Fibre testbed keeps NBNCo discussions brief

The operators of a testbed gigabit optical fibre network at the University of Melbourne have held "brief but not detailed" discussions with NBNCo on how they might use the lab facility.

The Institute for a Broadband-Enabled Society (IBES) director Rod Tucker said the testbed network was "well under construction" and was hoping detailed discussions with NBNCo would flow from brief discussions that had already occurred.

He indicated IBES may also use a forthcoming meeting between NBNCo and various networking vendors to get a foot in the door for more detailed discussions.

"Our plan in the lab is to be fairly flexible," Tucker said.

"As details of the construction emerge we want to be able to adapt the lab to closely match what the NBNCo architecture is going to look like."

Chinese vendor Huawei was the latest to join the IBES industry partner program. Existing vendors included Cisco, NEC, Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson and Allied Telesis.

Like the others, Huawei would donate equipment to IBES, including switches for the testbed's core network.

"We're still working on that kind of detail," Tucker said.

IBES was set up in July last year.

The Victorian Government has committed $2 million in funding to the project. It is seen as a tool to help the state attract the NBNCo headquarters, which several states are vying for.

An NBNCo spokesman has been contacted for comment.