News for and about the Internet2 community

["Heidi L. Alvarez" <>]

PRESS RELEASE

Media Contact:

Heidi Alvarez, Director

Center for Internet Augmented Research and Assessment (CIARA)

Florida International University

305-348-2006

AMPATH to launch support for Dynamic Hybrid Networking

National Science Foundation awards supplement to enable state of the art 

Miami, Florida, August 1, 2011 – CIARA announced today that it will begin a five year project to bring advanced network services to the AMPATH Open Exchange Point in Miami.

AMPATH will support dynamic hybrid (packet and circuit) network services in both production and experimental environments through the following activities:

* Deployment and operation of a production-level traffic monitoring and reporting system for dynamic circuit network services, including those used in international connections.

* Upgrade of the AMPATH GOLE (GLIF Open Lightpath Exchange) to support the dynamic provisioning of GLIF lightpaths.

* Deployment of OpenFlow switches and controllers to interconnect OpenFlow networks in Brazil with  those of Internet2 and GENI.

* Deployment and operation of an experimental traffic monitoring and reporting system to prototype the Coral Reef passive monitor to support OpenFlow.

* Engagement with users and science projects, and collaboration with developers, engineers, operators and science communities to develop use cases demonstrating the increasing utility of the adoption of dynamic circuit network services.

“With the establishment of dynamic hybrid networking at AMPATH, we will be able to bridge important research underway in Brazil with the GENI efforts in the U.S. Over the coming years, these services will grow in both accessibility and impact.”, said Dr. Chip Cox, Chief Operations Officer of AMPATH.

“RNP welcomes AMPATH’s adoption of dynamic circuit services, which will promote significant advances in providing support for international cooperation between Brazil and the United States, both in the field of e-Science and in Future Internet experimentation within GENI”, commented Dr Michael Stanton, Director of Research and Development at Brazil’s National Research and Education Network.

The OpenFlow service effectively makes network devices part of a programmable infrastructure allowing networks to be defined in software. Although this is not an entirely new approach, it is being widely adopted internationally to develop new approaches to network architecture. 

This research into the evolution of the Internet is of global scale, and requires a global team to harmonise interoperabiility. AMPATH is supporting this innovation throughout the Americas through the support of a NSF supplement to the AMLIGHT project (PI Julio Ibarra). The end result will be an enabling network supporting critical research, science and education seamlessly meeting needs today, and preparing for tomorrow. 

About CIARA: Florida International University’s Center for Internet Augmented Research and Assessment (CIARA) has developed an international, high-performance research connection point in Miami, Florida, called AMPATH (AMericasPATH; www.ampath.fiu.edu). AMPATH extends participation to underrepresented groups in Latin America and the Caribbean, in science and engineering research and education through the use of high-performance network connections. AMPATH is home to the Americas Lightpaths (AmLight) high-performance network links connecting Latin America to the U.S., funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), award #OCI-0963053 and the Academic Network of Sao Paulo (award #2003/13708-0). AmLight aims to enhance science research and education in the Americas by interconnecting key points of aggregation, providing operation of production infrastructure, engaging U.S. and western hemisphere science and engineering research and education communities, creating an open instrument for collaboration, and maximizing benefits of all investors.  

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