The Australian Bureau of Meteorology (ABM) is to upgrade its networking capabilities to equip a number of remote locations with broadband IP connectivity.
Computerworld :: Bureau of Meteorology
The upgrade – a combination of hardware and bandwidth to implement a managed network — will allow staff at four locations to internet and email, access to the bureau’s intranet, VoIP, data link for on-site sensor equipment such as radar and automatic weather stations.
The VATS will also provide redundancy capability for 10 of the bureau’s radar sites throughout Australia. The bureau will also explore options for backhaul from service provider’s network operations centre to the bureau’s networks in Melbourne and Canberra.
According to ABM documents the new managed network will accommodate Move, Add, Change requests to the bandwidth on demand. It will also permit the Bureau to view and monitor network performance remotely.
The network will also accommodate fluctuations in the bandwidth needs of the sites and will be highly resilient to cope with cyclones, flood event and other extreme weather events.
It will also feature a dynamic allocation capability to allow for surge capacity needs – such as during severe weather – and, further, a VoIP system will likely be integrated across the bureau’s staffed sites.
In January the BOM said fires, floods and hurricanes would be predicted more accurately with the introduction of a data modelling system which could deliver precise seven-day predictions.
Available in New South Wales and Victoria since 2009, the system, which is part of the Gillard government’s $45 million Next Generation project, will be rolled out in Tasmania, South Australia, Queensland and other states by 2013.
In February it said the geomagnetic space storm created after a solar eruption and affected high frequency shortwave radios across the globe during the month would inevitably happen again.