The Advocate
By Ned Randolph
Pledging to build the most-advanced statewide computer network in the country, Gov. Kathleen Blanco on Thursday committed $40 million over 10 years to build and maintain a high-speed fiber-optic network that will link eight university campuses to a national network of super computers.
Blanco made the surprise announcement during the two-day Louisiana Optical Network Initiative conference that began Thursday at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center.
The proposed statewide network, known as LONI, will hook up to the National LambdaRail network, a backbone of next-generation high-performance computers. The LambdaRail is a privately-led consortium. The state Board of Regents was invited to join the network in June, after committing $5 million over five years.
Academic officials and researchers boosting the project had lobbied hard for the state to commit the resources needed to build a statewide network.
Blanco said she will authorize $4 million a year over the next 10 years for LONI, which according to chief of staff Andy Kopplin, is in addition to the money already committed by Regents.
"LONI will put Louisiana on the cutting edge of modern research, and it will prepare us for future academic challenges and for the demands of a knowledge economy," she told the gathering of more than 200 academic, government and industry representatives. "I want Louisiana to secure the resources you need."
Donnie Vandal, who chairs the funding subcommittee on the project, said Regents will use part of the $4 million revenue stream to finance a $17.5 million loan issue. That will cover the capital costs, equipment purchases and leasing rights for fiber-optic strands already in the ground.
The board will set aside about $1 million to $1.5 million each year for annual maintenance, upgrades and staffing, he said.
Baton Rouge is one of only 25 "nodes" on the LambdaRail. The network uses light waves to transmit data over fiber-optic cables at speeds thousands of times faster than typical office computer networks.
It will allow researchers to connect several super computers around the country to perform large-scale experiments, on such things as global weather mapping, battle simulations or the gravitational effects by black holes.
The eight institutions being tied to the network are LSU, Louisiana Tech University, LSU-Shreveport Medical Center, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Southern University, University of New Orleans, LSU Medical Center and Tulane University.
Advocates say the LambdaRail gives them an opportunity to bid on larger project grants from the likes of NASA, the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health -- opening the door to hundreds of millions of dollars in funding.
"The economic development aspect is huge," said Dan Henderson, director of information technology at the state Department of Economic Development. "It generates a sequence of events. We're going to bring money in from outside Louisiana to be spent in Louisiana on faculty, employees, equipment and services. These clever, well-educated people will be attracted here and develop and invent new technology along the way."
Smaller entrepreneurial companies could spin off, adding high-skilled jobs. "That's the cycle," he said.
Ironically, the LambdaRail was not originally routed to come through the Gulf South. To help the state entice the LambdaRail board to bring it here, the Southeastern Universities Research Association, known as SURA, agreed to subsidize the added cost of bringing the network from Dallas south to Interstate 10. AT&T donated the fiber along I-10 to stretch it from Houston through Baton Rouge onto Jacksonville, Fla.
Mike Abbiatti, an associate commissioner with the Board of Regents, said Blanco's 10-year commitment allows the board to maintain a state-of-the-art system.
"Ten gigabits per second is now the fastest (computer) processor," he said. "In three or four years, we might have 100-gigabit processors. It would be a shame to secure all that dark fiber in the state and not be able to evolve."
Officials want LONI to be at least partially operational when the LambdaRail is activated next spring, said Charlie McMahon, LSU telecommunications director.
Publish Date:
09-03-2004
