In a bid to increase collaboration between Australian and overseas universities, the Australian Academic Research Network (AARNet) has signed a partnership with NRENum.net, an international body of research and education networks that shares call routing to make free international voice/video calls.
Australian university members that are connected to AARNet’s 3 Network and unified communications (UC) eXchange can now make video calls via NRENum.net to education counterparts in Europe, South America and Asia.
AARNet applications and services director, James Sankar, told Computerworld Australia that the partnership would provide a cost effective link to educational facilities globally and continue to provide the education sector of Australia with the rich video media services they need to collaborate overseas.
“With the large types of data being transferred today ,such as high resolution photographs and video, a reachable, secure and scalable connection to global locations is essential,” he said.
“Allowing customers to connect via the eXchange means they have the choice of connecting from their phone, UC client, video or Telepresence room,” Sankar said.
There are 16 Australian universities currently connected to the AARNet UC eXchange.
The partnership follows AARNet’s development of an Australian video exchange service with Cisco in March this year which provides speeds of up to 10 gigabits per second for members. Swinburne, Monash and Victoria Universities were amongst the first to use the service for a variety of projects including remote learning and astrophysics research.
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