News for and about the Internet2 community

[Todd Sedmak <>]

Nation's First 100G Open, Nationwide, Software-Defined Network Launches for 
Education, Research, Industry and Innovators

Internet2's new network, 29 NET+ cloud services, and U.S. UCAN project 
address research,
big data science, and innovation

Philadelphia—-Oct. 1, 2012—-The nation's first 100G open, national-scale, 
software-defined network—built to support advanced services and cloud 
applications—is now available to spur new waves of innovation in education, 
research and industry.

Internet2, operator of the nation's fastest, coast-to-coast research and 
education network, announced today at the Fall 2012 Internet2 Member Meeting 
in Philadelphia that their new 100G-enabled and 8.8 Terabit per second 
optical network is operational for member institutions.

"We are excited about officially launching the new capabilities of the 
nation's first 100G open, national-scale, software-defined network through 
massive collaboration with our partners in government and business that will 
be used by Internet2 members to help solve practical, far-reaching problems 
that benefit society," said Internet2 CEO and President H. David Lambert. "We 
look forward to seeing the collaboration of our community using this dynamic 
network to advance education, transform university business models, and 
accelerate global Big Data collaborative research outcomes. When we equip the 
research and education community with great technology and no barriers to 
innovation, that's when they start creating the future."

The new capabilities now available on the Internet2 Network include:

An upgraded Advanced Layer 3 Service, that will provide extraordinary 
broadband capabilities for science, medicine and education not only to the 
higher education community, but also to hundreds of thousands of community 
anchor institutions through partnerships with regional networks and 
Internet2's United States Unified Community Anchor Network (U.S. UCAN) 
project.

A nationwide 100Gbps Software Defined Network offering both production 
services like the Layer-2 Open Science, Scholarship and Service Exchange 
built in partnership with Indiana University and support of new network 
innovations through software defined networking support.

Over 8.8 Tbps of optical network capacity through 88, 100 Gbps-waves that are 
delivered in a unique partnership, between Internet2 and the Department of 
Energy's Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) that will share this capacity and 
operations of the infrastructure to advance national programs.

Internet2's members also can leverage the new Internet2 Network to deliver 
Internet2 NET+ Services and keep pace with the exponential growth in Big Data 
science being driven by the nation's collaborative researchers in labs and 
universities.Internet2 NET+ Services currently offers 29 cloud services to 
college campuses nationwide that are cost-effective, easy to access, simple 
to administer, and tailored to the unique needs of the research and education 
community. The new network and cloud services enable transformational new 
solutions for education delivery and provide better-yielding solutions for 
university business functions—helping higher education institutions remain 
competitive nationally and globally.

Working with its regional network partners, Internet2's U.S. UCAN project 
will utilize the newly upgraded 100G-enabled Internet2 Network to allow 
advanced networking features for more than 200,000 of the country's community 
anchor institutions, including libraries, hospitals, K-12 schools, community 
colleges, and public safety organizations. The network infrastructure will 
support advanced applications, such as HD and multi-cast video distance 
learning and telemedicine. The upgraded network was predominately funded 
through the U.S. Department of Commerce's Broadband Technology Opportunities 
Program.

About Internet2

Internet2® is a member-owned advanced technology community founded by the 
nation's leading higher education institutions in 1996. Internet2 provides a 
collaborative environment for U.S. research and education organizations to 
solve common technology challenges, and to develop innovative solutions in 
support of their educational, research, and community service missions. For 
more information, visit www.internet2.edu.

Media contact: Todd Sedmak, (202) 331-5373 or 
.

Todd Sedmak
Internet2
PR and Media Relations Manager
202-331-5373 (w) or 


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