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ARENA-PAC Operation Report 2024 by WIDE Project

*This report is excerpted from the WIDE Project Report 2024

Chapter 1. Introduction

This paper reports on the operation of the Arterial Research and Educational Network in Asia-Pacific (ARENA-PAC), a broadband backbone network for research and education purposes in the Asia-Pacific region. Operated by the WIDE Project, ARENA-PAC utilises a submarine cable network contracted for long-term use by the Asia-Pacific Internet Development Trust (APIDT), a fund dedicated to developing the Internet in the Asia-Pacific region. In addition to utilising the submarine cable network secured by APIDT, ARENA-PAC aims to become a wide-area, high-capacity backbone network that serves as an “artery” across the Asia-Pacific region, as suggested by its name, through interconnection with other research and education networks.

This paper provides an update on the current operational status of ARENA-PAC and international collaborative efforts.

Chapter 2. Operational Status and Network Status

At the end of 2024, ARENA-PAC operates the following four 100 GbE backbone circuits, as shown in Figure 1.

  • Tokyo-Guam
  • Singapore-Guam (operated by a joint consortium of AARNet, Internet2, and Indiana University)
  • Indonesia-Guam (connected to Brawijaya University and Indonesia Research and Education Network (IDREN))
  • Philippines-Guam (connected to Philippine Research, Education, and Government Information Network (PREGINET) and DOST Advanced Science and Technology Institute (ASTI))

Due to a cut in the submarine cable section, the Philippines-Guam line was out of service on December 3, 2023, but repairs were completed on July 23, 2024, restoring the line after more than seven months of outage. During the period of the line outage, connectivity between DOST-ASTI and Japan was maintained through a mutual backup with the 10 Gbps line of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Research Network (MAFFIN). Now that the ARENA-PAC line has been restored, we are examining ways to improve the redundancy mechanism through mutual backup with MAFFIN to realize a more robust research and education network.

Figure 1　ARENA-PAC backbone network

In 2024, in addition to the line restoration mentioned above, the following lines and bases were newly prepared for opening. 

  • Singapore hub (data center in Singapore)
  • Malaysia-Singapore circuit  (100 GbE, scheduled to open in 2025, connected to Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM))

The Singapore hub is being prepared to connect to the SingAREN Open Exchange (SOE), which serves as the Internet Exchange (IX) for SingAREN’s research and education network. It will also house the Malaysia-Singapore line. The Malaysia-Singapore line will connect to USM and will be expanded to connect to other research and educational institutions in Malaysia in cooperation with USM. Both the Singapore base and the Malaysia- Singapore line are currently under preparation and are expected to be operational in the first quarter of  2025.

Chapter 3. Activity Report for 2024

This section reports on experiments and demonstrations conducted at SC24 using the ARENA-PAC line. 

ARENA-PAC collaborated in the following two experiments and demonstrations using multiple 100 Gbps lines at SC24, an international conference held in  Atlanta, Georgia, USA, from 18 to 21 November 2024. These experiments were conducted by the National Insititue of Information and Communication (NICT), the National Institute of Information (NII), Osaka University and Shimane University: 

  • MMCFTP’s Data Transfer Experiment Using Ten 100G bps Lines Between Japan and USA (by National Institute of Informatics)
  • Toward Terabit-Scale Anonymous Communication Leveraging Programmable Switches (by Osaka University and Shimane University)

Figure 2 illustrates the ten 100 Gbps paths used for these experiments and demonstrations. These paths represent networks established through mutual cooperation among research and education networks, including APOnet (https://www.aponet.global), which is a cooperative agreement among research and education networks in the Asia-Pacific Oceania region. ARENA-PAC contributed to these experiments and demonstrations on the Tokyo-Guam 100 Gbps line, which is part of the P5 path shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2　Ten 100 Gbps paths used for experiments and demonstrations at SC24 (https://testbed.nict.go.jp/event_new/SC24.html)

Figure 3 displays the amount of traffic during these experiments and demonstrations. As shown, nearly 80 Gbps of traffic was measured. One of the strengths of the mutual agreement between global research and education networks is the ability to conduct experiments and demonstrations that generate such large volumes of traffic across a wide area that encircles the globe. Additionally, the capacity to experiment with and verify protocols different from the usual TCP/IP, as demonstrated by Osaka University and Shimane University, is also a distinctive feature of the research and education network.

Figure 3　Large volumetric traffic during SC24 experiments

ARENA-PAC plans to develop its operational and collaborative structures to continue contributing to such cutting-edge experiments in the future.

Chapter 4. Summary

This paper reported on the operation of ARENA-PAC, a broadband backbone for research and education purposes in the Asia-Pacific region. In 2025, ARENA-PAC plans to launch a new base in Singapore and a Singapore-Malaysia 100 GbE line. The WIDE Project will continue to contribute to the development of the international Internet through the operation of ARENA-PAC and collaboration with APOnet and other RENs.

Excerpts from the WIDE Project Report 2024