[Research] Breakthrough in High-Speed Data Transfer Accelerates the Realization of SRCNet, the World's Largest Scientific Data Infrastructure - KMI

[Research] Breakthrough in High-Speed Data Transfer Accelerates the Realization of SRCNet, the World’s Largest Scientific Data Infrastructure

2026.08.25

Research

Nagoya University, through the Kobayashi-Maskawa Institute for the Origin of Particles and the Universe (KMI), is contributing to the realization of the SKA Regional Centre Network (SRCNet), the international infrastructure that will support data from the Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO), the world’s largest radio interferometer.

The SKA1 Sub-Project (SKAJ) at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) Mizusawa VLBI Observatory, together with NEC Corporation, succeeded in a large-volume data transfer test over an ultra-long-haul network spanning half the globe, using an Ultra-high-speed Data Transfer System (UDTS).
The test achieved stable data transfer several to several dozen times faster than conventional methods, demonstrating the feasibility of the 100 Gbps-class international data transfer required by SRCNet.
As part of this demonstration, a segment using KMI’s computer room as a communication hub also achieved a successful ultra-long-haul, high-speed data transfer test for SRCNet. KMI provided the experimental environment for this demonstration, including the fiber-optic line built for the purpose.

For details, see
the press release from the NAOJ Mizusawa VLBI Observatory.

Nagoya University’s Contribution

Kiyotomo Ichiki, Professor of the Graduate School of Science and Kobayashi-Maskawa Institute for the Origin of Particles and the Universe (KMI), and Hajime Shimada, Associate Professor of the Information Technology Center, represented Nagoya University in this work.

KMI installed the UDTS in its computer room and provided it as a communication hub for the ultra-long-haul, high-speed data transfer demonstration. For the demonstration, KMI built the fiber-optic line connecting to the international circuit of SINET, the academic information network operated by the National Institute of Informatics (NII), and constructed the experimental environment.

Researcher’s Comment

Prof. Kiyotomo Ichiki of the Graduate School of Science and KMI.

The Square Kilometre Array (SKA), currently being built by the SKA Observatory (SKAO), is expected to generate observational data on the scale of an exabyte per year. Processing and storing this enormous volume of data across distributed sites worldwide requires high-speed international data communication, and this achievement marks an important step toward the full-scale operation of the SKA in the 2030s.