Radio Astronomy and eVLBI using KAREN

TL;DR

This paper discusses the use of the KAREN network for high-volume radio astronomical data transfer, compares new UDP protocols, and explores initial steps toward real-time eVLBI data streaming.

Contribution

It presents an evaluation of data transfer protocols over KAREN and reports progress toward real-time eVLBI data streaming from radio telescopes.

Findings

UDT protocol outperforms tsunami and ftp in efficiency

Successful transfer of large radio astronomical data volumes

Initial progress towards real-time eVLBI streaming

Abstract

Kiwi Advanced Research and Education Network (KAREN) has been used to transfer large volumes of radio astronomical data between the AUT Radio Astronomical Observatory at Warkworth, New Zealand and the international organisations with which we are collaborating and conducting observations. Here we report on the current status of connectivity and on the results of testing different data transfer protocols. We investigate new UDP protocols such as "tsunami" and UDT and demonstrate that the UDT protocol is more efficient than "tsunami" and ftp. We report on our initial steps towards real-time eVLBI and the attempt to directly stream data from the radio telescope receiving system to the correlation centre without intermediate buffering/recording.