Pacific Northwest Gigapop

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PNWGP Circular, April 2001

Amy Philipson

What's New?

  • Jan Eveleth started with the Pacific Northwest Gigapop (PNWGP) as Services Manager in January. Jan can be reached via email at eveleth@cac.washington.edu or phone at 206-221-2300. To learn more about Jan's background, see the Note on page 2 of this Circular.
  • This occasional, informal note will update you on current news at the PNWGP, at our Participants' sites, and with Internet2 programs. Future circulars will include profiles on people, projects, and Participants. Is there something you'd like to hear about? Email gigapop-info@pnw-gigapop.net or call 206-934-5588.

In this Circular 001

 

PNWGP PARTICIPANTS (MARCH 2001)
SAVE DOLLARS AND TIME
UPDATING YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION
THE PNWGP CHALLENGE
NISQUALLY EARTHQUAKE IMPACT
PNWGP SERVICES MANAGER'S NOTE
DOT.SMART
OCTOBER PNWGP MEETING
INTERNET2 NOTES
PNWGP CONTACT LIST

 

PNWGP Participants (March 2001)

  • Arctic Region Supercomputing Center
  • At Home Corporation
  • The Boeing Company-Boeing Research Phantomworks
  • CA*net3
  • Center for Systems Biology
  • Children's Hospital
  • City of Seattle
  • Defense Research & Engineering Network (DREN)
  • Energy Sciences Network (ESNET)
  • Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
  • Institute for Systems Biology
  • Microsoft Corporation
  • Microsoft Research
  • Montana State University
  • NOAA-Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL)
  • Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL)
  • Peer1.net (formerly Colobrokers.com)
  • Pointshare
  • Portland Research Education Network (PREN)
    • Oregon Health Sciences University
    • Oregon Graduate Institute
    • Portland State University
  • Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (SCCA)
  • Seattle Community College District
  • Seattle Pacific University
  • State of Washington, Department of Information Services (DIS)
  • State of Washington K20 Network
  • University of Alaska
  • University of Idaho
  • University of Montana
  • University of Washington
  • Washington State University

Save Dollars and Time

The Pacific Northwest Gigapop is a physical Point of Presence (POP) for the Internet2's GIGAbit testbed and research network called "Abilene."

The PNWGP is connected via an OC-48 (or 2.4Gbps) circuit. While most of our Participants connect to the PNWGP specifically to access the testbed and its collaborative work environment, that is but one of the valuable services that the PNWGP offers.

The IntraGigapop Services keeps Internet traffic that is destined for other Gigapop Participants within the Gigapop network. All Participants who attach to Abilene automatically have access to IntraGigapop Services, but those who don't need to use Abilene right now may get value from the IntraGigapop Services alone.

How? Without a PNWGP connection, your traffic destined for PNWGP Participant Site A will traverse your commercial Internet connection and cope with the congestion inherent in the commercial Internet at large. With an IntraGigapop Services connection, that same traffic would flow directly to Site A. This offers you a potential savings in both dollars and time, as the packets typically have a far shorter route to follow. If you are interested in learning more about our IntraGigapop Services or other PNWGP services, email gigapop-info@pnw-gigapop.net or call 206-934-5588.

Updating Your Contact Information

If you have changes in personnel and/or contact info for administration, billing, technical, tech backup, or outages notifications, please email gigapop-info@pnw-gigapop.netor call 206-934-5588.

The PNWGP Challenge

"No application is too big for our Abilene pipes." We want to hear about your "killer app" and, better yet, see it demonstrated. Let us know what you're up to and if you're looking for collaborators.

Nisqually Earthquake Impact

Only two hours after the Nisqually Quake shook the region, UW Senior Engineer Bill Mar reported on the status of the Pacific Northwest Gigapop facility:

"The only anomaly noted...is a few handfuls of concrete chunks that broke loose from the ceiling...Sweeping gathered those all up, but vacuuming will be required to clean up all the concrete dust that fell onto some hardware, racks and fiber trays." Early facilities reports also showed no damage or outages within the building. Our good fortune!

Throughout the day, traffic skyrocketed to the University of Washington Geophysics web site at http://www.geophys.washington.edu/. And many in the region found their most reliable means of communication was email rather than telephone.

PNWGP Services Manager's Note

My career background includes eight years in networking and computing at Indiana University and Yale University; six years at NorthWestNet (which became Verio Northwest); and sixteen months as a principal in the launching of an Internet application services provider called eSociety. (The business plan was great-enough to get two rounds of funding. The timing was not great.)

I am thrilled to be back working with the region's leading development, research, and education organizations. I find the cutting edge of the future Internet far more interesting, and somewhat less nerve-racking, than the "bleeding money edge." However, I did gain a healthy respect for what it means to be a dot.com.

I know many of you from the NorthWestNet era and look forward to meeting those that I haven't yet. Drop me a line and say hello. And if I don't hear from you, I'll be sure to give you a call to see how things are going. Email eveleth@cac.washington.edu or call 206-221-2300.

Dot.Smart

While witnessing the U.S. high tech shakeout over the past year, we at the Pacific Northwest Gigapop remain confident in the future of the Internet. We like to think of our activities as "dot.smart." In other words, the best investment for the future comes from research, collaboration, and technology transfer. That complements our mission to be the "cornerstone and regional incubator for the advanced communication infrastructure and expertise essential to sustaining competitive advantage, future economic development, and the advanced services required for next generation education, business, science, medicine, entertainment, and government."

October PNWGP Meeting

Mark your calendars for the week of October 15 for a two-day get-together about Internet2 and the Pacific Northwest Gigapop. Sorry, we don't know which two days yet. LOTS more information to follow.

Internet2 Notes

Internet2 is a project of the University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development (UCAID). The programmatic areas for Internet2 include

  • Advanced network infrastructure
  • New network technologies & engineering
  • Middleware interoperability
  • Advanced applications with focus on research and education
  • Technology transfer for global gains.

More information about Internet2 can be found at http://www.internet2.edu/.

PNWGP Contact List

General Information

206-934-5588

888-934-5588

gigapop-info@pnw-gigapop.net

www.pnw-gigapop.net

Network Operations Center (7x24)

206-934-5580

888-934-5580

noc@pnw-gigapop.net

Web Site Contact

webmaster@pnw-gigapop.net

PNWGP Services Manager

Jan Eveleth

206-221-2300

Network Engineering Manager

David Richardson

206-934-5580

Mailing Address

4545 15th Ave N.E.

Seattle, WA 98105-4527

Fax

206-934-5589

888-934-5589

Circular 001, April 2001
Copyright (c) 2001 Pacific Northwest Gigapop