by Anna Hampton
Daily Lobo
It won't help students watch YouTube videos or download music faster, but LambdaRail will attract research scientists to UNM and improve distance learning, said Moira Gerety, director of ITS.
Gov. Bill Richardson announced his support for the $5 million network connection Friday at UNM's Media
Arts Center.
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"We have new partners with institutions throughout North America and Europe," Richardson said. "LambdaRail allows us to connect with other research institutions."
UNM connected to the network in late November.
The high-speed capabilities will enhance education and health care opportunities while boosting New Mexico's film industry, he said.
The connection is used automatically when someone on the UNM network downloads files from another computer on the LambdaRail network.
New Mexico Tech, Arizona State
University, Cornell University and NASA are also connected to the network.
Gerety said LambdaRail is 10 times faster than the old
network.
"More and more students are wanting to use video and audio for research purposes," she said. "Students won't be
inhibited."
Gary Bauerschmidt, associate director of ITS, said ITS has a gigaPOP, a system that directs users to a network depending on the nature of the Web site being accessed. Users can't use LambdaRail for unapproved purposes, such as downloading music from iTunes, he said.
"The site you are talking to determines the network you go on," Bauerschmidt said.
Richardson said UNM deserves to have the connection because it will get the most out of it.
"Because of its excellence in technology and super-computing, UNM has the faculty, resources and excellence to pursue this," he said.
There will be more opportunities for people to take University classes online once less-populated areas have high-speed access, Gerety said.
"When you're in rural New Mexico, it (classroom videos) will come across as if it were in real time," she said.
Though LambdaRail has been available to the University through a lease with Comcast since the summer, it has not been used to its full extent, Gerety said.
The connection has a capacity of 400 gigabits.
Right now, UNM is only using the 11 gigabits, Gerety said.
A LambdaRail membership will cost the University $5 million over a five-year period, she said.
The state government has provided $3 million, and UNM is requesting $1 million more,
she said.
Barney Maccabe, director of the UNM Center for High-Performance Computing, said LambdaRail will make research more efficient.
"The thing that's nice about this is that it reaches out to the premier institutions in the nation," he said. "LambdaRail is the superhighway that connects them all together. We can turn days into minutes."
