News for and about the Internet2 community

[Greg Wood <>]

JISC announces UKLight, a £6.5 million major international networking 
initiative

A new multi-million pound initiative will ensure that Britain can retain 
its position as a world leader in research. HEFCE (Higher Education 
Funding Council for England) is investing £6.5 million in an initiative 
known as UKLight, which will put the UK on the global optical networking 
stage.

UKLight is an international collaboration between JISC and SURFnet, 
based in the Netherlands. The UK will join several other leading 
networks creating an international experimental testbed for optical 
networking. These include StarLight in the USA, SURFnet in the 
Netherlands (NETHERLIGHT), CANARIE (Canadian academic network), CERN in 
Geneva, and NorthernLIGHT bringing the Nordic countries onboard.

UKLight will connect JANET*, the UK’s research and education network, to 
the testbed and also provide access for UK researchers to the Internet2 
facilities in the US via the StarLight initiative. The management of the 
programme will be provided by UKERNA  (the UK Education and Research 
Networking Association), who manage JANET on behalf of the JISC.

Recent worldwide advances in networking technology are enabling a 
transition to the next generation optical network that will make 
available ultra-high bandwidth to its users. These developments will 
radically transform the landscape of the information economy and present 
new facilities and opportunities to both the network research and 
development communities and to those responsible for service provision 
and delivery.  Researchers whose work relies upon fast and efficient 
computer networks will be able to stay at the forefront of their 
research, particularly in areas such as particle physics, radio 
astronomy, and high-performance computing.

Professor Peter Clarke, Particle Physics Research Group, University 
College London comments that "UKLIGHT is excellent for the UK. We now 
have a real opportunity to be at the forefront of developing new ways of 
networking needed to meet the requirements of education and research in 
the next decade.  UKLight will enable e-Science applications in a way we 
have only dreamed of up until now. This news heralds a new era of 
International network research collaboration based upon this global 
testbed".

"UKLight will provide a leading-edge networking capability that is 
critical for supporting the emerging requirements of the computational 
sciences," adds Steve Corbató, director of backbone network 
infrastructure for Internet2, the advanced networking organization led 
by U.S.  universities.  "The growing ensemble of optical networking 
initiatives in the U.K., the U.S., and elsewhere around the world will 
enable communities of researchers to collaborate. on distributed 
experiments and simulations and to share results in ways that have not 
been possible to date."

 - ends -


For further information on UKLight, contact Joseph Hutcheon, JISC 
Executive; email ; telephone 0117 931 7251 or 
Jeremy Sharp, Advanced Technologies Group, UKERNA; email 
’;
telephone 01235 822 259


Notes for editors:
The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) supports further and 
higher education by providing strategic guidance, advice and 
opportunities to use Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to 
support teaching, learning, research and administration. JISC is funded 
by all the UK post-16 and higher education funding councils.
JISC - www.jisc.ac.uk

*JANET, the UK’s education and research network, currently connects over 
700 organisations including all UK universities, colleges of higher and 
further education, research council establishments and other 
organisations that work in collaboration with this community, enabling 
the exchange of data and information between connected organisations. 
Several hundred thousand computers are currently connected and network 
access is available to all staff and students (subject to their 
organisations' policies).

JANET is the network operated and developed by UKERNA under a Service 
Level Agreement from the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) of 
the UK Higher and Further Education Funding Councils. JANET is connected 
to the equivalent academic networks in other countries and to many 
commercial networks in the UK and abroad forming part of the global 
internet.
UKERNA and JANET are registered trademarks of the Higher Education 
Funding Councils for England, Scotland and Wales.
UKERNA – www.ja.net

The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) distributes 
public money for teaching and research to universities and colleges. In 
doing so, it aims to promote high quality education and research, within 
a financially healthy sector. The Council also plays a key role in 
ensuring accountability and promoting good practice.
HEFCE – www.hefce.ac.uk

---------------------------------------------------------------i2-news-+
For list utilities, archives, subscribe, unsubscribe, etc. please visit the
ListProc web interface at 

   http://archives.internet2.edu/

---------------------------------------------------------------i2-news--