• Access and Privacy
• Alberta SuperNet
  • Benefits and Use
  • Project Partners
  • Success Stories
  • The Network (Technical Info.)
    • Leading Technology
    • Network Structure
• CIO Council
• Records and Information Management
• Technology Initiatives

Leading Technology

The Alberta SuperNet is a high-speed, high-capacity network that makes heavy use of fibre-optic cable, virtual private networks and multi-protocol label switching. Among other things, this allows it to deliver videoconferencing and IP telephony services.

The following excerpts from Harnessing the SuperNet Advantage (pdf) illustrate the SuperNet’s leading technology:

Waiting for Tolstoy (High-Speed, High-Capacity)

SuperNet customers routinely move data on and off the network at speeds of up to 60 megabits per second – and that’s nowhere near the network’s capacity. On dial-up, which was the only option for many Albertans before SuperNet, data can be uploaded and downloaded at a maximum speed of 56 kilobits per second. The upgrade is equivalent to trading in your car that goes 160 kilometres per hour for one that goes 172,200 kilometres per hour.

End-to-End (Fibre-Optic Cable)

The Alberta SuperNet’s cables are made of plastic or glass fibre-optic strands no thicker than a hair. Information travels the network as light impulses. Fibre-optic carries more information than older copper wire and it’s faster and clearer, too. If you stretched all the SuperNet’s cable strands end-to-end, the resulting belt would wrap around the Earth more than three times. Add the distance covered by wireless and you could circle the planet four times.

The Security Priority (Virtual Private Networks)

A big priority with a network such as the Alberta SuperNet is security. Designers addressed those concerns in a number of ways. One way was to create Virtual Private networks – VPNs. The VPNs allow for a highly secure connection between two users. Users outside a VPN cannot view, change, stop or add their own information to the data inside a VPN.

How do they do that? (Multi-Protocol Label Switching)

The Alberta SuperNet uses Multi-Protocol Label Switching – MPLS. It’s a technology that works like a traffic cop, prioritizing the information that moves through it, like cars in lanes of traffic. MPLS provides dedicated lanes that make videoconferencing or IP telephony services possible and ensures they don’t degrade or become choppy through network delays.