constantine and current deputy chair Mary Rebbechi from AARNet. The project Sharp. Richard Constantine served in this role investigated national opportunities to better from February 2009 until August 2011. support researchers and students in Richard provided excellent leadership and hospitals. The QRNO has successfully insight during a period of exponential growth implemented eduroam in several Queensland and change. hospitals. The issue of progressing network issues in health was struggling at a national level and with other states looking to emulate this model; the Health Project Paul Campbell decided that health connectivity was best AAC Chair managed at a state level.

33 Dr Parratt meeting with his The University of Sydney collaborators from Shanghai, Mangalore, India and Vancouver at the Neurology Dr John Parratt explaining the pathogenesis Medical Congress in of acute MS lesions Amsterdam, The Netherlands in October 2011.

The University of Sydney’s Dr John Parratt provides unique and valuable clinical research with an in-depth clinical understanding of Multiple Sclerosis.

34 MRI exam of the human brain showing multiple sclerosis plaques.

The 5th Joint Triennial Congress of the European and Americas Committees on Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis brought together thousands of scientists and clinicians from all over the world, all committed to understanding and better managing Multiple Sclerosis and Dr Parratt. related diseases. Integration of basic and clinical studies is crucial to understand disease mechanisms and to provide the answers to important questions, for example those related to neurodegeneration, one of the major unresolved problems in MS.

Dr John Parratt is a highly respected and talented clinician and researcher. He represents a unique and valuable breed of clinical researchers that have both an in-depth clinical understanding of MS and scientific training at a PhD level.

Dr Parratt’s skills in the epidemiology, clinical, molecular and pathological aspects of MS represent the integrated approach that is necessary to unravel the complexities of MS. His work will explain the pathogenesis of acute MS lesion and his results will have the capacity to improve and create better treatments for people with MS.

35 Appendix A

List of Shareholders Board of Directors as at 31 March 2012 The Australian National University Professor Gerard Sutton The Commonwealth Scientific and Independent Director Industrial Research Organisation Mr Oliver J Barrett University of Canberra Partner, Minter Ellison Charles Sturt University Professor Ian Young Macquarie University Vice-Chancellor & President Southern Cross University Australian National University The Australian Catholic University The University of New England Mr Chris Hancock The University of New South Wales CEO, AARNet Pty Ltd The University of Newcastle Mr John Rohan The University of Sydney Independent Director University of Technology, Sydney Mr Kent Adams University of Western Sydney Director, Information Technology & Resources University of Wollongong James Cook University Charles Darwin University Bond University Mr Nigel Poole Central Queensland University Executive Director, Commercial, CSIRO Griffith University Professor Linda Kristjanson James Cook University Vice-Chancellor & President Queensland University of Technology Swinburne University of Technology The University of Queensland Professor Michael Barber University of Southern Queensland Vice-Chancellor & President University of the Sunshine Coast Flinders University The Flinders University of South Australia Mr Paul Campbell The University of Adelaide Director, Information Technology University of South Australia Australian Catholic University University of Tasmania Deakin University Emeritus Prof. Mark Wainwright La Trobe University School of Chemical Engineering Monash University The University of New South Wales RMIT University Mr Peter Nikoletatos Swinburne University of Technology Director, Information Services & CIO The University of Melbourne The Australian National University University of Ballarat Victoria University Curtin University Edith Cowan University Murdoch University The University of Western Australia

36

Head Office Postal Address T: +612 6222 3530 AARNet Pty Ltd GPO Box 1559 F: +612 6222 3535 Level 2, Building 1 Canberra ACT 2601 [email protected] 3 Richardson Place ABN 54 084 540 518 www.aarnet.edu.au North Ryde NSW 2113