SingAREN at APAN60: Strengthening Regional Connectivity and Collaboration | Hong Kong, 28 Jul – 1 Aug 2025
12 Aug 2025 – SingAREN was pleased to participate in APAN60, held from 28 Jul to 1 Aug 2025 in Hong Kong, alongside over 300 attendees from across the global research and education networking community. The conference featured a robust hybrid setup with strong technical support and provided a valuable platform for technical sessions, bilateral meetings, and strategic planning.
SingAREN’s delegation—Jon Lau, Francis Lee, Simon Green, and Vee Len—actively participated in key sessions, chaired panels, and continued strategic discussions on enhancing research and education connectivity across Asia and globally.
Key highlights
Day 1 featured the joint AER and APOnet Joint Steering Group Meeting, where Simon Green shared updates on AER link resilience and emphasized the need for redundancy between Asia, Europe, and the U.S. Discussions also highlighted CENIC’s 400G upgrades and AARNet’s new routing strategy via Seattle and Los Angeles.
Among the several meetings and tracks that took place on Day 1, a key bilateral discussion between JUCC, SingAREN, and IPA Japan focused on the deployment of new MX304 routers in Hong Kong and Singapore to maintain MPLS connectivity and support virtual APAN and TEIN*CC routers in the region.
Figure 1 Lively interactions during the joint AER+APOnet Steering Group meeting
On Day 2, SingAREN co-hosted two impactful Network Engineering Sessions, chaired by Hirotaka Sato (APAN-JP) and Simon Green (SingAREN). These sessions featured 12 presentations from global NRENs and vendors, drawing over 60 participants. Key topics included:
- JUCC: HARNET & HK Open Exchange updates
- Internet2: Network Infrastructure and Insight Console: Current Capabilities and Future Developments
- TEIN*CC : Regional project developments
- Nokia: Terabit-scale optical transport for R&E
- KOREN: Upgraded domestic and international R&E infrastructure
- APAN-JP: Segment routing, perfSONAR, and SC24 demo plans
- SINET: Operational launch of 400G JP-US link and Tokyo GXP
- Internet2 – Discovering R&E Routing Preferences with Active Probing
- Nokia – Green fiber for Research and Education
- GÉANT– Blue Raman: an innovative submarine route from Europe to India
- Terrabit Networks Pte. Ltd. /Ciena – Scaling submarine networks towards a Petabit submarine cable
- KISTI | Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information/KREONET – KREONET/NDeX update for Big Science
Figure 2 Our engaging speakers at the Day 2 Network Engineering Sessions
There was also a dedicated session on Network Security, which drew a strong turnout, reflecting the high level of interest in this topic. APAN’s chair of security working group, Jamie Gillespie delivered an engaging presentation covering key areas such as Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) mitigation strategies and best practices for strengthening email security. He highlighted emerging attack trends, shared real-world incident examples, and outlined practical measures that organisations can adopt to enhance their resilience. The lively participation and questions from the audience underscored the relevance and urgency of addressing these security challenges in today’s evolving threat landscape.
JUCC–SingAREN Agreement Signing Ceremony
On Day 3, we had a major milestone during APAN60. It was the official signing of the updated Network Service Connectivity Agreement between SingAREN and JUCC on 30 July. Signed by Jon Lau (SingAREN) and Dr. Wilson Kwok (JUCC), the agreement strengthens the joint commitment to the SG-HK-JP circuit, supporting high-capacity R&E traffic across Asia.
Following the ceremony, a technical discussion with APAN-JP and JUCC led to the formation of a Technical Migration Working Group, tasked with guiding the transition to SR-MPLS-enabled infrastructure. The group will ensure the SG-HK-JP backbone continues to serve as a stable, resilient platform for regional connectivity.
Figure 3 Agreement Signing Ceremony by SingAREN’s Jon Lau (left) and JUCC’s Dr Wilson Kwok (right)
In the same morning, the Security Working Group meeting, chaired by Jamie Gillespie, included NREN security updates and a briefing from Jon Lau on SingAREN’s traffic monitoring. Jamie Gillespie introduced APNIC’s DASH tool for tracking routing issues and suspicious traffic, and highlighted honeypots and ShadowServer initiatives as potential opportunities for SingAREN.
It was a privilege for SingAREN to have Simon Green present a lightning talk during the Day 4 Conference Opening, showcasing the global research and education backbone’s diverse and resilient connectivity systems.
Figure 4 Simon Green presented at the Conference Opening session on Day 4
Looking Ahead
APAN60 reinforced SingAREN’s role in enabling trusted, high-capacity, and future-ready infrastructure for the research and education community. As we prepare to host APAN63 in 2027 in Singapore, the team returns with fresh insights, stronger alliances, and a renewed commitment to elevating Asia’s research connectivity on the global stage.
We thank all the speakers for their insightful contributions to these vibrant and forward-looking sessions. We are also grateful to JUCC’s Ivy Lam and Karen Tsui for open sharing their valuable experience in organizing APAN60.