On 19 May 2000, UCAR hosted a reception honoring the completion of the Boulder Research and Administrative Network (BRAN). NCAR's Scientific Computing Division network engineers worked on the project, which laid fiber cable to connect NCAR/UCAR locally with the University of Colorado, the City of Boulder, and the U.S. Department of Commerce labs. (The labs include the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration).

Representatives from the cooperating organizations and engineering teams came to NCAR to celebrate BRAN's success.

Work on BRAN began in July 1999, and construction and testing were completed in April 2000. An eleven-mile network of high-speed fiber-optic cable now links NCAR/UCAR to the city, university, and other research labs, allowing collaboration on projects ranging from climate and weather research to the timing of atomic clocks.

"We are doing things at NCAR/UCAR like 3-D visualization of weather and turbulence modeling that can now be shared by NOAA, CU, and the other federal labs," said Marla Meehl, manager of SCD's Network Engineering and Technologies Section. "Also, because we now have our own fiber and facilities, we have great flexibility for videoconferencing seminars and other real-time events between NCAR's Mesa and Foothills labs." Previously, NCAR/UCAR leased fiber-optic circuits from private vendors to connect Mesa and Foothills. BRAN eliminates the need to lease these circuits and will save NCAR/UCAR up to $5,000 a month.

Rick Anthes, president of UCAR, noted that the project was a unique example of cooperation between city, state, and federal governments and the private nonprofit sector.

For more information, see SCD's Boulder Research and Administrative Network Web page.

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This page posted 26 May 2000