Once again NORDUnet is joining the Pacific Telecommunications Council (PTC) meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii. Taking place 20-25 January 2024, PTC’24 brings together stakeholders in design, planning, deployment, and use of subsea cables from around the wold.
Special focus for NORDUnet at this year’s event is to learn more about the latest development of relevance for the Nordic and European research and education community. Likewise, attention is on conducting talks with actual and prospective partners for the future evolution of the NORDUnet network, such as Global Connect, Tampnet, Digital Realty, TeleGeography, Far North Fiber, Alcatel Submarine Networks, and others.
As part of the event, NORDUnet will also join the ninth annual Hawaii workshop on Trans-Pacific Research & Education (TPRE), where Ieva Muraškienė will take the podium and share the latest on Polar Connect, science opportunities workshop and projects co-funded by the EC. In addition to updates from a variety of organisations, the workshop will focus on Pacific Expansion Activity (e.g., new builds, 400Gb plans, connecting Pacific Island nations, Hawaii subsea projects), and tentative Cyber-infrastructure for Large Research Facilities.
Also to be found on NORDUnet’s schedule of activities in Honolulu is the co-located JTF SMART cables meeting. The UN ITU/WMO/UNESCO-IOC Joint Task Force for SMART Cables is a group of volunteers working with the Subsea telecom industry with the science community to monitor climate change including ocean heat content, circulation, and sea level rise, provide early warning for earthquakes and tsunamis, and monitor seismic activity for earth structure and related hazards. NORDUnet is involved in a range of Nordic and European optical fibre sensing projects, making this a logical event to attend.