News for and about the Internet2 community

["Lauren Rotman" <>]

ESnet, Internet2 Complete Coast-to-Coast Next-Generation Network In Support
of DOE Scientific Community

BERKELEY, Calif. and ANN ARBOR, Mich. - November 15, 2007 - Two of the
nation's leading research networks - the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE)
Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) and Internet2 - announced today that they
have completed five interconnected rings, each consisting of one or more
10-gigabit-per-second (Gbps) paths, that form a coast-to-coast network that
is the backbone of DOE's next-generation scientific network.

Called ESnet4, the new network built by this partnership is a highly
reliable, high capacity nationwide network that will greatly enhance the
capabilities of scientists at national laboratories and universities across
the country. The long-term ESnet-Internet2 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 is managed by ESnet and operated across
Internet2's backbone infrastructure.

The next steps will be to add a sixth ring connecting the northern and
southern sections of the national network, and to increase the capacity of
all of the rings by adding 10 Gbps paths to the existing rings. Once
complete, these connections will increase both bandwidth and network
reliability for the tens of thousands of DOE-supported researchers at
national laboratories and universities around the country.

 "The deployment of ESnet4 is remarkable both for its technical achievement
and for the fact that it is proceeding ahead of schedule, bringing more
robust and innovative services to the U.S. research community and their
collaborators around the globe," said Michael Strayer, director of DOE's
Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research which funds ESnet, managed
by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. "Our partnership with Internet2
underscores the value of the collaborative spirit we have fostered in the
high performance computing community for years - you bring experts together,
let them do their jobs and the nation's researchers reap the rewards."

ESnet4 network utilizes dedicated 10-Gbps wavelengths on the new Internet2
nationwide optical infrastructure and will seamlessly scale by adding
additional 10 Gbps circuits each 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. 

In addition to providing production IP services, ESnet4 will enable new
optical services like point-to-point dynamic circuit networking, which will
serve as an advanced and dependable platform for scientists and researchers
supported by ESnet. ESnet is working with Internet2 and other partners to
develop and deploy interoperable dynamic circuit networking which extends
the reach and value of this revolutionary technology.

"Internet2 and ESnet share a commitment to support next-generation network
capabilities that will allow our scientific community to focus its resources
on its core research and educational objectives," said Doug Van Houweling,
Internet2 president and CEO. "With the first national phase of the ESnet4
deployment complete, the ESnet and Internet2 communities now have
capabilities that just a few years ago could only be imagined, enabling
scientists and researchers across the country who utilize this robust
network to achieve new breakthroughs in physics research."

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.

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/ and
http://www.lbl.gov/.

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/

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