TEIN3 provides an extraordinary glimpse into unchartered deep sea
High-speed data communication networks develop a new paradigm for ocean exploration
Oceans cover about 70% of the earth’s surface, but little is known about the sea floor. The tsunami that recently hit Indonesia has once again shown the urgency
to explore the ocean’s depth and to better understand how tsunamis form and spread to more accurately forecast such killer waves.
To discover one of the world’s last frontiers, a joint Indonesia-US expedition, INDEX SATAL 2010, took place last summer in Indonesian waters, probing areas known to be volcanically active around the Sangie Talaud Islands in North Sulawesi. Commencing its maiden voyage in June 2010, the Okeanos Explorer, a converted US Navy vessel, came equipped with a multi-beam sonar mapping system able to generate high-resolution, wide-angle images in very deep water.
Unique to this ship was that most scientists remained ashore. Indeed, it was ‘tele-presence’, i.e. the real-time participation of geographically distributed participants, which made this exploratory mission so special, enabling real-time ship-to shore communication with shore-based scientists, including the transmission of high-definition live images from the seafloor, two-way voice communication and large oceanographic datasets. Via a powerful satellite antenna, live images from the seafloor were beamed to a satellite and then sent over high-speed Internet pathways, such as Internet2 and TEIN3, to scientists standing watches in shore-based Exploration Command Centres (ECCs) in the USA and Jakarta. Despite the intensive encoding and decoding processes, these video feeds were delivered from depths as deep as 6000m to the ECCs with the highest quality and lowest latency possible - in an average of 6 seconds.
The satellite data were transmitted to a hub at the University of Rhode Island, which then, using IPv4 multicast, sent this data to EECs, such as in Seattle and Jakarta, allowing onshore scientists to engage in this expedition.
From the ship to the ECC in Jakarta the transmission was delivered over the following network path: Internet2->Transpac2-> APAN-JP->TEIN3 via the hub in Hong Kong -> ITB NOC in Bandung, Indonesia -> ECC Jakarta at BRKP (Agency for Maritime and Fishery Research) Building.
Dr Noorsalam Nganro, marine biologist, who participated in the expedition from the ECC in Jakarta said: “Watching these amazing live seafloor images on plasma TV sceens from the comfort of our onshore centre just shows that technology knows no bounds. We were basically able to contribute to the expedition by asking the pilot on the ship steering the robotic vehicle to pursure whatever we considered interesting. High-speed research networks such as TEIN3 allow Indonesian scientists to participate in such groundbreaking endeavours aimed at ultimately protect our oceans and livelihoods!”
In additon to exporing deepwater biodiversity and to better understanding how tsunamis form, the exploration might have even pointed the way to cures for human diseases. Scientists collected specimens that could have medicinal qualities, such as attacking harmful bacteria or fighting the spread of cancer cells. An example of such a compound is discodermolide, a potential cancer drug extracted from a deep-water sponge.
Wrapped up in August 2010, INDEX-SATAL 2010 was only the first in a series of joint Indonesia-US expeditions to help advance our knowledge, use and protection of the ocean and its resources, in which high-speed networks like TEIN3 play a crucial role.
