News for and about the Internet2 community

["Lauren Rotman" <>]

ESnet and Internet2 Extend Networking Partnership  

Multi-Year Agreement to Provide Foundation for Next-Generation Network to
Support Department of Energy Scientists

ANN ARBOR, Mich., and BERKELEY, Calif. - July 16, 2007 - The Department of
Energy's (DOE) Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) and Internet2-two of the
nation's leading networking organizations dedicated to research-today
announced a multi-year extension to their agreement to deploy and operate
the next generation of the ESnet backbone network.

Called ESnet4, the new network created through this partnership is being
built as a highly reliable, high capacity nationwide network that will
greatly enhance the capabilities of scientists at national laboratories and
universities across the country. This long-term partnership, initially
announced in August 2006, brings together two advanced networks which have a
combined 30 years of experience in providing service to thousands of
researchers around the world. The network will be managed by ESnet and
operated across Internet2's backbone infrastructure.

Once complete, the ESnet4 network will utilize several dedicated
10-gigabit-per-second (Gbps) wavelengths on the new Internet2 nationwide
infrastructure and will seamlessly scale by one optical wavelength per year
for the next four to five years in order to meet the needs of the DOE Office
of Science. The Office of Science oversees more than 30 DOE laboratories,
100,000 DOE laboratory scientists, 18,000 researchers from universities,
other government agencies and private industry who contribute to many large
scale DOE research activities like the experiments at the Large Hadron
Collider project at CERN, the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at Brookhaven
National Lab, among many others. 

"This continued investment in ESnet by the Department of Energy's Office of
Science represents a significant contribution to the nation's research and
education infrastructure. In fact, as the single largest supporter of basic
research in the physical sciences in the United States, the Office of
Science provides research funding for thousands of scientists at
universities," said William Johnston, head of the ESnet Department at
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. "By working with Internet2 to
increase the reliability and capacity of ESnet, our goal is to advance
scientific discovery through access to large-scale scientific resources and
improved collaborations."

The agreement between ESnet and Internet2 stems from the conclusion that by
sharing a common optical circuit infrastructure that is larger than either
community could obtain individually, both DOE's and the U.S. research and
education community's research would have access to a network infrastructure
bigger than either community could build on their own. Another factor
supporting the partnership is the fact that nearly 90 percent of the network
traffic on ESnet flows to and from the research and education community.

ESnet and Internet2 announced in May 2007 that the organizations had
completed the first northeast segments of the new network-an important
deployment milestone. Deployment of the initial infrastructure continues on
schedule, with the section east of the Rockies essentially complete.
Completion is expected by October 2007. The new ESnet4 network is provided
by Internet2 through its agreement with Level 3 Communications. Internet2
and Level 3 have deployed a dedicated, high capacity backbone with dynamic
optical circuit provisioning for the Internet2 community. Internet2 and
ESnet will operate the ESnet4 network to provide flexibility and control in
the dynamic provisioning of optical circuits needed to support today's
large-scale and highly complex scientific research.

"We are on the cusp of significant changes in the way scientific research is
conducted. As university faculty and researchers shift from working in a
local laboratory to leveraging major global collaborations, this change will
have a direct and meaningful impact upon demand for high performance,
reliable networks," said Douglas Van Houweling, Internet2 president and CEO.
"We believe the important long-term partnership we have built with ESnet
will provide the foundation to support this new paradigm and we are
confident it will open the door to myriad new scientific discoveries and
collaborations that have yet to be imagined."

Today, Internet2's network connects over five million users at 270 research
and education institutions in the U.S. and also provides access to over 80
international research networks. This partnership will allow university and
lab researchers participating in ESnet activities to leverage their
institutions' Internet2 network connection to access the ESnet4
infrastructure and its global network partners around the world. 

About ESnet
ESnet is a high-speed network serving thousands of Department of Energy
scientists and collaborators worldwide. A 20-year pioneer in providing
high-bandwidth, reliable connections, ESnet enables researchers at national
laboratories, universities and other institutions to communicate with each
other using the collaborative capabilities needed to address some of the
world's most important scientific challenges. Funded principally by DOE's
Office of Science, ESnet services allow scientists to make effective use of
unique DOE research facilities and computing resources, independent of time
and geographic location. ESnet is managed by Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory. For more information: http://www.es.net/

About Internet2
Internet2 is the foremost U.S. advanced networking consortium. Led by the
research and education community since 1996, Internet2 promotes the missions
of its members by providing both leading-edge network capabilities and
unique partnership opportunities that together facilitate the development,
deployment and use of revolutionary Internet technologies. Internet2 brings
the U.S. research and academic community together with technology leaders
from industry, government and the international community to undertake
collaborative efforts that have a fundamental impact on tomorrow's Internet.
For more information: http://www.internet2.edu/

Media Contacts:
Lauren Rotman, Internet2

202.331.5345

Jon Bashor, ESnet

510-486-5849