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December 23, 2002
HPWREN Provides SDSU Researchers with Direct Link to Remote Field Equipment Thanks to a partnership between the San Diego State University (SDSU) and the University of California at San Diego, the HPWREN research project has recently added SDSU as a backbone node on its 45Mbps network. This will also become a critical piece of a new effort to create redundant links to increase the HPWREN network robustness. |
December 18, 2002  A crane boosts the first of two eight-foot antennas atop the SDSU Communications Building.
 While one antenna points toward Mount Soledad, the other is expected to eventually connect to Lyons Peak.
 HPWREN engineers and technicians further perfect the alignment - to ensure that connectivity is established. |
"From HPWREN's beginning, SDSU has played an integral role in the success of our research," says HPWREN PI Hans-Werner Braun. "So, we were very pleased to link the SDSU campus onto our network. This will help with more direct access by SDSU researchers to high performance data, such as from the Mount Laguna Observatory and the Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve - and make more sensors directly accessible."
That is, SDSU campus researchers already had access via the Internet to HPWREN-connected field equipment at the remote Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve and Mount Laguna Observatory.
However, the original high-speed connectivity configuration routed the researchers to the field equipment via several channels (allowing for near-real-time access). Now, the new configuration allows the researchers to directly link to the HPWREN-connected equipment - bypassing the sometimes "clogged up" Internet portion of the original configuration.
"HPWREN will be distributed on SDSU's campus to four sites via a VPN created over copper wires and switches by Telecommunication Network Services," explains SDSU Research Technologist Pablo Bryant. "The four sites include labs run by Paul Etzel (Astronomy), Sedra Shapiro (Remote Sensor Research), Eric Frost (3-D Visualization), and Walt Oechel (Micromet and Global Change)."
"The HRWREN connection permits constant remote monitoring of
environmental conditions around the last wild river in SD County
at SMER," summarizes Tom Scott, Dean of SDSU's College of Sciences.
"It also allows the research-grade telescopes at MLO to be accessible
to astronomers around the world. Both links extend the applications
of the HPWREN wireless system, a project which is such a valuable
scientific resources to our community."
"I see the HPWREN partnership as just the latest in a series of joint projects we have done with UCSD over the years. I believe the research will benefit both institutions and look forward to receiving updates on the work," says Joe Vasquez, SDSU Associate Vice President for Business Affairs.
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For additional photographs depicting the installation, please refer to https://cdn.hpwren.ucsd.edu/images/sites.html#SDSU.
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