News for and about the Internet2 community

[Todd Sedmak <>]

Internet2, ESnet Complete First Transcontinental 100G Network Deployment

New Massive Capacity Networks to Benefit U.S. Scientists, Researchers, and 
Educators

Ann Arbor, Mich.—Oct. 11, 2011—Two of the nation’s leading research networks 
– the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) and 
Internet2 –today announced that they have completed the world’s first 
transcontinental deployment of 100 Gigabit per second (Gbps) using coherent 
technology. Built on Ciena’s 6500 Packet-Optical Platform, the new 8.8 
Terabit per second network is equipped with 100 Gbps optical backbone 
connections. Those connections are now operational between New York, 
Washington D.C., Cleveland, Chicago, Kansas City, Denver, Salt Lake City, and 
Sunnyvale spanning a distance nearly 4000 miles.

“This new coast-to-coast capacity represents the first major milestone in 
completing the nation’s most advanced platform for network-based innovation,” 
said Rob Vietzke, Executive Director of Network Services for Internet2. 
“Prior innovations from the research and education community have given us 
the Internet itself, the world-wide web and social networking. We can only 
imagine what the major new capabilities of this new network might enable in a 
classroom, research lab or health clinic.”

Both ESnet and Internet2 are upgrading their respective networks to new 100 
Gbps technology on a nationwide scale to ensure they keep pace with the 
exponential growth in scientific research traffic being driven by the 
nation’s research labs and universities. Internet2’s network will also extend 
to support the country’s community anchor institutions including libraries, 
hospitals, K-12 schools, community colleges and public safety organizations 
as part of its United States Unified Community Anchor Network (U.S. UCAN) 
project.

Internet2 provides a national high-performance network that connects 
America’s colleges and universities to collaborators worldwide. ESnet – 
managed by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) – is a 
national network that connects thousands of DOE Office of Science researchers 
at more than 40 different U.S. laboratories and supercomputing facilities and 
links them to research partners around the world.

“The global science community’s needs for managing data are exploding in 
scope and complexity requiring a fundamental shift in the way we provide 
networking. By 2015, we anticipate that ESnet will carry 100 petabytes of 
traffic per year – and this volume will continue to grow driven by research 
fields like high energy physics, climate research and genomics,” said Steve 
Cotter, ESnet department head. “The DOE’s Advanced Networking Initiative 
(ANI) was created to re-establish America’s global leadership in ultra-high 
capacity networking and to build the most sophisticated platform for 
accelerating U.S. science discovery in this age of data intensive research. 
Today’s announcement marks a major milestone in ensuring this vision is 
realized.”   The Advanced Networking Initiative is supported by DOE’s Office 
of Science.

Earlier this year, Berkeley Lab announced an agreement with Internet2 for 
ESnet to share capacity on the Ciena optical platform for its new 100 Gbps 
network being built as part of ANI. The network will first be built as a 
prototype to connect DOE’s three unclassified supercomputing centers as well 
as the Manhattan Landing International Exchange Point (MAN LAN) in New York. 
By the end of 2012, ESnet will transition the network to production deploying 
100 Gbps connections linking DOE Office of Science sites. Through the 
agreement, Internet2 is also providing dark fiber to ESnet for a nationwide 
experimental network test-bed.

This first milestone deployment has been completed in partnership with Ciena. 
Ciena’s 6500 Packet-Optical Platform equipped with WaveLogic™ coherent 
optical processors provide high network capacity that helps to reduce overall 
operational expenses through its automated wavelength provisioning and 
restoration.

“We have historically enjoyed a very strategic partnership with both 
Internet2 and ESnet.  We are excited about this latest opportunity to 
continue supporting their next-generation network build around Ciena’s 
coherent solutions,” said Mike Aquino, General Manager, Global Government 
Solutions, Ciena. “This deployment is a testament to our technology 
leadership, as well as our commitment to strong collaboration with global 
leaders in the research and education segment.”

Both Internet2 and ESnet plan to showcase these new 100G capabilities at the 
upcoming SC11 conference being held from November 12-18, 2011 in Seattle, 
Washington.

About Internet2
Internet2, owned by U.S. research universities, is the world’s most advanced 
networking consortium for global researchers and scientists who develop 
breakthrough Internet technologies and applications and spark tomorrow’s 
essential innovations. Internet2 consists of more than 350 U.S. universities; 
corporations; government agencies; laboratories; higher learning; and other 
major national, regional and state research and education networks; and 
organizations representing more than 50 countries. Internet2 is a registered 
trademark. For more information, see www.internet2.edu

About ESnet
ESnet is a high-speed national network serving thousands of Department of 
Energy scientists and collaborators worldwide. A 25-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 the Lawrence Berkeley National 
Laboratory. For more information: www.es.net and www.lbl.gov.

About Ciena
Ciena is the network specialist. We collaborate with customers worldwide to 
unlock the strategic potential of their networks and fundamentally change the 
way they perform and compete. With focused innovation, Ciena brings together 
the reliability and capacity of optical networking with the flexibility and 
economics of Ethernet, unified by a software suite that delivers the 
industry’s leading network automation. We routinely post recent news, 
financial results and other important announcements and information about 
Ciena on our website. For more information, visit www.ciena.com.

Media Contacts:

Todd Sedmak,
Internet2
202-331-5373


Jon Bashor
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
(510) 486-5849


Jamie Moody
Ciena

214-995-8035

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