BCNETwork News

September 2007

BCNET Advanced Research Networks Survey

BCNET recently conducted a survey in the spring of 2007 to determine the types and quantities of research projects in BC that make use of BCNET's advanced data networks, as well as to better understand the use of advanced networks by researchers in the province.

To gather data for the study, BCNET carried out a telephone and web survey targeting relevant research projects in BC in order to make generalizations, which could be applicable to the entire research community within the province. In total 671 researchers from across the province were contacted to participate in the study, 109 agreed to participate and 53 qualified to complete the survey based on their networking requirements.

The survey found that 49% of the total respondents have data network requirements for their research projects, and revealed that 66% of respondents required high bandwidth networks for their existing research projects. High bandwidth networks were identified as either dedicated lightpaths or networking requirements of 100 megabits or greater.

Information collected from the 53 qualified survey respondents’ research projects shows that the aggregate dollar amount of research grants that make use of BCNET’s network totals $144,388,000. An additional $3,000,000,000 in research grant funding is allocated for the ATLAS Project at TRIUMF, UBC. These figures are significant and worth noting as it clearly demonstrates the need for and utilization of super broadband networks for research within the province of BC.

When asked about their distant collaboration requirements, approximately 43% of the respondents required collaborations with institutions outside of Canada and 33% of these collaborations involved the exchanging and sharing of large data files. The nature of collaborations were identified primarily as sharing of large data files, videoconferencing and high-performance grid computing.

Additionally, 51% of the survey respondents required collaborative technologies to access multimedia files and 39% required videoconferencing to collaborate for teaching and educational programs.

Overall the survey reveals that BCNET has a high level of awareness amongst researchers. Overall, 65% of respondents are aware that their institution is connected to the BCNET Optical Regional Advanced Network.

In conclusion, the survey findings indicate that BC’s researchers are making extensive use of BCNET’s infrastructure to facilitate a wide variety of research projects.

To read the full research survey report, click here.