From wire service reports
National LambdaRail, Inc. (NLR), a
consortium of leading U.S. research universities and private sector technology
companies, today announced that it has successfully lit the optical-network
path between Washington, D.C., and Atlanta, Ga., giving the D.C., Raleigh,
N.C., and Atlanta regions access to the national NLR network infrastructure.
The path completes the route between Atlanta, D.C., Pittsburgh, Cleveland and
Chicago.
The deployment began in January with Cisco Systems, Inc. installing dense
wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) extended long-haul platforms
approximately every 100 kilometers on intercity dark fiber NLR purchased from
Level 3 Communications, Inc.
Meeting the target completion
date on April 16, Cisco deployed eight 10 Gbps Ethernet lambdas for NLR along
the 766 fiber miles (1532 strand miles) between Washington, D.C. and Atlanta.
Overall, the system supports expansions up to 40 10 Gbps lambdas.
"This is an important milestone for our region and represents the next
phase in a tradition of collaborating in support of advanced networking
capabilities. Since the establishment of the Research Triangle Park 45 years
ago, the area has been an important site for innovation and collaboration
between higher education and industry," said Tracy Futhey, vice president of
Information and CIO of Duke University, representing a coalition of North
Carolina Universities participating in NLR. "Over the past several years, the
North Carolina GigaPOP has been an active node in Internet2's development,
including an early test site for new technologies in partnership with vendors
within the networking industry. Participation in NLR reinforces a regional
commitment to advanced networking and moves us into the optical networking
realm."
"On behalf of the Mid Atlantic Terascale Partnership, we are excited to be
a part of the National LambdaRail as it becomes a working reality. With a
major portion of the network now lit including links from Atlanta to Chicago
through Raleigh, D.C. and Pittsburgh, research institutions in Virginia,
Maryland, and Washington D.C. and our colleagues throughout the southeastern
United States gain tremendous opportunities to drive the advancement of
Terascale computing and networking," said Erv Blythe, vice president for
Information Systems and CTO, Virginia Tech. "We believe these efforts are
critical to the competitiveness of our region and the nation in all areas of
scientific and medical research. We are especially pleased to see the network
become operational in our area ahead of schedule and applaud the effectiveness
of NLR in bringing this about."
"Completion of this segment is the first and critical step to bring the
power of NLR to scientists and researchers at Georgia Tech and in the rest of
the Southeast," said Ron Hutchins, Associate Vice Provost for Research &
Technology and Chief Technology Officer at the Georgia Institute of
Technology. "It connects us to the resources of the nation's research
universities and national laboratories in a way that was not possible before.
This path is one way to bring national network resources such as the Oak Ridge
National Laboratory into the National Science Foundation's Extensible
Terascale Facility."
Phase one installation is complete with the path between Chicago to
Atlanta fully operational. The remaining paths are in final testing, with
operational roll-outs scheduled on the paths from Seattle to Sunnyvale, Calif.
by mid-May; Denver to Chicago by the end of June; Atlanta to Jacksonville,
Fla. by mid-July; and Seattle to Denver by late August. All of phase one will
be fully operational by the start of the next academic school year.
Cisco Systems' participation in this unique effort is both as the key
provider of networking equipment and as a major proponent of the NLR
objectives to advance research in networking and all fields of science. Cisco
technologies including optical DWDM platforms, Ethernet switches and IP
routers are being deployed; as well as installation, testing, and product
maintenance services.
Level 3 is the preferred provider of the dark fiber and collocation
facilities on the NLR core backbone infrastructure.
About National LambdaRail
National LambdaRail, Inc. (NLR) is a major initiative of U.S. research
universities and private sector technology companies to provide a national
scale infrastructure for research and experimentation in networking
technologies and applications. NLR puts the control, the power and the
promise of experimental network infrastructure in the hands of our nation's
scientists and researchers.
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