THE enhancement of the existing Malaysian Research and Education Network’s (Myren) online ecosystem to Myren-X, a 100 gigabit high speed broadband infrastructure, is set to be a gamechanger for the local higher education sector.
Designed to be a dedicated network for research and learning activities with its own separate and independent gateway to the Internet, Myren-X will increase bandwidth capacity at public universities to a maximum of 100 gigabits-per-second (Gbps) and for other institutions under the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE), up to 10 Gbps.
It will also offer a bandwidth of more than one megabit-per-second (Mbps) per student.
Datuk Kamel Mohamad, deputy secretary general (management) of the Higher Education Ministry, said: “Myren-X is an extension of Myren, which was established following the decision of the cabinet meeting in July 2003 and was officially launched in March 2005.”
Myren, which initially was linked to 12 public universities, now includes 150 institutions, comprising 20 public universities, four private universities, 31 polytechnics, 85 community colleges, five teaching hospitals and five MOHE agencies.
“Under Myren, all public universities received a maximum of two Gbps bandwidth speed as part of the general public Internet. However, Myren does not provision all 206 campuses of MOHE’s higher education institutions. Only the main campuses and select research laboratories have access to the national research and education network. Myren-X aims to connect all these campuses and provide inter-connections between them,” he added.
The higher overall bandwidth speed and bigger capacity envisioned under Myren-X will allow huge amounts of data to move at higher speed, which is a requirement of teaching and learning activities.
Myren-X will also enable big data research and experiments which consume huge network bandwidth and capacity like those in the fields of genome, telemedicine and particle physics.
“Myren-X is also expected to further spur the implementation of programmes under the Redesigning Higher Education initiative stipulated in Malaysia’s Education Development Plan (Higher Education). It will facilitate new ways and methods in 21st century teaching and learning such as collaborative online learning, virtual classrooms and Massive Open Online Courses.
“In addition, it will not only allow Malaysians to access overseas education online, but also enable foreigners to access education in Malaysia and bring Malaysian education overseas. Researchers in the country will have access to and collaborate with research communities as well as access international research labs in real-time,” added Kamel.
By designing Myren-X as a separate infrastructure with its own independent network equipment, the risk of data contamination and corruption can be eliminated.
“The separate network infrastructure and equipment give Myren-X the advantage of avoiding congestion in public Internet, which can potentially reduce its effectiveness for research and educational activities. The specialised dedicated experiment platform created by Myren-X will enable higher value research that Myren has not been able to facilitate such as telesurgery, detailed DNA analysis and particle physics collaboration with the European Organization for Nuclear Research in Switzerland.”
With Myren-X availability at all 206 campuses of MOHE’s higher education institutions, students and researchers — regardless of their location — will enjoy the same standard of network facility.
IMPLEMENTATION
MYREN Network Sdn Bhd (MNSB), a consortium of public universities headed by UiTM Holdings Sdn Bhd, will run the Myren-X project, which will allow 158 institutions direct access to international teaching and learning networks covered by the Trans-Eurasia Information Network (TEIN) network.
These include overseas institutions linked to TEIN through the Pan-European Research and Education Network, INTERNET2 USA, Korea Advanced Research Network, China Education and Research Network, Japan Science Information Network and other research networks in Asean countries.
Granted the necessary licences by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission to operate as an Internet service provider, MNSB will assume the role of Network Facilities Provider, Network Service Provider and Application Service Provider to higher education and research institutions in the country.
Kamel said the launch of Myren-X at University of Malaya (UM) on Oct 4 by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak marks the beginning of the expansion project with its full completion scheduled in the second half of 2019.
To be done in phases, the implementation starts with public universities, then polytechnics followed by college community and other institutions.
“Similar initiatives ‘for university, by university’ high capacity Internet network management have taken place in the US through the INTERNET2 consortium and in Australia through the Australia’s Academic and Research Network consortium. The operating cost of Myren-X is expected to be RM123 million per year — a cost saving to the government by 15 per cent from its current annual service subscriptions,” added Kamel.
GOALS
Myren-X has short, medium and long term goals.
The short term is to create a new research environment for researchers to share, federate and exploit the collective power of available scientific and computational resources.
“To federate means to have a single sign-on to any research and education network globally. There are 50 million users accessing 8,000 research and academic institutions around the world via various research and education networks globally. The potential of the power of collaboration is tremendous,” said Kamel.
This brings MOHE to the mid-term goal of enhancing research collaboration through the development and deployment of the Myren-X infrastructure.
“For the long term, we want to acculturate and expand the uptake and effective use of the Myren-X infrastructure to learners and researchers across institutions and disciplines. The goal is to achieve better research and learning outcomes that create national impact. Eventually, we want Malaysians to be active participants in the international tertiary education scene. With technology, we don’t have to be mere users.”
Research areas that are being looked at under Myren-X include federated identity management, grid/distributed computing, high performance computing, IPv6, big data, telemedicine that crosses national borders, genome research and green technology.
Of concerns on network security, Kamel said Forefront Identity Manager (FIM) is employed.
It is an arrangement made among several local and international RENs that lets verified members of these networks to use the same identification data to obtain access to these communities’ RENs. FIM is effective because it is an open, collaborative and mutually trusted arrangement between RENs worldwide. There are common standards designed and recognised by the REN communities using Security Assertion Markup Language transmission or similar XML standard. Access to these RENs are restricted to recognised FIM members only.
Additionally, the design of Myren-X network will further enhance its security arrangement by having its own infrastructure and equipment, such as different and dedicated routers, switches, firewalls and Internet gateways which are independent of the public Internet network infrastructure.
THINK BIG
UNIVERSITY of Malaya (UM) deputy vice-chancellor (research and innovation) Professor Dr Noorsaadah Abd Rahman said Myren-X will have a great impact on research and, to a certain extent, teaching and learning at universities.
“In terms of research, we are connected to many institutions abroad where data can be transferred at a faster rate. One example is our current connection to the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Switzerland and KEK (High Energy Accelerator Research Organisation) in Japan for high energy physics research. Myren-X enables researchers to communicate and share data at a faster rate.
“In terms of teaching and learning, we have dual degree programmes where fast connection provided by Myren-X enables students to communicate quickly with their co-supervisors and fellow ‘classmates’ at other institution globally. They do not have to wait to share information or get access to material they may require urgently,” said Noorsaadah.
Computing sciences research that requires large space and fast computing will also benefit as UM can “farm-out” computing jobs to other sites around the world and obtain data at a much faster rate.
“At the moment, the budget to maintain Myren-X is a concern. We have to maintain and continuously upgrade the facilities to ensure optimal use and benefit, especially after more researchers conduct frontier knowledge work,” she added.
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) deputy vice-chancellor (research and innovation affairs) Professor Dr Mohd Ekhwan Toriman views Myren-X as the solution for high speed bandwidth demand in higher education institutions.
At UKM, he said the demand is critical for users conducting research or in the process of teaching and learning as they often have to wait to consume content or use an application, but they are less pressed when uploading data. With Myren-X, users will be able to access data faster than before.
“Research activities that demand the best Internet speed and capacity are growing, a result of the growth in the size of websites, file size of software packages and graphics and video resolutions. With the Fourth Industrial Revolution, Internet technology can assist research which requires higher bandwidth including Internet of Things, big data, robotic course-related and 3D technologies,” he added.
He also expressed concern about Myren-X’s capacity to cope with the future.
“Future revolutionary services are those that do not exist at the moment, but are expected in the coming years and they require new investment. Myren-X has to keep up to date with technologies and, at the same time, maintain current expertise and infrastructure.”
Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI) deputy vice chancellor (research and innovation) Professor Datuk Dr Noraini Idris said Myren-X is a good system as the network speed allows higher education institutions to connect with the world in real-time.
“It is helpful for education studies. We train teachers at the degree and master’s levels through the distance learning mode, so this upgrade will be of good advantage to UPSI. We can also reach out to teachers, not only for continuing studies but also training/upskilling in areas such as pedagogy.
“We also have partnerships with universities in Indonesia, the UK, US and the Middle East. These will enhance research and publication. We can be more well-known in the field of education studies at a global level.
“And we will also no longer need to travel to present at seminars. We can champion research and share findings through high speed communications,” she added.
Noraini highlighted that the infrastructure will particularly benefit the Faculty of Art, Computing and Creative Industry where members can share research findings, gamification techniques and Massive Open Online Course projects, particularly with counterparts in Australia. Unique studies and research from the Institute of Malay Civilisation can also be shared with the rest of the world through the network.
For Multimedia University (MMU) (one of four private universities on Myren), the launch of Myren-X is timely as it is pursuing a transformation of teaching and learning approaches.
“We are incorporating digital tech in every facet of our teaching and learning, and research processes. Myren-X will enable fast, reliable and responsive interactions via cutting-edge teaching and research applications,” said MMU president and chief executive officer Professor Datuk Dr Ahmad Rafi Mohamed Eshaq.
As an institution with Premier Digital Tech University status, MMU views the cloud-based network as very important in producing more high impact research in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which emphasises the use of efficient cyber infrastructure.
“As for MMU, a few research themes are already positioned to leverage on the blazing speed of Myren-X. These are the Big Data Analytics and Smart City research that require the processing, storage and transmission of large and fast data streams. Myren-X provides a platform for large-scale Fourth Industrial Revolution research through faster connectivity to facilitate access and collaboration, especially for research and innovation,” said Ahmad Rafi.
The implementation of Myren-X gives researchers an opportunity to think big — “conducting impactful, translational research in large scale in order to fully leverage on the infrastructure”.