On May 22, 2008, for the annual TERENA conference, members of the EXPReS (Express Production Real-time e-VLBI Service) project for the first time simultaneously linked telescopes in Africa, Europe, North America and South America to the central data correlator in the Netherlands, simulating a telescope almost 11,000 kilometers in diameter.
Telescopes in Chile, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Puerto Rico, South Africa and Sweden simultaneously observed quasar 3C454.3 and additional targets and streamed data to JIVE in Dwingeloo, The Netherlands. There, the data was correlated in real time, and results were transmitted to Bruges, Belgium, as part of a live demonstration at the TERENA Networking Conference 2008.
Data from all seven telescopes was routed across numerous networks and exchanges, including: AtlanticWave, AMPATH, Centennial, DFN, GÉANT2, Internet2, SURFnet/NetherLight, NGIX, RedCLARA, Reuna, SANReN, StarLight and TENET. Data was transferred from Hartebeesthoek (South Africa) and TIGO (Chile) at 64Mbps, and at 256Mbps from all other stations, including Arecibo. For about 10 minutes, astronomers observed one source from all 4 continents simultaneously.
TransLight/StarLight was used to transmit data from Arecibo in Puerto Ricoto JIVE; below is a MRTG plot showing bandwidth utilization. A VLAN was created from Arecibo to AtlanticWave (in Miami) to CAVEwave (in Washington, DC), and then from CAVEwave to Chicago, over TransLight/StarLight, to NetherLight. Note: TIGO connected via RedClara to GÉANT2 in Europe.
URL:
www.expres-eu.org
www.expres-eu.org/TERENA08_networking.html
www.expres-eu.org/TERENA08_science.html
Collaborators:
Puerto Rico:
Arecibo Observatory
USA:
StarLight; AtlanticWave; CAVEwave; AMPATH; MAX/NGIX; TransLight/StarLight; WHREN-LILA
Chile:
Transportable Integrated Geodetic Observatory (TIGO)
Germany:
Effelsberg
Italy:
Medicina Radio Observatory
Netherlands:
Westerbork; Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe (JIVE); SURFnet
South Africa:
Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory
Sweden:
Onsala Space Observatory
