News for and about the Internet2 community

["Lauren B. Kallens" <>]

BRAZIL PARTICIPATES IN GLOBAL COLLABORATION BREAKING BANDWIDTH SPEED RECORD
AT SC04

With fewer than 50 days to go before the Super Computing 2004 conference,
high-energy physics researchers at the University of Sao Paulo recognized
the opportunity to showcase their active involvement in the global
computational Grid. They asked the CIARA (Center for Internet Augmented
Research and Assessment) team at FIU, and the ANSP (Academic Network of Sao
Paulo) team to leverage their expertise, along with AMPATH to create a 2.5
Gigabit per second (Gbps) connection for research from the conference center
floor in Pittsburgh, to the computational clusters in Brazil. To do this, a
team was formed of Telecom Italia Sparkle's Latin American Nautilus,
providing the submarine cable capacity; Cisco Systems, providing critical
components for the end-to-end connection; Terremark, providing space and
support in their Network Access Points (NAPs) in both MIami and Sao Paulo;
FPL Fibernet, providing crucial links in Miami; and Qwest Communications and
Internet2's Abilene network, providing high-performance connectivity from
Miami to Pittsburgh.

The result of this collaboration was a contribution to the winning team of
the 2004 bandwidth challenge, allowing them to exceed their goal of 100Gbps.

The new link between Miami and Sao Paulo set a new speed record for U.S. to
Brazilian research networking at a sustained 1.66Gbps, with bursts up to
2Gbps. This new link increases 45 times the bandwidth capacity between the
US and Brazil. This is a first step in bringing research connectivity in the
Gigabit range for U.S. to Latin American research efforts.

This global collaboration involving teams of high-energy physicists,
computer scientists and network engineers from the California Institute of
Technology (Caltech), the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC),
Fermilab, CERN, the University of Florida and Florida International
University, as well as international participants from the UK (University of
Manchester and UKLight), Brazil (Rio de Janeiro State University, the State
University of Sao Paolo and the Academic Network of Sao Paulo) and Korea
(Kyungpook National University), resulted in a sustained 101Gbps of
throughput. This was a single event, which will by 2007 become commonplace
in order to support high energy research when CERN's Large Hadron Collider
begins operation, searching for the Higgs particles, super-symmetry, and
other new physics in an energy range previously unattainable, generating
data rates seen first in this demonstration at SuperComputing2004.

Harvey Newman, Professor of Physics at Caltech and head of the team said,
"This is significant milestone both for the development of global networks
and Grids, as well as inter-regional cooperation in science projects at the
high energy frontier. We demonstrated that multiple links of various
bandwidths can be used effectively over long distances. This is a common
theme that will serve many fields of data intensive science well. This
includes such fields as fusion, geosciences, and neutron physics, who
foresee network needs rising to the Terabit/sec range in within the next
5-10 years."

*About FIU
*Florida International University is one of America's most dynamic
institutions of higher learning. Since opening in 1972, FIU has achieved
many milestones of excellence that have taken other universities more than a
century to reach, including its classification as a Research I university.
FIU has a nationally renowned faculty known for their outstanding teaching
and cutting-edge research, and various students from the U.S. and over 130
foreign countries attend FIU each year. The university offers more than 200
Baccalaureate, Master's and Doctoral degree programs in 16 colleges and
schools. For more information on Florida International University, please
visit _www.fiu.edu_.

*About AMPATH
*AMPATH interconnects Research and Education (R&E) networks in South and
Central America, the Caribbean and Mexico to US and non-US R&E networks via
Internet2’s Abilene network and the StarLight facility, led by the
University of Illinois at Chicago. 
The AMPATH international exchange is located at the NAP of the Americas in
Miami. AMPATH is supported in part by grants from the National Science
Foundation. More information about AMPATH can be found at
_www.ampath.fiu.edu_.

 *About Latin American Nautilus
*Latin American Nautilus provides high quality wholesale telecommunication
services in the Americas with its state of the art 30,000km fiber optic
network on the Telecom Italia Sparkle Global Backbone. The Fiber Optic ring
network interconnects South, Central &  North America with the Telecom
Italia Global Backbone expanding TI Sparkle's service portfolio into the
Americas. For additional information please visit www.lanautilus.com_.

*About Internet2
*Internet2 is a consortium of 207 universities working alongside industry
and government sharing the common goal of developing and deploying advanced
network applications and technologies in hopes of accelerating the creation
of tomorrow's Internet. Internet2 is working to recreate the quality of
collaborations among academia, industry and government that spawned our
present-day Internet. More information about nternet2 can be found at
_www.internet2.edu_.
 
*About Academic Network of Sao Paulo (ANSP) 
*ANSP unites São Paulo’s University networks with Scientific and
Technological Research Centers in São Paulo, and is managed by the State of
São Paulo Research  Foundation (FAPESP). The ANSP Network is another example
of international collaboration and exploration. Through its connection to
AMPATH, all of the institutions connected to ANSP will be involved in
research with US universities and research centers, offering significant
contributions and the potential to develop new applications and services.
This connectivity with AMPATH and ANSP will allow researchers to enhance the
quality of current data, inevitably increasing the quality of new scientific
developments.

*About Cisco Systems
*Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO), the worldwide leader in networking for
the Internet, this year celebrates 20 years of commitment to technology
innovation, industry leadership, and corporate social responsibility.
Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing
news, go to http://newsroom.cisco.com.

*About FPL Fibernet
*FPL FiberNet, LLC, the telecommunications subsidiary of FPL Group, Inc.,
(NYSE:FPL), provides fiber optic services and cable to telecom-related
companies in Florida. FPL Group, Inc. is one of the nation’s largest
providers of electricity-related services, with annual revenues of more than
$9 billion. Florida Power & Light Company, with more than 4.2 million
customer accounts in Florida, is FPL Group’s principal subsidiary. FPL
Energy, LLC, an FPL Group wholesale electricity generating subsidiary, is a
leader in producing electricity from clean and renewable fuels. Additional
information is available on the Internet at _www.FPLFiberNet.com,_
_www.FPLGroup.com_ and www.FPL.com_.

*About Terremark
*Terremark is an operator of integrated Tier-1 Internet exchanges and
best-in-class network services and the owner and operator of the NAP of the
Americas and NAP do Brasil, providing space and support in their Network
access points in both MIami and Sao Paulo.