News for and about the Internet2 community

[Greg Wood <>]

LEADING ORGANIZATIONS ACROSS U.S. FORM CONSORTIUM TO ADVANCE RESEARCH 
AND EDUCATION NETWORKING

"The Quilt" will promote advanced networking

October 1, 2001--Over fifteen leading regional research and education 
networking organizations today announced a new joint effort called "The 
Quilt" to promote and extend advanced networking services. The 
University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development (UCAID), a 
university-led research and development consortium, will provide the
organizational home for The Quilt.

Gwendolyn Huntoon will serve as The Quilt's initial executive director 
while remaining in her position as assistant director of networking at 
the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center.

The Quilt will undertake three initial projects:

- The Regional Optical Networking Project will provide a forum for 
communication about technologies and business practices in use and under 
experimentation by participants implementing fiber optic network 
infrastructure and will drive the development of best practices in the 
implementation of new, cost effective network services.

- The Measurement Infrastructure Project will support end-to-end 
performance by collecting and disseminating a common set of network 
measurements across regional network infrastructures.

- The Commodity Internet Services Project will aggregate The Quilt 
participants' buying power and strategic opportunities for the 
acquisition of commercial Internet services.

"Participants in The Quilt provide an important and substantial 
component of the national research and education network 
infrastructure," said Rick Summerhill, executive director of the Great 
Plains Network and chair of The Quilt executive committee. "Coming 
together will allow us to share ideas and experiences--as well as pursue 
common interests--far more effectively."

The organizations that have come together to form The Quilt include 
gigaPoPs, which provide high-performance network connections and 
services for over 140 Internet2 member universities and standard 
Internet connections and support for thousands of other research and 
education institutions around the country.

"The Quilt complements other UCAID initiatives by providing a framework 
to foster the development and extend the deployment of the advanced 
network technologies and applications that are at the core of UCAID's 
mission," said Douglas Van Houweling, President and CEO of UCAID. "Wendy 
Huntoon's demonstrated leadership and extensive experience provide The 
Quilt a strong foundation from which to work toward our common goals."

Initial participants in The Quilt are the Corporation for Education 
Network Initiative in California (CENIC), EDUCAUSE, the Front Range 
GigaPoP (FRGP), Great Plains Network (GPN), the Mid-Atlantic Crossroads 
(MAX), Merit Network, Inc. (Merit), Metropolitan Research and Education 
Network (MREN), North Carolina GigaPoP, Net.Work.Virginia, Northern 
Crossroads (NoX), NYSERNet, OARnet, Pacific/Northwest Gigapop (PNWGP), 
Pittsburgh GigaPoP, Southern Crossroads (SoX), Southeastern Research 
Universities Association (SURA) and the Texas GigaPoP.

For more information about The Quilt, see: http://www.thequilt.net/

About The Quilt
The Quilt gathers over fifteen leading research and education networking 
organizations in the United States to promote consistent, reliable, 
interoperable, and efficient advanced networking services that extend to 
the broadest possible community; and to represent common interests in 
the development and delivery of advanced network services. Participants 
in The Quilt provide network service for over 140 Internet2 universities 
and thousands of other educational institutions. For more information, 
see: http://www.thequilt.net/

About UCAID
The University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development (UCAID) 
provides leadership and direction for advanced networking development in 
higher education and research.  It provides the corporate home for 
Internet2(R) and the Abilene network.

Contacts:
Media
Greg Wood
Internet2
+1-202-331-5360


Technical
Gwendolyn Huntoon
The Quilt
+1-412-268-4960



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Subject: News Release: PSC Engineer Will Direct The Quilt
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---
From MIKE SCHNEIDER 
<>:
NEWS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sept. 28, 2001

Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center Engineer to Lead National Network Project

PITTSBURGH -- Gwendolyn Huntoon, assistant director of the Pittsburgh
Supercomputing Center, has agreed to serve as the first executive director
of The Quilt, an effort of many U.S. regional networking organizations to
promote and extend research network services. She will continue in her
leadership role at PSC while taking responsibility, through The Quilt, to
coordinate many groups nationwide in development of next-generation network
technologies.

Huntoon directs the networking resource group at PSC, which carries out
advanced research and provides consulting and training for universities and
research centers nationwide. In this role, she has led development of the
Pittsburgh GigaPop, a high-speed network hub that provides advanced network
services for Carnegie Mellon University, Pennsylvania State University, the
University of Pittsburgh and West Virginia University.

"I'm pleased to have this opportunity to expand upon the work that PSC's
networking group has done in high-performance network research and
infrastructure," said Huntoon. "Many of the projects The Quilt will be
focusing on are of strategic interest to PSC, CMU and the broader
Pittsburgh GigaPop community."

Over 15 non-profit research and education network organizations, which
provide network resources for thousands of U.S. research and education
institutions, have pooled resources to form the Quilt.  The University
Corporation for Advanced Internet Development (UCAID), a Washington,
DC-based organization that promotes networking for education and research,
is providing organizational support for The Quilt.

The Quilt's initial objectives include: (1) to provide a forum for best
practices related to implementation of fiber-optic network infrastructure,
(2) to support improved end-to-end network performance through uniform
standards to measure and assess performance, and (3) to aggregate the
Internet services buying power of The Quilt's participants.

For more information about The Quilt, see: http://www.thequilt.net

For more information about networking at PSC, see:
http://www.psc.edu/networking

The Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center is a joint effort of Carnegie Mellon
University and the University of Pittsburgh together with Westinghouse
Electric Company. It was established in 1986 and is supported by several
federal agencies, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and private industry.

CONTACT:
        Michael Schneider
        Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center
        412-268-4960
        


        Sean Fulton
        Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center
        412-268-4960
        


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