Avondale connects to national high-speed data network
Bianca Reynaud
Public relations assistant
Avondale College of Higher Education
Cooranbong, New South Wales, Australia
Avondale’s new connection to a national high-speed data network will increase its online capacity tenfold, provide better services and support collaboration between researchers.
Avondale’s connection via fibre-optic cable to the Australian Academic and Research Network will increase online capacity tenfold.
The Australian Academic and Research Network (AARNet) is a not-for-profit company that operates the country’s National Research and Education Network. Its shareholders are 38 Australian universities and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation.
Connecting to AARNet is another step on our journey to university college status, says Simon Short, Avondale College of Higher Education’s chief information officer. He is referring not only to the community of AARNet end users, who number more than one million and include those at cultural institutions, health and other research organisations, schools and vocational training providers. The service provided to staff members and students will also improve.
The wide area network linking the Lake Macquarie campus in Cooranbong and the Sydney campus in Wahroonga and providing access to the Internet increases from 100 megabits per second via microwave to 1 gigabit per second via fibre-optic cable. “It just opens up the world,” says vice-president (research) Professor Tony Williams. “We now have the capacity to really innovate online.”
Services offered by AARNet such as cloud storage, global wireless network access and video conferencing will help achieve this.
The connection to AARNet is the most significant improvement to Avondale’s network since 2010. It comes on top of other recent improvements, including an upgrade to the wireless and to the fibre-optic network on both campuses.
In perhaps the best news for students, the connection also comes at a reduced cost. This means Avondale will from second semester this year abolish the fee students pay to access the Internet.