The University of Guam unveiled its high-speed GOREX network January 18 at the Office of Information Technology. From left to right: Andrew Guihama, IT Project Management Coordinator; Leo Llegado, Computer Center Assistant; Randy Dahilig, Jr. Network Engineer (GOREX Local Hands); Randy Wiegand, UOG Vice President of Administration and Finance; Jose Santiago, Jr. Network Engineer (GOREX Local Hands); Dr. Tom Schils, UOG Marine Lab Director; Dr. Robert Underwood, UOG President; Steven Mamaril, Jr. Information Security Analyst (GOREX Local Hands); Dr. Bastian Bentlage, UOG EPSCoR Grant Co-Principal Investigator; Rommel Hidalgo, UOG Chief Information Officer; Frank Lujan, Chief Technology Officer, Government of Guam Office of Technology and Co-Chair of the UOG EPSCoR Science and Technology Steering Committee; and Andrew Gayle, Chief Operating Officer, GTA and Co-Chair of the UOG EPSCoR Science and Technology Steering Committee.


The University of Guam today unveiled its new ultra-high-speed 100Gb GOREX Network during an event at the UOG Office of Information Technology. The Guam Open Research & Education eXchange (GOREX) connects Guam to Hawaii and California via the new SEA-US fiber-optic submarine cable.

Installation was completed this week by technicians from UOG, University of Hawaii, and GTA.  Guam is now connected to the global Research and Education Network fabric and is now capable of supporting high-speed exchanges of very large scientific datasets between Guam and other research institutions.

To put into context what the GOREX network can do, it would take over three years to download 1,000 terabytes of data using a 100-Megabit-per-second network.  Through GOREX's ultra-high-speed 100-Gigabit-per-second network, the same 1,000 terabytes of data can now be downloaded in just 1-day.  

Because of the sheer amount of data collected, shared, and analyzed, UOG research centers such as the Marine Laboratory and the Water Environmental Research Institute (WERI) will benefit the most from GOREX at the onset. However, UOG President Robert Underwood believes that the true impact to the island community is in the opportunity for data access, exchange, and analysis in other fields such as healthcare, economics, and the social sciences.

“We can now conduct research at complex levels, not just for the sciences, but in other fields as well,” said Underwood. “Think about the issues that we discuss as a society and how we make many decisions with limited data. GOREX gives our students and faculty the tools to truly exchange and analyze large amounts of data in any number of fields with other institutions all over the world. And as a University, it is our responsibility to report our findings back to the community. That’s the impact.”
 
International Partnerships
UOG Chief Information Officer Rommel Hidalgo says the GOREX facility and the ultra-high-speed SEA-US connection on Guam would not have been possible without the leadership and support of the University of Hawai'i System and its President, David Lassner, who has been working to increase research and education network connectivity in the Pacific for more than 20 years.

“We are thankful for the vision, support, and leadership of President Lassner and the University of Hawai’i, for enabling the implementation of GOREX.  We are also thankful to Steven Huter and the NSRC for their help in improving UOG’s network and training the UOG network team that will be supporting GOREX. The GOREX consortium is on track to install additional ultra-high-speed connections using other submarine cables.  GOREX will soon connect Asia, Australia, and America through Guam,” said Rommel Hidalgo.  

The University of Oregon’s Network Startup Resource Center (NSRC) provided training support to UOG network technicians. "We are delighted to support the University of Guam's efforts to augment the institution's scientific research and education capabilities for faculty and students,” said Hervey Allen, Assistant Director, NSRC. “The dedication of the UOG Information Technology team and executive leadership will create the necessary cyberinfrastructure for facilitating data-intensive research in Guam and provide benefits to other U.S. territories in the Pacific Islands."

The GOREX consortium includes the University of Hawai’i, the University of Oregon Network Startup Resource Center (NSRC), the University of Guam, Pacific Wave, Australia’s Academic and Research Network (AARNet), Internet2, Singapore’s SingAREN, New Zealand’s REANNZ, and other partners. The overarching goal is to promote increased growth and effectiveness of data‐intensive and highly collaborative research and education activities engaging the Asia‐Pacific region with the global Research and Education community.

For more information, visit the UOG GOREX website at http://gorex.uog.edu or call the UOG Office of Information Technology at (671) 735-2640.