News for and about the Internet2 community

[Greg Wood <>]

INTERNET2 TO LEVERAGE NEW OPTICAL INFRASTRUCTURE TO EXPLORE CUTTING EDGE 
NETWORKING

Intersection of optical circuits and packet technologies promises new 
round of network innovation

Ann Arbor, MI--September 17, 2003--Internet2 today announced that it 
will have access to a 10 gigabit per second wavelength provisioned on 
the national footprint of the optical networking infrastructure recently 
announced by National LambdaRail, Inc. (NLR), a consortium of major U.S. 
research universities, Internet2, and other collaborating organizations. 
With access to both the NLR wavelength and the existing high-performance 
Internet2 Abilene backbone network, the Internet2 community gains the 
ability to explore the potential of combining new optical circuit 
technologies and existing high-performance Internet services to develop 
a next generation of advanced networking capabilities.

"Our members' commitment to advancing the leading edge of networking and 
the Abilene Network's record of supporting the most advanced network 
applications provide an ideal foundation to pursue the opportunities 
presented by these new technologies," said Douglas Van Houweling, 
President and CEO of Internet2. "The Internet2 community's investment in 
and work with National LambdaRail provide us with the capability to 
extend our work with colleagues around the world in advanced networking."

Much of this work is anticipated to expand on the intense investigations 
into the intersection of leading-edge packet and optical circuit 
technologies already underway among research and education networks 
around the world such as CA*net in Canada and SURFNet in the 
Netherlands, as well as efforts in the United States principally at 
StarLight, the Chicago-based advanced optical infrastructure and proving 
ground for international network services.

A design team drawn from the Internet2 membership as well as leading 
international collaborators is being formed to develop both a roadmap 
and a detailed plan for Internet2's efforts in this area. A critical 
objective will be the close coordination of this national effort with 
the emerging set of regional optical networks in the United States, 
including I-WIRE in Illinois, I-LIGHT in Indiana, and CalREN in California.

"The intersection of optical circuit and packet technologies promises to 
be a rich area of exploration for both network researchers and engineers 
and holds the potential for providing scientists in many disciplines new 
ways of working and communicating," said Steve Corbató, Director of 
Backbone Networking Infrastructure for Internet2. "This effort will 
continue the work of the Internet2 IP-over-Optical Working Group that 
commenced nearly a year ago in addition to leveraging our ongoing 
support of regional optical network development through projects such as 
FiberCo, an initiative to provide a strategic national fiber acquisition."

In addition to Internet2, the other current NLR members and associates 
include the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California 
(CENIC); the Pacific Northwest GigaPop (PNWGP); the Pittsburgh 
Supercomputing Center; Duke University, representing a coalition of 
North Carolina universities; the Mid-Atlantic Terascale Partnership 
(MATP) and the Virginia Tech Foundation; Cisco Systems; Florida 
LambdaRail, LLC; the Georgia Institute of Technology; and the Committee 
on Institutional Cooperation (CIC). The Texas Universities Consortium is 
a pending member. Level 3 Communications is making a significant 
commitment to NLR by providing dark fiber and supporting services.

About Internet2(R)
Led by more than 200 U.S. universities, working with industry and 
government, Internet2 is developing and deploying advanced network 
applications and technologies for research and higher education, 
accelerating the creation of tomorrow’s Internet. Internet2 recreates 
the partnerships among academia, industry and government that helped 
foster today’s Internet in its infancy. For more information, visit:
http://www.internet2.edu/

About Abilene Network
Abilene, developed in partnership with Qwest Communications, Cisco 
Systems, Juniper Networks, Nortel Networks and Indiana University, is an 
Internet2 backbone network providing nationwide high-performance 
networking capabilities for more than 225 universities and research 
facilities in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. 
For more information on Abilene please see http://abilene.internet2.edu/

About FiberCo(TM)
FiberCo provides a means for acquiring, holding, and assigning fiber 
optic network assets in support of the Internet2 community's goals of 
developing and deploying advanced network applications and technologies. 
FiberCo facilitates the ongoing development of regional optical 
networking initiatives around the country to complement existing 
Internet2 network infrastructure while providing a strategic fiber 
acquisition capability on the national scale. For more information, see:
http://www.fiberco.org/

About National LambdaRail, Inc.
National LambdaRail, Inc. (NLR) is a major initiative of U.S. research 
universities and private sector technology companies to provide a 
national scale infrastructure for research and experimentation in 
networking technologies and applications. NLR puts the control, the 
power and the promise of experimental network infrastructure in the 
hands of our nation’s scientists and researchers. Visit 
http://www.nationallambdarail.org for more information.

# # #

Contact:
Greg Wood, Internet2

(703) 625-3917

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