On August 14, 2025, the Arterial Research and Educational Network in the Asia Pacific (ARENA-PAC), operated by the WIDE Project, with Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), announced the inauguration of the Penang (Malaysia) – Singapore link and presented the potential impact and collaborations for the Malaysian Research and Education community.
This connectivity was achieved as per the MoU signed between the ARENA-PAC and USM on September 17, 2024. The 100 Gbps ARENA-PAC network connects USM to Tokyo and other locations through a global REN hub in Singapore and Guam.
The establishment of high-speed connectivity for the Global Research and Education Network will not only dramatically strengthen international cooperation and coordination in research, resource sharing, and the delivery of essential services, but also serve as a powerful catalyst to accelerate the advancement of open science on a global scale.
The inauguration ceremony held at Eureka Complex, USM was officiated by Professor Dr. Jun Murai, Director of ARENA-PAC and Keio University, Japan.
Also in attendance were USM Vice-Chancellor, Professor Dato’ Seri Ir. Dr. Abdul Rahman Mohamed, along with prominent academic figures from Malaysia and abroad.
In his speech, the Vice-Chancellor described the network connection as a major leap forward for USM in enhancing research, education, and international collaboration.
“With this ultra-fast network, USM researchers can engage in more efficient and dynamic collaborations with global partners in fields such as climate science, medicine, and engineering.
“This presents a tremendous opportunity to conduct high-impact research that can benefit society on a global scale,” he said.
He also expressed gratitude to ARENA-PAC, APNIC, Cisco, Juniper Networks, and the expert teams from USM’s School of Computer Sciences and Digital Transformation Centre for their roles in making the project a reality.
The event featured a keynote address titled “Role of Research and Educational Network” by Professor Murai.
In his presentation, he revisited the early days of internet development in 1995, when less than one percent of the global population was connected.
He highlighted that the success of today’s internet, including platforms like Google, was driven by open standards and shared resource models that allowed for distributed costs and investments—ultimately accelerating innovation.
Professor Murai emphasized the internet’s unique nature as a decentralized and autonomous system, free from central control, which makes it truly global and resilient.
“This approach reflects the spirit of ARENA-PAC, which aims to build research networks that connect institutions across the world,” he said.
During technical presentations, Dr. Yung-Wey Chong and Wei-Hong Bok (USM) and Dr. Hirochika ‘Panda’ Asai (ARENA-PAC/WIDE Project) presented an overview of a demonstration to utilize ARENA-PAC 100Gbps connectivity. They downloaded big research data from several ARENA-PAC sites concurrently, and also showed the ARENA-PAC circuits monitoring system to the audience.
Multi-partner collaboration presentations were delivered by USM (Malaysia), Universitas Brawijaya (Indonesia), DOST Advanced Science and Technology Institute (Philippines), and Keio University (Japan) as follows. They demonstrated existing and potential use cases for multiple partners to collaborate over ARENA-PAC shared resources.
- Distributed SOC Response: Real-time Cyber Attack Detection and Joint Mitigation (by Dr. Achmad Basuki, Universitas Brawijaya; and Dr. Shankar Karuppayah, Universiti Sains Malaysia)
- Convergence of Data and Content through the ARENA-PAC link (by Dr. Franz A. de Leon, DOST Advanced Science and Technology Institute)
- ARENA-PAC collaboration space for universities and industries (by Yoko Murakami, Keio University)
With the launch of ARENA-PAC, USM reaffirms its commitment to leading the development of an inclusive, innovative, and high-impact global research ecosystem.
This network is expected to serve as a catalyst for new achievements that will not only elevate the university’s reputation but also deliver meaningful benefits to society and the world at large.
Event summary is available at this link: https://youtu.be/d29oOazJ5OY?feature=shared
Universiti Sains Malaysia news release: https://news.usm.my/index.php/english-news/11825-usm-launches-100gbps-arena-pac-network-connection-accelerating-global-research-collaboration