News for and about the Internet2 community

["Lauren Rotman" <>]

New Nationwide Internet2 Network Complete

Over 100 Gbps Capacity, Point to Point Circuits, and On-Demand Optical
Networking Capabilities Now Available to Research and Education Community

SAN DIEGO, Calif. – October 9, 2007 - Today at its annual Fall Member
Meeting, Internet2 announced the completion of its new nationwide network
infrastructure. With an initial capacity of 100 Gigabits per second (Gbps)
nationwide and revolutionary bandwidth-on-demand capabilities, the new
Internet2 infrastructure provides researchers and educators the potential to
transform disciplines across the board from science, to telemedicine, to
network research, to the performing arts.

“Today’s milestone marks the completion of an ambitious effort to
exponentially increase the capacity and flexibility of the networking
resources available to serve the rapidly changing needs of the Internet2
community,” said Doug Van Houweling, Internet2 president and CEO. “More
importantly, we believe the Internet2 Network and its new capabilities will
play an integral part in enabling our members to provide the robust
cyberinfrastructure our community requires to support innovative research
and education.”

The new optical infrastructure provides a uniquely scalable platform on
which to build side-by-side networks that serve different purposes, such as
network research and telemedicine. Internet2 is continuing to provide an
advanced Internet Protocol (IP) Network, which supports production
networking technologies such as IPv6, multicast, and other high-performance
networking technologies. It is also introducing a new Dynamic Circuit
Network (DCN). Beginning in January 2008, the DCN will enable researchers to
provision up to 10 Gbps of dedicated bandwidth on demand. The new
infrastructure also enables long-term dedicated point-to-point optical
circuits up to 10 Gbps on separate wavelengths as part of the organization’s
WaveCo service.

During the conference’s first general session, Rick Summerhill, Internet2’s
chief technology officer, in collaboration with Dale Finkelson, director of
Networking, and Dr. Carl Lundstedt of University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL)
together with colleagues from ESnet, Fermilab, and the Great Plains Network
demonstrated a dynamic circuit application on the Internet2 Network. Dr.
Lundstedt, a physicist by training, serves as a grid system administrator
with UNL for the U.S. CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid), one of
the highly-anticipated Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiments and
considered a major driver for early adoption of DCN services. Dr. Lundstedt
used the network to seamlessly set up a 10 Gbps dedicated circuit between
the UNL campus and Fermilab in Batavia, IL, which enabled a data transfer
equaling one-third of a terabyte in five minutes. UNL is the first Internet2
member to take advantage of the DCN as a part of its development trial. 

“The LHC experimentation that our campus will be involved in over the next
several years brought about an immediate need for us to explore new ways of
networking that can support the intense short term demands of our
researchers,” said Finkelson. “Internet2’s new Dynamic Circuit Network holds
the promise of providing cost-effective, on-demand bandwidth that can easily
handle these powerful requirements. Not only does the DC network provide a
platform for our LHC needs, but it provides a pathway for our community to
explore new applications and technologies.”

Rick Summerhill, Internet2’s chief technology officer added, “Through the
combination of dynamic and static network services as well as our IP
network, we believe we are supporting the development of network
capabilities that will help support a ubiquitous cyberinfrastructure. Just
like you switch on a light or turn on a water tap, we envision a future
where researchers, scientists, faculty, artists, etc. will be able to 'turn
on' a high capacity network connection when and where they need it.”

In addition to its initial capabilities, the new infrastructure provides a
smooth path for increasing wavelengths and bandwidth as required by the
Internet2 community. Currently, ten 10 Gbps links are provisioned on each
segment of the network, but this can be scaled to 20 or 40 or 100 or more
wavelengths as required by the community. Internet2 is also working with its
network partners to test and develop new 40 and 100 Gbps technologies.

"The new network is the result of Internet2 listening to member needs and
the vision outlined by our community,” said Greg Palmer, executive director
of MAGPI, an Internet2 member and advanced networking hub serving Eastern
Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. “In doing so, not only will the
network offer our community flexibility but it also makes the best use of
our investment dollars to ensure that the limitations of what our
researchers, faculty, students, and scientists can achieve are only those of
imagination, and not of resources.”

In 2006, Internet2 announced an agreement with Level 3 to deploy the
next-generation nationwide network. Level 3 has deployed Infinera's Digital
Optical Networking equipment across the dedicated high capacity backbone to
enable dynamic optical circuit provisioning for the Internet2 community.
Internet2 has also partnered with Ciena Corporation to deploy the
CoreDirector Multiservice Switch for switching and sub-wavelength grooming
services. Additionally, Internet2 has deployed its current Juniper T640
routers to provide the enhanced IP capabilities on the new network. 

The smooth transition to the new Internet2 Network was made possible through
the collaboration of Level 3, the Global Network Operations Center at
Indiana University, the regional research and education networking
organizations, Qwest Communications, and Internet2 staff. 

About Internet2(R)
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

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