F.A.Q.

What is ORION?
The Ontario Research and Innovation Optical Network (ORION) is an optical network dedicated exclusively to supporting research and education (R&E) in Ontario. ORION provides high-speed connectivity to its member institutions, linking them to each other and to the global grid of research and education networks.

It stretches 5,800 kilometres, with connection points in 21 communities throughout Ontario. More than 1.7 million researchers, scientists, faculty, teachers and students rely on ORION as their dedicated ultra-fast gateway to new and exciting resources and next-generation technologies, as well as links to colleagues across Ontario, throughout Canada and around the world.

How is ORION unique?
ORION is a private network and member of a club of more than 100 high-bandwidth, R&E networks around the world, including CANARIE in Canada and Internet2 and the NLR in the United States. For the most part, access to this global R&E network community and its resources is limited to individuals in research and education institutions and organizations connected to one of the R&E networks. Access is not available from commercial service providers or the regular commercial Internet.

ORION, like most R&E networks, is designed specifically to support the specialized needs of research and education and is 100 to 1,000 times faster than regular high-speed Internet. ORION provides virtually unlimited, unconstrained bandwidth and tools and capabilities not generally available or affordable from the commercial world, e.g. "user-controlled lightpaths".

Is ORION part of the Internet?
ORION is built on a physical network of fibre and equipment. Over this physical network there are a number of separate "virtual" networks. One of these is the ORION R&E network which connects member institutions and organizations to one another and R&E networks and resources, and big science projects, around the world.

ORION, like many R&E networks, also provides access to the commodity Internet for many institutions connected to it. Commercial Internet traffic over ORION is provided over separate paths --- VLANs --- outside the ORION R&E network. Some regular Internet communications may be transmitted over the ORION R&E network due to ORION's multiple peering arrangements with private and public sector entities. Such peering arrangements provide ORION connected institutions with network performance improvements and cost savings related to commodity Internet traffic.

What does ORION enable?
ORION enables large scale access to major databases, academic and research resources and digital libraries from around the world. It provides vital support for multi-institutional and global research initiatives, including world-scale "big science" projects. ORION supports the fast transmission of very large data sets between labs, and virtual classrooms relying on broadcast quality videoconferencing across multiple institutions. It also enables distributed computational modeling and visualization simulations, and collaboration tools that allow scientists, educators and learners to use shared resources in real time.

How is ORION part of our research infrastructure?
Researchers need advanced networks like ORION to allow them to participate fully in global research and scientific collaborations, such as mining the human genome data; finding cures for disease; modeling climate change; exploring the universe; developing new vaccines; establishing global-scale sensor grids to monitor our environment and help identify remediation opportunities.

What is the benefit for schools and learning?
High-capacity networks are increasingly essential to next-generation classrooms, labs, music rooms and learning facilities. ORION allows schools to offer virtual classes, connecting multiple sites and bringing teaching specialists to classrooms. ORION makes it possible for students to participate in global megaconferences and interact directly with students in other countries, in real time. ORION also allows school boards to share resources and administrative services.

What advanced services does ORION offer?
ORION's professional engineering team supports advanced, next-generation Internet services, including multicasting, MPLS, optical lightpaths, ethernet circuits and virtual LANs, and bring an advanced level of knowledge and expertise to Ontario's R&E community. We also offer expert consultation services.

What is the technology behind ORION?
The ORION backbone is comprised of two strands of fibre-optic cable, which connect each of ORION's 22 Points of Presence or PoPs across Ontario. Today, ORION offers optical wavelength capacities at 10 gigabits per second, scalable to 320 gigabits per second capacity. The network incorporates Dense Wave Division Multiplexing (DWDM) transmission capabilities and Layer 3 routing architecture.

How is ORION keeping pace with new technologies?
ORION continues to invest in its network to maintain a robust network infrastructure with modern technologies in support of its connected institutions, researchers, educators and learners. A new routing layer was implemented in 2007, which supports IPv6, MPLS (Multi Protocol Label Switching), Quality of Service (QoS), and in the future virtual routing.

ORION, in partnership with our national colleagues in CANARIE, is among the first to deploy "reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexing" (ROADM) technology from Nortel Networks. This allows engineers to reconfigure optical routes on demand through software rather than traveling to sites to install physical equipment.

Can private companies connect to ORION?
ORION welcomes partnerships with private sector entities. They can connect to ORION to undertake joint research and or education projects or activities with ORION eligible organizations, or to test or showcase a new technology or service on the ORION network. They can also connect to provide applications or services solely to support and facilitate the research and or education activities of the ORION members.