High data rate transmission in high resolution radio astronomy - vlbiGRID

Recent developments in Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) radio astronomy are aimed at improving reliability and reducing the cost of operations by moving from a custom made tape based system to using exchangeable disks in PCs. The advent of the iGRID 2002 exhibition in September 2002 with the availability of high data rate international links gave us the opportunity to try transferring the data via the internet. This would not only test the capacity of the links but also prove the viability of the use of the internet for VLBI. This development would also eventually lead to instant turn-around of VLBI data, which currently stands at several weeks. The tests were successful achieving data rates from Manchester of 500 Mbps over the production network. This was the first demonstration of fibreoptic link connected international VLBI.