Sand Point, Seattle, Washington – March 5, 2012 – The Pacific Northwest Gigapop (PNWGP), one of several regional data transfer centers around the country that efficiently moves large volumes of data between regional, national, and other networks, announced today their partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in supporting a major milestone for the ongoing growth and development of the NOAA N-Wave Research Network. This partnership significantly enhances the current capabilities of N-Wave and the ability to interconnect NOAA researchers to NOAA’s national research resources.

“We’ve created for the very first time, a network platform for NOAA researchers that underpins much of the high-performance computing, data storage, archival, and data retrieval that is necessary for scientific research,” said Jerry Janssen, who works in the NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory and manages NOAA’s N-Wave Research Network.

PNWGP will provide the necessary collocation and connectivity requirements to establish N-Wave’s fifth network backbone Core site expanding N-Wave to NOAA research offices in Seattle, Washington. Furthermore, the new Seattle Core Site will be the gateway connection point for other NOAA sites in the Pacific region with the first being the NOAA Pacific Regional Center in Hawaii.

Janssen stated, “This expanded and renewed partnership between NOAA and PNWGP is crucial to the ongoing success of NOAA’s science and environmental stewardship mission on the West Coast of the US, and in the greater Pacific region.”

The N-Wave network is built on a 10-Gigabit per second dedicated wave backbone via the national research and education network Internet2.  The network waves will be used to provide dedicated, high-speed, and high-capacity connection between climate and weather researchers and NOAA’s key-high performance computing sites across the nation.

About Pacific Northwest Gigapop (PNWGP)
The Pacific Northwest Gigapop (PNWGP) is a nonprofit corporation serving research and education organizations throughout the Pacific Rim. They provide cost-effective, robust, reliable, high-bandwidth, and high-capacity networking to support the missions of these organizations and the needs of researchers, faculty, students, and staff. PNWGP designs, implements, and manages a multi-state high-bandwidth and high-capacity network specifically designed to meet unique requirements of research and education communities.  For more information, visit http://www.pnw-gigapop.net/

About NOAA
NOAA’s mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth’s environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and conserves and manages our coastal and marine resources. For more information, visit http://www.noaa.gov/

Contacts:
PNWGP
Amy Philipson
206-310-0097
amy.pnwgp@gmail.com

Todd Sedmak
Internet2
PR and Media Relations Manager
202-331-5373 (w), 804-497-0282 (c) or Todd@Internet2.edu

Visit our website: www.internet2.edu
Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/internet2 Become a Fan on Facebook: www.internet2.edu/facebook

Groups to Deploy 100G Networking Capabilities across West Coast, Share Infrastructure, and Work on Network Initiatives

La Mirada, CA — Feb. 7, 2012 — CENIC, the Pacific Northwest Gigapop, (PNWGP) and Internet2 today announced plans for a major, long-term collaboration to deploy 100 Gigabit per second (Gbps) networking capabilities across the entire West Coast of the United States, to share a common optical networking infrastructure, and to work on many network based initiatives.

This shared infrastructure, using PNWGP and CENIC fiber-optic cable and Internet2’s new Ciena optical system, will initially support the West Coast portion of Internet2’s new nationwide backbone network and the advanced Research & Education (R&E) peering and exchange services provided by CENIC and PNWGP. This long-term collaboration includes the Pacific Wave international distributed exchange, whose major exchange and access points in Seattle and Los Angeles are being interconnected with 100 Gbps capacity to support interconnections and transport at 100 Gbps speeds. Twenty-seven networks representing more than 40 countries throughout the Pacific Rim, the Americas, and the Middle East connect to one another via Pacific Wave.

“These 100 Gbps network interconnection and transit capabilities will enable our U.S. and international research partners to achieve the performance and service capabilities required by next generation research initiatives,” noted Louis Fox, President and CEO of CENIC.

“This is an extraordinary step forward in cooperation and mutual commitment between Internet2 and two R&E technology leaders, PNWGP and CENIC,” said Dave Lambert, CEO of Internet2. “We will work together to best and most cost-effectively serve our overall R&E community with next generation capabilities and services.”

“By partnering on this infrastructure, we are able to share our resources and expertise and further leverage our long-term reliance upon Internet2 and also the proven Internet2 network operations center to achieve reliable, ultra-high-performance networking which is affordable for our members and partners,” said Amy Philipson, Executive Director of PNWGP.

Internet2, CENIC, and PNWGP also will provide advanced broadband network capabilities, services, content, and applications to expand the U.S. Unified Community Anchor Network’s (U.S. UCAN) western community and to existing participants in all three organizations’ collective R&E networks.
Ron Johnson, chair, Pacific Northwest Gigapop, and Stephen Wolff, chief technology officer, Internet2, both of whose involvements in the Internet date back to the early days of ARPAnet and NSFnet, praised this new partnership and network fabric. Johnson noted that this “establishes the evolved relationship between our organizations as well as the directly shared technical platform that we have all been seeking. This will enable the R&E communities we serve both to pursue the next generation of innovations enabled by our networks, apps, and content, and to extend them for even broader impact to other key constituencies.” Wolff echoed these views, saying “thanks to this partnership, there will be many new opportunities for collaboration in the service of our communities and in the advancement of technology.”

About Internet2 • www.internet2.edu
Internet2, created and led by U.S. research universities, is one of the world’s most advanced networking consortia 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; other major national, regional and state research and education networks; and organizations representing more than 50 countries. Established by Internet2 in 2011, U.S. UCAN is a national project dedicated to ensuring community anchor institutions, including public libraries, schools, community colleges, research parks, public safety and health care institutions have access to advanced broadband capabilities. Internet2 is a registered trademark.

About CENIC • www.cenic.org
California’s education and research communities leverage their networking resources under CENIC, the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California, in order to obtain cost-effective, high-bandwidth networking to support their missions and answer the needs of their faculty, staff, and students.
CENIC designs, implements, and operates CalREN, the California Research and Education Network, a high-bandwidth, high-capacity Internet network specially designed to meet the unique requirements of these communities, and to which the vast majority of the state’s K-20 educational institutions are connected. In order to facilitate collaboration in education and research, CENIC also provides connectivity to non-California institutions and industry research organizations with which CENIC’s Associate researchers and educators are engaged.

About Pacific Northwest Gigapop • www.pnw-gigapop.net
The Pacific Northwest Gigapop (PNWGP) is a not-for-profit organization whose team brought the original internet to the northwest in the 80’s, and which today provides the full range of cost-effective, reliable, broadband high-performance networking, interconnection and peering, and related collaboration mechanisms, needed to help support the missions of our diverse membership, including the research, education, medical, cultural, government and leading technology organizations throughout the pacific-northwestern USA and also internationally across the Pacific Rim via Pacific Wave.

About Pacific Wave • www.pacificwave.net
Pacific Wave is a state-of-the-art distributed international peering and exchange facility, which spans the West Coast of the USA including major interconnected points of presence in Seattle, Sunnyvale, and Los Angeles and is designed to serve research and education networks throughout the Pacific Rim and the world. Pacific Wave enhances research and education network capabilities by increasing network efficiency, reducing latency, increasing throughput, and reducing costs. Pacific Wave is a joint project between CENIC, the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California, and the Pacific Northwest Gigapop, and is operated in collaboration with the University of Southern California and the University of Washington.

Media Contacts:
Todd Sedmak, Internet2
(202) 331-5373 • Todd@Internet2.edu

Janis Cortese, CENIC
(714) 220-3454 • jcortese@cenic.org

Amy Philipson, PNWGP
(206) 310-0097 • amy.pnwgp@gmail.com

La Jolla, Calif.—Feb. 6, 2012—The U.S. Unified Community Anchor Network (U.S. UCAN) today announced the selection of 14 affiliate program participants to facilitate advanced and innovative broadband applications to help community anchor institutions. These initial affiliates will work with U.S. UCAN to expand the program throughout 2012. The announcement was made at The Quilt and StateNets Joint Winter 2012 Meeting.

“I am excited to begin collaborating with our initial set of affiliates to define the programs and services we will build together to deliver advanced broadband networks and use them effectively,” said Mark Johnson, interim executive director, U.S. UCAN.

The U.S. UCAN national program office and the pilot affiliates will work together to define and provide appropriate support, guidance, direction and services that can be offered to community anchor institutions. The pilot affiliates will be the primary contact point for community anchor institutions.

The 14 affiliates selected are:

•     CENIC
•     FLR
•     Indiana GigaPOP
•     IRON
•     MAGPI
•     MCNC
•     MDREN
•     Montana
•     MOREnet
•     New York
•     OARnet
•     PNWGP
•     UEN
•     WiscNet

About U.S. UCAN

Established by Internet2 in 2011, The United States Unified Community Anchor Network (U.S. UCAN) is a national project dedicated to ensuring community anchor institutions, including public libraries, schools, community colleges, research parks, public safety and health care institutions have access to advanced broadband capabilities. Utilizing the Internet2 Network and in collaboration with regional research and education networks across the country, U.S. UCAN will enable these anchor institutions to serve their communities with telemedicine, distance learning and other life-changing advanced network applications. For more information about U.S. UCAN, visit www.usucan.org.

Media contact: Todd Sedmak, Internet2, 202-331-5373 or Todd@Internet2.edu

Visit our website: www.internet2.edu
Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/internet2 Become a Fan on Facebook: www.internet2.edu/facebook

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – April 26, 2006 - Internet2 today announced that an international team set a new Internet2 Land Speed Records (I2-LSR) in the IPv4 and IPv6 single and multi-stream categories. As an open and ongoing competition for the highest-bandwidth, end-to-end networks, Internet2 LSR awards represent the fastest rate at which data is transferred multiplied by the distance traveled.

For the IPv4 record, a team from the University of Tokyo, the WIDE Project, Chelsio Communications, JGN2 network, Pacific Northwest Gigapop, NTT Communications,
APAN, Fujitsu Computer Technologies, IEEAF, CANARIE, StarLight, SURFnet, SARA, and the University of Amsterdam collaborated to create a network path over 30,000 kilometers in distance crossing eight international networks and exchange points. In doing so, the team successfully transferred data at a rate of 8.80 Gbps which is equal to 264,147 terabit-meters per second (Tb-m/s).

Dr. Kei Hiraki, professor at the University of Tokyo and LSR team leader said, "While previous IPv4 record setting attempts were limited by the PC's internal bus, this latest record setting attempt demonstrates that the bottleneck has moved out of the PC and back into the network infrastructure. In doing so, this record may be the last I2-LSR IPv4 record that uses 10Gbps networks because any other attempt would require at least a 10% increase over the previous record which would exceed the maximum capacity of the networks."

For the IPv6 record, the team created a path over 30,000 kilometers in distance crossing five international networks. The team transferred data at a rate of 6.96 Gbps. Achieving a mark of 208,800 terabit-meters per second (Tb-m/s).

Hiraki added, "As we continue to learn more about IPv6, we have been able to leverage new networking technology called 'receiving side pacing' to increase the stability of network. These new techniques enabled us to increase the record by 10% and will hold enormous promise to help ensure increased performance for IPv6 networks for the future."

The record setting team was presented with official awards for the Land Speed Records at the annual Internet2 Spring Member Meeting held this week in Arlington, VA.

For more information about these record-setting attempts, see:
IPv4 - http://data-reservoir.adm.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/lsr-20060219/
IPv6 - http://data-reservoir.adm.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/lsr-20051114/

Details of past winning entries, complete rules, submission guidelines, and additional details are available at: http://lsr.internet2.edu/

About Internet2(R)
Led by more than 200 U.S. universities working with industry and government, Internet2 develops and deploys advanced network applications and technologies for research and higher education, accelerating the creation of tomorrow's Internet. Internet2 recreates the partnerships among academia, industry, and government that helped foster today's Internet in its infancy. For more information, visit: www.internet2.edu.

Media Contact:
Lauren Rotman
Internet2
lauren@internet2.edu
 

Connection Enables K20 Students Across the State to Participate in Leading-Edge Internet-Based Educational Opportunities

ANN ARBOR, Mich. and FAIRBANKS, Alaska – March 23, 2006 – Children across the state of Alaska will soon have access to one of the fastest networks in the world.

Representatives from Internet2 and the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) today announced that Alaska’s statewide education network, AK20, will become the 35th state education network to connect directly to Internet2’s nationwide high performance network. Leveraging this connection, AK20 will participate in the Internet2 K20 Initiative which will give Alaska’s students access to cutting-edge, Internet-based educational opportunities not available today on the commercial Internet.

The announcement was made during a special ceremony held at UAF’s Internet2 Day. Participants included, Douglas Van Houweling, Internet2’s president and CEO; Louis Fox, Internet2’s director of the K20 Initiative; Steve Smith, UAF’s CIO; and Scott Christian, executive director of the Alaska Distance Education Consortium.

“Internet2 has worked diligently in partnership with University of Alaska and the Pacific Northwest Gigapop to bring these leading-edge Internet capabilities to the Alaskan K20 community,” said Dr. Louis Fox, director, Internet2 K20 Initiative and vice provost, University of Washington. “Through this program, not only will thousands of Alaskan students and teachers be able to take part in the latest networking technology to collaborate and learn in new ways but in turn, they will help enrich their peers in the broader education community by sharing the rich traditions, diverse cultures and institutions that make up this unique region."

Through this connection, made possible through the Pacific Northwest Gigapop, teachers and students across Alaska will be able to participate in programs like Megaconference Jr., a project that uses advanced videoconferencing technology to bring together thousands of students in elementary and secondary schools from around the world for an all-day learning conference. Students can also receive live undersea exploration demonstrations from remote locations with famed oceanographer Bob Ballard, take master music classes from world-renowned instructors or use remote-controlled instruments to dissect a biology specimen from 1,000 miles away.

“UAF has a long tradition of providing our campus with the most advanced resources available and has served as the state’s hub for cutting-edge technology development,” said Steve Smith, UAF’s chief information officer. “By sponsoring the state’s K20 Initiative, we are extending next-generation capabilities to a community which would not otherwise have access to these valuable educational resources.”

AK20 connects hundreds of Alaska schools, libraries, community colleges and museums. Schools within urban areas such as Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau will connect via a fiber-optic network, while outlying rural areas will use satellite and digital microwave connections. While not all schools have sufficient bandwidth to take full advantage of Internet2’s network capabilities, AK20 is working with Alaska’s carriers to provide the highest bandwidth possible to these schools.

About Internet2
Led by more than 200 U.S. universities, working with industry and government, Internet2 develops and deploys advanced network applications and technologies for research and higher education, accelerating the creation of tomorrow's Internet. Internet2 recreates the partnerships among academia, industry, and government that helped foster today's Internet in its infancy. For more information about Internet2, visit: http://www.internet2.edu/.

About the Internet2 Sponsored Educational Group Participant (SEGP) Program
The SEGP program is intended to allow expanded access to the Internet2 Abilene network for state and regional education networks, through sponsorship by Internet2 university members. State and regional networks may include nonprofit and for-profit K20 educational institutions, museums, libraries, art galleries, or hospitals that require routine collaboration on instructional, clinical and/or research projects, services and content with Internet2 members or with other sponsored participants. The program began in early 2001 and has since connected 35 state K20 networks.

About the University of Alaska Fairbanks
UAF is a Land, Sea and Space Grant institution with an enrollment of more than 9,000 students. Located 160 miles south of the Arctic Circle, UAF is the only doctoral degree granting institution in the state. Since it was founded in 1917, UAF has been internationally recognized for research relating to the Arctic and sub-arctic, in areas such as biology, geophysics, engineering, natural resources and global climate change. http://www.uaf.edu/

About Pacific Northwest Gigapop
The Pacific Northwest Gigapop (PNW Gigapop) is a not-for-profit serving leading edge organizations and Research and Education networks throughout the Pacific Rim. PNW Gigapop provides robust, highest-speed access to current state of the art Internet; Next Generation Internet services and technology; and the exclusive R&D testbeds where tomorrow’s Internet technologies are being developed. The PNW Gigapop is built to be the highest caliber Research and Education networking services hub in the world. http://www.pnw-gigapop.net/

CONTACT: 
Lauren Rotman
Internet2
lauren@internet2.edu
202.331.5345

Carla Browning
UAF
carla.browning@uaf.edu
(907) 474-7778

ANN ARBOR, Mich. - March 8, 2006 - Internet2 today announced that an
international team set a new Internet2 Land Speed Records (I2-LSR) in both the IPv6 and IPv4 single and multi-stream categories. This record marks the
fourth time a University of Tokyo-lead team has achieved an Internet2 Land
Speed record. As an open and ongoing competition for the highest-bandwidth,
end-to-end networks, Internet2 LSR awards represent the fastest rate at which data is transferred multiplied by the distance traveled.

For the IPv4 record, a team from the University of Tokyo, WIDE Project, Microsoft Corp., Pacific Northwest Gigapop, JGN2 and other institutions collaborated to create a network path over 30,000 kilometers in distance
crossing eight international networks. In doing so, the team successfully
transferred data at a rate of 7.99 Gbps which is equal to 239,820 terabit-meters per second (Tb-m/s).

For the IPv6 record, a team from the University of Tokyo, WIDE Project, Pacific Northwest Gigapop, JGN2, Chelsio Communications and other
institutions created a path over 30,000 kilometers in distance crossing five
international networks. The team transferred data at a rate of 6.18 Gbps.
Achieving a mark of 185,400 terabit-meters per second (Tb-m/s) - 10.75% more than the previous record.

Dr. Kei Hiraki, professor at the University of Tokyo and LSR team leader said, "Through these trials, we are now demonstrating that the performance of IPv6 is almost on par with IPv4. For researchers and scientists around the world, this is a positive indication that IPv6 is now ready to be used in prime time for their high-performance applications."

For more information about this record-setting attempt, see:
For the IPv4 record: http://data-reservoir.adm.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/lsr-20051110/
For the IPv6 record: http://data-reservoir.adm.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/lsr-20051112/

Details of past winning entries, complete rules, submission guidelines, and
additional details are available at: http://lsr.internet2.edu/

About Internet2(R)
Led by more than 200 U.S. universities working with industry and government,
Internet2 develops and deploys advanced network applications and
technologies for research and higher education, accelerating the creation of
tomorrow's Internet. Internet2 recreates the partnerships among academia,
industry, and government that helped foster today's Internet in its infancy.
For more information, visit: www.internet2.edu.

Media Contact:
Lauren Rotman
Internet2
lauren@internet2.edu

University of Tokyo Team Set New Performance Threshold for Long-Distance Data Transfer Using IPv4; Caltech and CERN Team Set New Mark Using Next Generation Internet Protocol

Arlington, VA -- May 4, 2005 -- Internet2 today announced that two separate international teams have each set new Internet2 Land Speed Records (I2-LSR) in both the IPv4 and IPv6 categories. As an open and ongoing competition for the highest-bandwidth, end-to-end networks, Internet2 LSR marks represent the rate at which data is transferred multiplied by the distance traveled.

IPv4 Single and Multi-Stream Record

A team from University of Tokyo, the Japanese WIDE Project, Chelsio Communications, Fujitsu Computer Technologies, LTD, NTT Communications, APAN, JGN2, SURFnet, CANARIE, IEEAF, Pacific Northwest Gigapop, StarLight and Universiteit van Amsterdam has set a new record in the Internet2 Land Speed Record (I2-LSR) competition in the IPv4 category.

The new records in the IPv4 Single-Stream and Multi-Stream categories were set by transferring 7.21 gigabits of data per second (Gbps) across a network path spanning a distance nearly three-quarters the circumference of the Earth - 30,000 kilometers long. The data traversed the WIDE, APAN, JGN2, IEEAF, CANARIE, SURFnet, and Abilene networks. Achieving a mark of 216,300 terabit-meters per second (Tb-m/s), the team surpassed the existing Single-Stream record by over 66,000 Tb-m/s and the previous Multi-Stream record by over 30,000 TB-m/s.

The team utilized an "Inter-layer coordinating optimization" technology developed by the Data Reservoir project at the University of Tokyo and used 10 Gbps Ethernet adapters with TCP offloading capabilities by Chelsio Communications.

For more information about the IPv4 record-setting attempt, see: http://data-reservoir.adm.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/lsr-20041225/

IPv6 Single and Multi-Stream Record

Using the next generation Internet protocol IPv6, a team from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and CERN set a new mark in the I2-LSR's IPv6 Single and Multi-Stream categories. The team set the record by transferring 5.11 gigabits of data per second (Gbps) across a network path of more than 14,000 kilometers. The mark of 72,225 Tb-m/s nearly doubled the previous IPv6 mark. The record was set with the support of the National Center for Data Mining (NCDM), Cisco Systems, and Neterion.

For more information about the IPv6 record-setting attempt, see: http://emartell.home.cern.ch/emartell/done/cern/ipv6_lsr_jan05/lsr6jan05.html

Both record-setting teams received awards at a special ceremony held during the Internet2 Spring 2005 Member Meeting - May 2-4, 2005 in Arlington, Virginia. Details of past winning entries, complete rules, submission guidelines, and additional details are available at: http://lsr.internet2.edu/

About Internet2(R)
Led by more than 200 U.S. universities working with industry and government, Internet2 develops and deploys advanced network applications and technologies for research and higher education, accelerating the creation of tomorrow's Internet. Internet2 recreates the partnerships among academia, industry, and government that helped foster today's Internet in its infancy.

For more information, visit: www.internet2.edu

Media Contact:
Lauren Kallens
Internet2
lkallens @ internet2.edu
ph. +1-202-331-5345

The Pacific Northwest Gigapop (PNWGP) Circular is an occasional update of news for and about PNWGP and Pacific Wave participants. To subscribe or unsubscribe to this update service, send email to gigapop-info@pnw-gigapop.net

In this Circular 004

PRICE REDUCTION ON COMMODITY INTERNET SERVICES
PNWGP UPGRADES COMMODITY INTERNET CIRCUITS
UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA SETS INTERNET2 LAND SPEED RECORD
PACIFIC WAVE JOINS APAN
PACIFIC WAVE AND IPv6
NEW INTERNET ROUTING REGISTRY POLICY IN EFFECT OCTOBER 1
PNWGP EXPANDS PEERING RELATIONSHIPS
INTERNET2 FALL MEMBER MEETING IN LOS ANGELES OCTOBER 2002
CURRENT PNWGP AND PACIFIC WAVE PARTICIPANTS
UPDATING YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION
PNWGP CONTACT LIST

PRICE REDUCTION ON COMMODITY INTERNET SERVICES

Effective October 1, 2002, the Pacific Northwest Gigapop will reduce its fees for all commodity Internet services.

• Port fees for Abilene plus Commodity Internet Services will sink from $7990/mo to $5995/mo (Usage fees for this service remain at $275/Mbps)
• Usage fees for Commodity Internet Services will drop from $400/Mbps to $325/Mbps (Monthly port fees for this service remain unchanged at $2995/mo)

Additional savings are available to those organizations with monthly use levels regularly at or above 50Mbps.

There are three contributing factors to this decrease in PNWGP commodity service fees.

• The telecommunications industry shakeup of the past 18 months has
  resulted in a lowering of IP transit fees.
• The PNWGP has been an active member of The Quilt, a national collaboration of gigapops, and through The Quilt has been able to participate in some lower-cost aggregate IP transit purchases.
• An increase in peering relationships by the PNWGP has diverted some of the traffic that would have gone over commodity links through regional peering points.

To receive the PNWGP Service Catalog reflecting this new pricing, please send email to gigapop-info@pnw-gigapop.net

PNWGP UPGRADES COMMODITY INTERNET CIRCUITS

The PNWGP estimates that the collective monthly commodity Internet bandwidth needs of its participants will reach 875Mbps by the end of this school year. To accommodate this growth, commodity Internet services for PNWGP have once again been expanded.

Last year, the PNWGP increased commodity Internet bandwidth from 445Mbps to 1.45Gbps. This year, the commodity capabilities have been expanded to 3Gbps. The new commodity services configuration provides unprecedented redundancy options, plus room to grow.

PNWGP will receive 1Gbps circuit from each of the following vendors: Level3, Verio, and Cable & Wireless. A failure or poor performance in any given circuit can easily be absorbed by the remaining two circuits. The new configuration also allows for simplified BGP configurations while continuing to offer optimal IP packet routes to and from the Internet.

In addition to retaining vendor diversity, these GbE (Gigabit Ethernet) commodity circuits are made at two geographically diverse connections at two separate nodes within Seattle, Washington, U.S.A. Some of the criteria used by the PNWGP in selection of IP transit providers are

National backbone
Seattle ingress/egress
Overall technical competence
Multicast service capability
BGP support
Significant peering with Tier One providers at multiple locations throughout the country
Response policies to security incidents
Engineering of their Point of Presence facilities
Backbone engineering
Corporate financial viability

UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA SETS INTERNET2 LAND SPEED RECORD

Congratulations to the teams at the University of Alaska (led by Kerry Digou) and the University of Amsterdam (led by Erik-Jan Bos) who blasted the Internet2 Land Speed Record last May! 625Megabytes of data were transferred from Fairbanks to Amsterdam at a rate of 401 Mbps.

See the full press release at http://archives.internet2.edu/guest/archives/I2-NEWS/log200205/msg00003.html

PACIFIC WAVE JOINS APAN

In September, Pacific Wave was accepted as an affiliate member of the Asia-Pacific Advanced Network (APAN). This higher-profile role in the APAN community will help the PNWGP in structuring its Pacific Wave services to meet the diverse and changing needs of Pacific Rim research and education partners, some of which are already active today at Pacific Wave, including AARNet and TANET2. APAN itself is also a Pacific Wave participant today through TransPAC.

Pacific Wave hopes to use this opportunity to leverage large-scale research and education projects between our regions, particularly in the areas of the physical sciences and health care.

PACIFIC WAVE AND IPV6

PNWGP regularly receive inquiries about IPv6 capabilities at Pacific Wave. The Pacific Wave switch infrastructure is capable of passing IPv6 traffic so long as each of the peering parties supports IPv6 on their Pacific Wave connected routers.

NEW INTERNET ROUTING REGISTRY POLICY IN EFFECT OCTOBER 1, 2002

Technical contacts at all PNWGP commodity transit sites were notified a few weeks ago of the upcoming implementation of a new Internet Routing Registry Policy by the PNWGP. In order to assure that your commodity routes are effectively and efficiently propagated over the PNWGP commodity circuits, your site will need to abide by this new policy. The full text can be found at http://www.pnw-gigapop.net/tech/irr.html

PNWGP EXPANDS PEERING RELATIONSHIPS

In the past six months, PNWGP staff spent considerable resources aimed at 'keeping local traffic local.' By becoming an active peer at strategic locations, data not only reaches its destination more efficiently, but money is saved as well.

In May of this year, the PNWGP joined the Northwest Access Exchange (NWAX) in Portland, Oregon (see http://www.nwax.org).

In August, the PNWGP joined the Seattle Internet Exchange (SIX) in Seattle, Washington (see http://www.seattleix.net).

Additional peering opportunities will be opened within the next few weeks for Pacific Wave participants, as well as the PNWGP.

Approximately 200Mbps (monthly 95th percentile) is being transmitted through PNWGP peering relationships, exclusive of Pacific Wave. Total peering traffic through Pacific Wave runs at about 500Mbps (monthly 95th percentile).

INTERNET2 FALL MEETING IN LOS ANGELES OCTOBER 2002

Internet2/UCAID will have its fall member meeting in Los Angeles, October 27-30th. For more information, see http://www.internet2.edu/activities/html/fall_02.html

CURRENT PNWGP AND PACIFIC WAVE PARTICIPANTS

Pacific Wave International Peering Services Participants
    AARNet
    ATTBI
    CA*net 4
    Defense Research & Engineering Network (DREN)
    Energy Sciences Network (ESNet)
    Microsoft Corporation
    Peer1.net
    Pointshare
    TransPAC
    TANET2

Pacific Northwest Gigapop Transit Participants
    Arctic Region Supercomputing Center
    AARNet (Australian Academic and Research Network)
    Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center
    City of Seattle
    -- King County
    -- Seattle Public Library
    Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
    Institute for Systems Biology
    Microsoft Research
    Montana State University
    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Pacific Marine
    -- Environmental Laboratory (NOAA/PMEL)
    Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
    Portland Research and Education Network
    -- Oregon Graduate Institute
    -- Oregon Health & Sciences University
    -- Portland State University
    Seattle Cancer Care Alliance
    Seattle Community College District
    Seattle Pacific University
    University of Alaska
    University of Idaho
    University of Montana
    University of Washington
    Washington State Dept. of Information Services
    Washington State K-20 Network
    Washington State University
 

UPDATING YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION

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

PNWGP CONTACT LIST

General Information & Circular Subscriptions
1-206-934-5588 / 1-888-934-5588
gigapop-info@pnw-gigapop.net
www.pnw-gigapop.net
www.pacificwave.net

Network Operations Center (7x24)
1-206-934-5580 / 1-888-934-5580
noc@pnw-gigapop.net

Web Site Contact
webmaster@pnw-gigapop.net

PNWGP Services Manager
Jan Eveleth
1-206-221-2300
eveleth@cac.washington.edu

Network Engineering Manager
David Richardson
1-206-934-5580

Mailing Address
4545 15th Ave N.E.
Seattle, Washington 98105-4527
USA

Fax
1-206-934-5589 / 1-888-934-5589

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

Circular 004 September 2002
Copyright (c) 2002 Pacific Northwest Gigapop

WASHINGTON D.C. - May 7, 2002: An international team set a new record for Internet performance by transferring the equivalent of an entire compact disc's contents across more than 7608 miles (12,272 km) of network in 13 seconds. The rate of 401 megabits per second achieved in transferring 625 megabytes of data from Fairbanks, Alaska to Amsterdam in the Netherlands is over 8000 times greater than the fastest dial-up modem.

The record-setting team consisted of the University of Alaska at Fairbanks; the Faculty of Science of the University of Amsterdam; and SURFnet, the national computer network for higher education and research in the Netherlands. In setting the new Internet2 Land Speed Record (I2-LSR) they used the networking capabilities of the Pacific Northwest Gigapop, an access point to leading edge networks; the Internet2 Abilene backbone network; StarLight, the advanced optical infrastructure and proving ground in Chicago, Illinois; and SURFnet.

The high-speed SURFnet connections used to set this record were developed as part of the GigaPort project, the Dutch Next Generation Internet initiative. The interconnection between SURFnet's PoPs in Amsterdam and Chicago uses Global Crossing's virtual private network service. On both ends standard PC-like hardware running Debian GNU/LINUX was used.

"Today's high-performance Internet networks in at least the US and the Netherlands, as well as the interconnection between the two, have no bottlenecks any more for high speed data applications," said Erik-Jan Bos, Manager Network Services at SURFnet. "What we found is that the bottleneck has shifted towards the very end of the connections: the computers in use with limited bandwidths on the bus."

"This shows that geography is no barrier to advanced network applications," said Kerry Digou, systems programmer who headed the University of Alaska team. "Using standard equipment and infrastructure developed in the Internet2 community, we've pushed the boundaries to the edges."

Cees de Laat, researcher at the Faculty of Science of the University of Amsterdam and member of the Grid Forum Steering Group, adds: "High-speed backbones are essential for today's Grid Applications where scientists on a global scale want to handle terabyte size datasets in international collaborations. This Land Speed Record shows what two distant locations can do together when they set their mind to it."

"The new Internet2 Land Speed Record demonstrates that high-performance networking is not constrained by national boundaries," said Rich Carlson, network research scientist at Argonne National Laboratory, and chair of the I2-LSR judging panel. "The international team involved in this effort has set a new standard for wide area, high-performance networking."

Entries were judged on a combination of how much bandwidth they used and how much distance they covered end to end, using standard Internet (TCP/IP) protocols. The Internet2 Land Speed Record is an open and ongoing competition. Details of the winning entries, complete rules, submission guidelines and additional details are available at http://www.internet2.edu/html/i2lsr.shtml

About Internet2(R): Led by over 190 U.S. universities, working with industry and government, Internet2 is developing and deploying advanced network applications and technologies for research and higher education, accelerating the creation of tomorrow's Internet. Internet2 recreates the partnerships among academia, industry, and government that helped foster today's Internet in its infancy. For more information about Internet2, see http://www.internet2.edu/

About SURFnet and GigaPort: SURFnet operates and innovates the national research network, to which 150 institutions in higher education and research in the Netherlands are connected. To remain in the lead, SURFnet puts in a sustained effort to improve the infrastructure and to develop new applications to give users faster and better access to new Internet services. SURFnet is partner in GigaPort, a project of the Dutch government, trade and industry, educational institutions and research institutes which aims to give the Netherlands a head start in the development and use of advanced and innovative Internet technology. For more information, see http://www.surfnet.nl/en/ and http://www.gigaport.nl/

The Faculty of Science of University of Amsterdam: The Advanced Internet Research group of the University of Amsterdam's Faculty of Science researches new architectures and protocols for the Internet. It actively participates in worldwide standardization organizations such as the Internet Engineering Task Force and the Global Grid Forum. The group conducts experiments with extremely high-speed network infrastructures. The Institute carries out groundbreaking research in the fields of security, authorization, authentication and accounting for Grid environments. The Institute is developing a virtual laboratory based on Grid technology for e-science applications. For more information, see http://www.science.uva.nl/research/air/

About the University of Alaska: The University of Alaska is Alaska's only public system of higher education. The system, which covers an area one-fifth the size of the contiguous United States, is comprised of three multi-mission universities located in Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Juneau, with extended satellite colleges and sites throughout Alaska that provide educational services to urban and rural populations of diverse cultural backgrounds. The university is a land-, sea-, and space-grant institution with strong state and federally funded research programs. For more information, see http://www.alaska.edu

Contacts:

Greg Wood
Internet2
ghwood@internet2.edu
202-331-5360

Sandra Passchier
SURFnet
sandra.passchier@surfnet.nl
+31 30-2305305

Robert L. Miller
University of Alaska
bob.miller@alaska.edu
907-474-6311

February 18, 2002

Key leaders in advanced networking announced today the formation of the Global Terabit Research Network (GTRN) - an international partnership to establish a true worldwide next generation Internet to interconnect national and multinational high-speed research and education networks. The partnership initially involves North America through Internet2 in the US and CANARIE in Canada, and Europe through the NREN Consortium. Participation of the Asia Pacific and other regions is expected soon.

"The scientific community is now truly international in just about all fields, and many vitally rely on the integration of computation, data, instruments and arrays of sensors that enable e-science," said Douglas Van Houweling, president and CEO of Internet2. "The GTRN will provide a framework in which the advanced networking community can collectively manage and provision the global scale, high-performance, persistent infrastructure required by the research and education community."

Added Fernando Liello, Chairman of the European NREN Consortium. "The GTRN will provide the connectivity and advanced Internet services needed by major multinational scientific collaborations in areas such as high energy physics, radio and optical astronomy, weather forecasting and climatology, biological sciences, and earth sciences."

Recent years have seen the creation of a number of very successful national and multinational advanced high-speed research networks such as the Internet2 Abilene network in the United States, the Canadian CA*net3 network in North America, and the pan-European GEANT network. Though these networks provide the bandwidth needed for e-science nationally and regionally, development of e-science on an international scale has been hampered by a lack of a global backbone comparable in speed and reliability to these networks.

The GTRN will provide a coherent global solution to this problem by providing a high-speed, stable, production-quality global backbone. This will allow next generation advanced Internet services to be provided to the global research and scientific community.

"Global availability of services such as quality of service, multicast and IPv6 are an important prerequisite for a truly converged and scalable global research network," said Andrew Bjerring - President and CEO of CANARIE Inc., Canada's advanced Internet development organization and a leader in the development, coordination and implementation of the national optical Internet network CA*net3. "Pervasive global access to applications such as reliable high quality video, telephony, remote instrument control, and numerous other applications that are incompatible with the current 'best efforts' IP networks requires that these advanced services be an integral part of a global research network."

"What has been seriously lacking is a true, persistent, production-quality global research and education network - one that is capable eventually of data rates of terabits per second", said Michael McRobbie, Vice President for Information Technology and CIO at Indiana University and Chair of Internet2's GTRN Committee. "The GTRN will provide this true global research network connectivity, offering the very high bandwidth connections that allow the national and regional networks to properly interconnect."

"All those involved in establishing the GTRN are to be congratulated on taking a major step forward in establishing the kind of advanced global network that is required by many international scientific research projects", said Aubrey Bush, Director of the Advanced Networking Infrastructure and Research Division in the National Science Foundation. "The NSF contributes funding to many of these projects and regards a stable world-wide research and education network that offers advanced services as being essential to them."

The GTRN will support global research and education requiring access to advanced high-performance Internet services. The GTRN will be run in a highly transparent manner so that end to end performance characteristics will be easily accessible to all parties responsible for ensuring the appropriate quality of service.

"The GTRN will provide both an application deployment infrastructure and a network testbed in support of advanced network services" said Dai Davies, General Manager of DANTE, which built and manages GEANT. "This will be an invaluable resource for the development of joint international research initiatives, such as grids of various types, as well as for joint network research initiatives."

The GTRN will consist of a global backbone initially connecting national and multinational networks in North America and Europe. Later it is expected to be expanded to Asia, Latin America, Russia, the Middle East and Africa. Access to the GTRN will be provided at a number of points of presence (GTRN Network Access Points - GNAPs).

The GTRN backbone will initially be composed of two OC-48 2.4 Gbit circuits acquired by DANTE connecting the Internet2 Abilene network and the CANARIE CA*net3 network to GEANT. These connect to the GEANT backbone in Europe at GNAPs in London and Frankfurt and to Abilene and CA*net3 in North America at the New York GNAP the GTRN partners have established. Additional high speed connections from North America to GEANT to complement those acquired by DANTE are being actively pursued, as are connections to other regions.

Internet2 will provide additional capacity on the Abilene network connecting the New York GNAP to Starlight in Chicago and to the Pacific Wave GigaPoP in Seattle to allow for the eventual connection of the Asia Pacific to the GTRN.

"StarLight is hosting experiments with dedicated end to end wavelengths coming from Holland, CERN, Canada, Illinois, Indiana, Washington, and California. Starlight will thus be a vital GNAP in the GTRN," said Tom DeFanti, Director of the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and principal investigator of the NSF Science, Technology And Research Transit Access Point (STAR TAP/StarLight). "The GTRN will connect Starlight and several other GNAPs in North America to several points on the GEANT network. As such the GTRN complements the StarLight wavelength experiments, offering a unified solution to connectivity between North America and Europe."

Ron Johnson, Vice President for Information Technology at the University of Washington responsible for Pacific Wave, commented "Pacific Wave is pre-positioned to be a key GNAP for integrating the Asia Pacific into the GTRN. Pacific Wave already has connections to, and selective ultra high-performance exchange among Japan, Australia, Canada and Taiwan network fabrics, and the GTRN is the next logical step in the development of connectivity across the Asia Pacific and evolution of a global teragrid."

These resources will form the initial GTRN backbone and Internet2, CANARIE and the European NREN Consortium have agreed to manage all these facilities in a coordinated and cooperative way. The Global Network Operations Center (GNOC) at Indiana University will provide NOC services to the GTRN as will the DANTE NOC and eventually a NOC in the Asia Pacific.

Related Links:

DANTE/GEANT (http://www.dante.net/)
Internet2 (http://www.internet2.edu)
CANARIE/CAnet3 (http://www.canarie.ca/)
NSF (http://www.nsf.gov/)
STAR TAP/Starlight (http://www.startap.net/starlight/)
Pacific Wave (http://pacificwave.net/)
Global NOC (http://globalnoc.iu.edu/)

Contacts:

Dai Davis (DANTE, dai.davies@dante.org.uk, +44-1223-302992)

Greg Wood (Internet2, ghwood@internet2.edu, 202-331-5360)

Susan Baldwin (CANARIE Inc., Susan.Baldwin@canarie.ca, 612-943-5399)

Karen Adams (Indiana University, kadams@indiana.edu, 812-856-5596)

Time Warner Telecom Delivers Optical and IP Services to the University of Washington and Streaming Media Technologies -- University of Washington extends its Internet2 Pacific Northwest Gigapop (infrastructure) to Portland. -- Streaming Media Technologies Distributed Media platform rides Time Warner Telecom's fiber and IP networks.

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON - January 22, 2002 - Time Warner Telecom Inc. (Nasdaq: TWTC), a leader in providing metro and regional optical broadband networks and services to business customers, today announced contracts with the University of Washington and Streaming Media Technologies, Inc. to provide fiber and IP services.

"These two competitive contract wins show the diverse applications that Time Warner Telecom offers," said Keith Hall, general manager for Time Warner Telecom Seattle. "Meeting these customers' needs shows our ability to support next generation technology applications through our fiber-based network solutions."

"Selecting vendors is always a rigorous procedure for the University of Washington," said University of Washington Associate Vice Provost Jacqueline Brown. "In addition to rigorous technical requirements that must be met, we scrutinize each vendor's reliability, history, responsiveness, technical competence, and the extensibility of their network offerings. Time Warner Telecom came through this analysis with high marks."

The University of Washington's Pacific Northwest Gigapop is the point of presence for the Internet2 Abilene research and testbed gigabit network. Time Warner Telecom's OC-3 network connection joins Pacific Northwest Gigapop facilities in Seattle and Portland and extends the Internet2 point of presence to both cities. This circuit allows the research and education community located in the Portland area to make their connection to Internet2 locally. This new connection offers data flow protection not previously implemented between these two cities. The result is greater Internet2 reliability for the Gigapop partners in Portland.

This circuit connects the Portland Research and Education Network with other Pacific Northwest Gigapop partners such as Microsoft Research, the Defense Research & Engineering Network, Children's Hospital, the Arctic Region Supercomputing Center, and the Australian Academic Research Network.

Time Warner Telecom, with its robust nationwide IP backbone, also provides high capacity IP connections for next generation digital media platforms. Streaming Media Technologies, Inc. provides the management, encoding, storage and distribution of digital video, audio and images across the world for its customers. The Company is integrating a Time Warner Telecom OC-3 IP network connection, operating at 155 Megabits per second, as a foundation for its streaming media services.

"Time Warner Telecom was the one company bidding on this job that has a stable foundation, cutting edge network architecture, and a national footprint that fits well with our future expansion plans," said Jason Turner, CEO and president of Streaming Media Technologies. "Our business requires a great deal of bandwidth and our customers expect flawless service. Time Warner Telecom was able to provide us with both."

About Time Warner Telecom Inc.
Time Warner Telecom Inc., headquartered in Littleton, Colorado, delivers "last-mile" broadband data, dedicated Internet access and voice services for businesses in 44 U.S. metropolitan areas. Time Warner Telecom Inc., one of the country's premier competitive telecom carriers, delivers fast, powerful, and flexible facilities-based metro and regional optical networks to large and medium customers. Please visit www.twtelecom.com for more information.

About Pacific Northwest Gigapop (PNWGP) & Pacific Wave
Pacific Northwest Gigapop is the Northwest's Next Generation Internet, Internet2/Abilene applications cooperative, testbed, point of presence, and home to the Pacific Wave International Peering Service. PNWGP and Pacific Wave connect together high-performance international and federal research networks with universities, research organizations, and leading edge R&D; and new-media enterprises throughout Washington, Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Canada, Australia, and Japan. For more information visit www.pnw-gigapop.net and www.pacificwave.net

About the University of Washington
The University of Washington is one of the world's top research universities. Perennially among the top three American institutions in peer-reviewed research activities and related competitive contracts and grants, and with numerous top ranked programs, the UW is a university which truly embodies the ideals of "Learning @ the Leading Edge"TM. For more information visit www.washington.edu.

About Streaming Media Technologies, Inc.
Streaming Media Technologies (SMT) offers a secure Web-based geographically Distributed Media Management Platform enabling customers to manage, store, reformat/encode, and distribute digital media (video, audio, and images). The SMT Distributed Media Management Platform is revolutionary in addressing issues in dealing with the management of digital media and provides an integrated, easy to use solution to its customers. Customers and market sectors who benefit from SMT's platform include media companies, film studios, wireless providers, telecommunications companies, cable companies, video on demand providers, universities, Fortune 2000, government, financial companies, audio subscription companies, medical and geospatial imaging companies, as well as content providers. For more information please visit streamingmediatech.com.

For more information contact:
Tom Henley
Media Relations
303-566-1692
tom.henley@twtelecom.com

Under the leadership of Bob Franza, Cell Systems Initiative has taken the first steps in enabling biology to make the conceptual leap from describing the cell to understanding how a living system works. Franza believes that to do this, scientists will need three things: a specialized language for biological systems, a new array of tools, and the means for extensive collaboration. Future biologists will need to enter the field with experience in these areas, and so CSI has embarked upon an educational initiative that will create a virtual space to bridge the gap between the activities of the research laboratory and the science classroom.

"Understanding cell systems will require the efforts of several generations of biologists. We need to use animations and other techniques to intrigue students and promote the study of biology," Franza explains.

The first step toward the creation of a virtual classroom is the Labscape digital laboratory assistant, a model-based structure that provides scientists (and students) a clear overview of the scientific/experimental process.

Computer Scientist Larry Arnstein, the PI on the project, first began thinking about computer uses in biology in 1999, although the Labscape design and development process did not begin until earlier this year. The development team includes Chia-Yang Hung, Jing Su, Jong-Hee Kang, Gary Look, Stefan Sigurdsson, and Gaetano Borriello.

"The major challenge was to cast the project in the right light," Arnstein says. "In looking for a way for biologists to communicate better we realized that we had to come up with a language and tools to make their lives easier. We needed to produce something immediately sharable and understandable by others without any extra effort on the part of the scientist. That something turned out to be the ubiquitous lab assistant that we call Labscape."

Larry designed the Labscape user interface (a flow graph) so that it can be used in a number of ways. Using live or recorded video feed from a working biology laboratory, the Labscape assistant will allow students to participate in experiments by following a protocol in progress in the lab and watching the scientists perform the steps. Students would link to the protocol interface used by the scientist to see the recording and analysis of the real data generated by the experiment. Mentoring relationships between students and scientists would allow for a dialog to develop around the steps of the protocol.

A long-term goal for Labscape is to provide an easy way to design experiments to test their hypotheses by selecting from preprogrammed steps and protocols. Students or teams of students could design and submit experiments to be carried out in the biology laboratory, and could watch video of their experiments being performed, and receive and analyze the results.

Students could also use Labscape to learn a protocol before actually performing it in the school laboratory. Or the user interface can provide an interactive experiment simulation tutorial, where the students assemble the reagents and samples and perform the experiment online.

CSI's Lisa Jenschke feels that one of the main strengths of the Labscape assistant is that it will provide both an overview of the procedure and accurate capture of details and results without the need to record details in the traditional lab notebook and then transfer them to the computer.

Labscape's transfer of large data sets, and use of live video feed and extensive simulations make high bandwidth essential.

Over the next few months, the CSI development team and Joe Duncan, Lisa Jenschke, Neil Fanger, and Paul Loriaux will be working with selected high-school students on the further development of Labscape.

Joe Duncan explains why it is so important to include high-school students in the development process. "Our hope and expectation is that the next generation of biologists, which is in high school now, will really embrace this type of tool. By the time these students enter university, using tools like Labscape will be second nature to them."

By Fall 2002, Labscape will be operational in an area high school, with plans to expand the program to at least one other high school the following year.

Bob Franza and Joe Duncan

Larry Arnstein

The Pacific Northwest Gigapop Circular is an occasional update of activities by participants, new technologies, meetings, services upgrades and enhancements. This is the first electronic mail version of the Circular. To subscribe or unsubscribe send email to gigapop-info@pnw-gigapop.net.

In this Circular 002

PACIFIC WAVE PEERING SERVICES
PNWGP FOUNDING MEMBER OF THE QUILT
K20 SPARK LIGHTS INTERNET2
CISCO TECHNICAL EVENT OCTOBER 8 IN SEATTLE
OCTOBER PNWGP MEETING POSTPONED
PARTICIPANT CONTRIBUTIONS: WHAT DO YOU DO WITH I2?
UPDATING YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION
PNWGP CONTACT LIST

PACIFIC WAVE PEERING SERVICES

  The peering service formerly known as Seattle-Network-to-Network Access Point (SNNAP) has a new name and expanded services. The new Pacific Wave peering services will not only continue to serve the needs of organizations throughout the Pacific Northwest, but will now also offer its state of the art services to research, development, and education networks throughout the U.S. and abroad. While the Canadian research network CANet*3 has been a peering participant for sometime, AARNet (Australian Academic & Research Network) was welcomed as the first Pacific Rim connector in July.
  Two more Pacific Rim connections are expected to be completed in the next few weeks. Stay tuned!
  For more information on Pacific Wave, see www.pacificwave.net.

PNWGP FOUNDING MEMBER OF THE QUILT
  In the Internet2 spirit of cooperation, and as a natural consequence of the growth and evolution of Internet2, large regional aggregating gigapops from around the country have formed a new UCAID Project called The Quilt. The Pacific Northwest Gigapop is a founding member of The Quilt.
  The Quilt will focus on finding inter-aggregator synergies in 1) delivery of Internet2 and commodity Internet services; 2) technologies associated with building and delivery of services; and 3) representing the group's common interests to vendors, industry and government.
  We believe that participation in The Quilt will allow the Pacific Northwest Gigapop to address issues of concern to our partners such as cost of services, expansion of bandwidth, and opportunities to participate in broad-scale programs, including in the K20 educational and outreach arena.
  For more information on The Quilt, see http://www.thequilt.net, or contact Jan Eveleth at the PNWGP, eveleth@cac.washington.edu or 206-221- 2300.

K20 SPARK LIGHTS INTERNET2
  Washington State K20 network has begun the new school year as a full member of Internet2. Why do we care?
  Nine years ago, the number of dotcoms world wide was well under a thousand; there was no graphical interface to the World Wide Web; and the word "Internet" passed the lips only of academics and researchers.
  So what was the big deal in hooking up all of our public schools? What could sixth graders possibly learn on the Internet?
  The early K12 adopters in our region were avid in their desire to bring this technology into the schools and shape it into a tool that would help our children to learn. Some of those early adopters in our region include the Seattle, Bellevue, and Clackamas County School Districts; Catlin Gable, Lakeshore, and The Bush Schools; the award-winning University of Washington DO-IT (Disabilities, Opportunities and Information Technologies) program that provides enabling technologies to disabled high school students to help them successfully find their way into high caliber University academic programs.
   The energy, interest, and fervor of these Internet activists were palpable. And what do they have to show for it?
   Most of all and best of all, a half generation of students have shadowed researchers in the Antarctic, the North Pole, outer space, and under the ocean. They posed their questions directly to the researchers and got real time answers. They learned about space by viewing a multitude of Voyager satellite images online.
   They learned about other cultures by corresponding with electronic 'pen pals' and 'sister schools' across the world, exchanging music, pictures of their families, pets, friends, and artwork.
   They participated in and coalesced community environmental projects such as watershed monitoring for salmon habitat.
   They became a socially redeeming jewel in what was to become an electronic world of commerce and hype. The Internet is a better place because of what K12 has contributed.
   From the beginning, the Washington State legislature saw the enormous opportunities in networking and funded a statewide K20 network engineered to be Internet2-enabled from the start. This network has been operational for over four years. And this summer, they were included in the ranks of Abilene connectees.
   As we continue to shape and define Internet2, the Washington K20 voices, energy, and vision will be crucial to making the next generation of the Internet an even more compelling, enriching, and more human place in which to engage.
   Please join us in welcoming Washington K20 to Internet2!

CISCO TECHNICAL EVENT OCTOBER 8 IN SEATTLE
   The place is set (the Westin in Seattle), the panel of speakers are coming (Cisco technical experts), and you are welcome to attend this full day session compliments of Cisco. We encourage you to send your technical representatives to engage in a lively conversation with distinguished Cisco staff as well as with other technical representatives from participating PNWGP organizations. Haven't you just been eager to find out about the newest release? Upcoming developments? How they plan to fix that annoying 'feature' that you deal with every day? Well, this is your chance.
   To register, go to http://www.regweb.com/cisco/I2EduRoadshow. If you have questions, contact Michael Rich at 408-527-3617 or mrich@cisco.com.

OCTOBER PNWGP MEETING POSTPONED
   To those of you who marked your calendars for a mid-October meeting, thank you! Now please get out your eraser. I was not able to get a venue for the meeting (at least nothing that would support reasonable Internet connectivity). Will try again for the spring and let you know.

PARTICIPANT CONTRIBUTIONS: WHAT DO YOU DO WITH I2?
   The PNWGP Circular would like to circulate your success stories. This is an excellent opportunity to share research efforts, technical developments, programs, cultural initiatives, and "How Internet2 Changed My Life" stories. Please send an outline or overview of the topic you'd like to cover to gigapop-info@pnw-gigapop.net.

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.net or call 206-934-5588.

PNWGP Contact List

General Information

206-934-5588

888-934-5588

gigapop-info@pnw-gigapop.net

www.pnw-gigapop.net

Network Operations Center (24x7)

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

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

Circular 002 October 2001
Copyright (c) 2001 Pacific Northwest Gigapop

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, USA - October 1, 2001 - The Pacific Northwest Gigapop has expanded and renamed its regional peering service, formerly called Seattle-Network-to-Network Access Point, or SNNAP. The expanded peering services will now be offered under the name Pacific Wave. Pacific Wave will continue to include peering services for entities within the Pacific Northwest, but has expanded its offering to include research and education networks from throughout the Pacific Rim and beyond.

"The Pacific Northwest Gigapop was established in part to support state of the art networking infrastructure that would unite researchers and educators in the Internet2 effort. The Pacific Wave service extends this mission to entities beyond the United States by providing a convenient, cost-effective peering service," said Ron Johnson, Vice President and Vice Provost of the University of Washington. (The University of Washington is the founder of the Pacific Northwest Gigapop.)

"When looking at the Pacific Wave service, AARNet (Australian Academic & Research Network) recognized a desirable congruence of an easily accessible carrier-class facility near the western U.S. coast, high bandwidth peering access to the Internet2 Abilene network, as well as access to several U.S. Federal networks and the Canadian research and education network, CANet*3. In addition, the peering infrastructure will support our multicast needs and enable us to more efficiently stream media between Australia and our peering partners," said George McLaughlin Executive Director of AARNET.

"We are pleased that Pacific Wave is offering an effective option for research and education networks around the Pacific Rim to connect to members of the Internet2 community in the United States and beyond," said Heather Boyles, director of international relations for Internet2. "Pacific Wave is yet another example of how Internet2 member institutions are making important contributions to the rest of the Internet2 membership by facilitating high performance international connectivity with research and education institutions around the world."

Pacific Wave looks forward to the addition of two more Pacific Rim research and education networks in the next few weeks.

In addition to those already mentioned, other peering partners of Pacific Wave include Energy Sciences Network (ESNet), Defense and Research Engineering Network (DREN), CANet*3, Microsoft Corporation, and AT&T; @Home.

About Pacific Wave
Pacific Wave is a peering service of the Pacific Northwest Gigapop. Located in an internationally-recognized carrier facility in downtown Seattle, Washington, USA, Pacific Wave supports peering among international and national networks as well as among organizations throughout the Pacific Northwest. Participants connect to the Pacific Wave peering switches at either dual gigabit ethernet or dual fast ethernet. At this time, the redundant Pacific Wave switches have a switching capacity of 128Gbps. While each Pacific Wave participant will peer with the Pacific Northwest Gigapop and its affiliated networks, all other bilateral peerings through Pacific Wave are self-selected and implemented by the peering participants directly.

About Pacific Northwest Gigapop (PNWGP)
Pacific Northwest Gigapop is the Northwest's Next Generation Internet, Internet2/Abilene applications cooperative, testbed, and point of presence. PNWGP connects together high-performance international and federal research networks with universities, research organizations, and leading-edge R&D; and new-media enterprises throughout Washington, Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Canada, and Australia.

About the University of Washington
The University of Washington is one of the world's top research universities. Perennially among the top three American institutions in peer-reviewed research activities and related competitive contracts and grants, and with numerous top-ranked programs, the UW is a university which truly embodies the ideals of "Learning @ the Leading Edge". (For more information see www.washington.edu.)

About AARNet
AARNet Pty Ltd is a not-for-profit company that operates the AARNet2 network, providing Internet services to 37 Australian universities, CSIRO Australia and their research and education partners. AARNet provides an incubator for development of advanced network infrastructure and applications. It has a national and international focus with access to the global research and education networks through the Pacific Northwest Gigapop. AARNet is also a member of the GrangeNet consortium that will build a multi-Gigabit backbone in Australia and develop advanced network and grid services to support advanced and innovative applications.

About Internet2
Led by over 180 US universities, working with industry and government, Internet2 is developing and deploying advanced network applications and technologies for research and higher education, accelerating the creation of tomorrow's Internet. Internet2 recreates the partnerships of academia, industry, and government that helped foster today's Internet in its infancy.

Contact info:

Pacific Northwest Gigapop and Pacific Wave
Jan Eveleth, Manager
4545 15th Ave. NE
Seattle, WA 98105
Tel: 206-934-5588
Email: info@pnw-gigapop.net
Web: www.pnw-gigapop.net

AARNet
George McLaughlin, Executive Director
AARNet Pty Ltd (ACN 084 540 518)
GPO Box 1142, Canberra ACT 2601 Australia
Tel: 61-2-6276-6900
Email: inquiries@aarnet.edu.au
Web: www.aarnet.edu.au

Internet2
Greg Wood,
Tel: 202-331-5360
Email: ghwood@internet2.edu
Web: www.internet2.edu

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, USA and CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA - July 31, 2001 - Collaboration among researchers and students "down under" with those in North America took a giant leap forward today as AARNet (the Australian Academic and Research Network) activated its transpacific optical fiber connection to the Pacific Northwest Gigapop (PNWGP) at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington, USA. The Pacific Northwest Gigapop is a primary interconnection point for advanced research and education networks in Canada, the U.S., and now the Pacific Rim.

Dual 155 Megabit per second connections traversing physically diverse paths allow the Australian research community to communicate quickly and efficiently with researchers, and enjoy access to advanced research resources and apparatus in the Canada and the U.S.

The dual paths, running Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS), provide redundant capacity while retaining the ability to load balance and potentially burst to 310Mbps. The network also provides Quality-of-Service and Virtual Private Network capabilities.

"Having optical fiber circuits connected directly to advanced networks of North America via the Pacific Northwest Gigapop provides enormous opportunities for collaborative programs. The most significant achievement in bridging this transoceanic digital divide will be our newly acquired abilities to traffic in high quality remote sense, video, sound, and multimedia material as well as in huge scientific datasets and other demanding digital objects like medical images. This will make virtual neighbors out of our partner networks and resources across the world. Exploiting such mechanisms to develop relationships between researchers is key to fostering and sustaining excellence in research, education, and economic development," said George McLaughlin, Executive Director of AARNet.

"AARNet faced the challenges and isolating forces of extreme geographic distance head on with an audacious and well architected effort. With the continued leading edge work of their talented and determined network engineering staff, these circuits will support AARNet's role as one of the top research networks in the world. We are pleased to help them accomplish this and to provide them with the next-generation infrastructure they need to move their data efficiently among their partners around the world. This important addition to the global research and education network fabric will benefit us all," said Ron Johnson, Vice President and Vice Provost of the University of Washington.

The first connections through the Pacific Northwest Gigapop will be to CA*net 3 and Internet2 backbone networks, the advanced research and education networks of Canada and the United States, respectively. "In addition," McLaughlin added, "we will obtain immediate very high speed and lowest latency access to the research and education networks and the interconnected computational and information resources throughout the Pacific Northwest and California."

Early deployment of multicast multimedia connections across the new links will allow Australia's participation in SC2001, the first truly global technical conference on Grid technology and applications. The host site will be in Denver, Colorado, U.S.A., however Sydney, Australia will be one of a number of constellation sites throughout the world participating and contributing sessions to this unique global event.

Researchers in areas such as bioinformatics, satellite imaging, and online health applications have joint programs ready to take advantage of the new infrastructure.

The experience of AARNet's national deployment of Voice-over-IP will provide a useful framework to build on developments in new multimedia applications.

The transpacific fiber optic cable is part of the Southern Cross Cable Network with US landing and backhaul to PNWGP provided by WCI Cable and with the Australian backhaul to AARNet provided by Powertel. The cable spans 30,500 km under the Pacific with landing sites in Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Hawaii, Oregon, and California. It took 19 months to lay the cable.

About AARNet
AARNet Pty Ltd is a not-for-profit company that operates the AARNet2 network, providing Internet services to all 37 Australian universities, CSIRO Australia and their research and education partners. AARNet provides an incubator for development of advanced network infrastructure and applications. It has a national and international focus with access to the global research and education networks through the Pacific Northwest Gigapop. AARNet is also a member of the GrangeNet consortium which will build a 10Gbps backbone in Australia and develop advanced network and grid services to support advanced applications.

About Pacific Northwest Gigapop (PNWGP)
Pacific Northwest Gigapop is the Northwest's Next Generation Internet, Internet2/Abilene applications cooperative, testbed, and point of presence. PNWGP connects together high performance international and federal research networks with universities, research organizations, and leading edge r&d; and new-media enterprises throughout Washington, Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Canada, and now Australia.

About the University of Washington
The University of Washington is one of the world's top research universities. Perennially among the top three American institutions in peer reviewed research activities and related competitive contracts and grants, and with numerous top ranked programs, the UW is a university which truly embodies the ideals of "Learning @ the Leading Edge". (For more information see www.washington.edu.)

About WCI Cable
WCI, headquartered in Hillsboro, Oregon, USA, is made up of World Net Communications, Inc., WCI Cable, Inc., WCI LightPoint, LLC, and Alaska Fiber Star, LLC. Collectively the group manages and constructs terrestrial and submarine fiber optic systems and telecommunications infrastructure. WCI provides carrier neutral colocation facitilites and undertakes new network projects throughout North America and the Pacific Rim.

About Internet2
Led by over 180 US universities, working with industry and government, Internet2 is developing and deploying advanced network applications and technologies for research and higher education, accelerating the creation of tomorrow's Internet. Internet2 recreates the partnerships of academia, industry, and government that helped foster today's Internet in its infancy.

About CA*net 3
CA*net 3 is Canada's Advanced Research and Education Internet backbone, connecting individual universities, federal and provincial government labs and research institutes through provincially based Regional Advanced Networks, or RANs.

About Powertel
PowerTel is the third largest provider of broadband telecommunications services to the corporate and wholesale market in Australia. Its 2,400km fiber optic network links Brisbane, Gold Coast, Newcastle, Sydney, Canberra, and Melbourne.

About SCCN
SCCL is the organization that has deployed the Southern Cross Cable Network (SCCN) which connects Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Hawaii, and mainland US. It is almost 30,500 km in length, consisting of two separate cables configured in three self-healing rings. Southern Cross was initially designed to deliver 120Gbit/s of fully protected capacity between Australasia and the United States but, by employing new higher capacity Dense Wave Division Multiplexing (DWDM) Technology, the network will now be upgraded to 240Gbit/s of protected capacity during 2002, with the potential to increase to 480Gbit/s at a future date.

Contact info:

AARNet
George McLaughlin, Executive Director
AARNet Pty Ltd (ACN 084 540 518)
GPO Box 1142, Canberra ACT 2601 Australia
Tel: 61 2 6276 6900
Email: inquiries@aarnet.edu.au
Web: www.aarnet.edu.au

Pacific Northwest Gigapop
Jan Eveleth, Manager
4545 15th Ave. NE
Seattle, WA 98105
Tel: 206-934-5588
Email: info@pnw-gigapop.net
Web: www.pnw-gigapop.net

WCI Cable
Patrick Estenes, Vice President, Business Development
Tel: 503-466-8620
Email: pestenes@wcicable.com
Web: www.wcicable.com

Internet2
Greg Wood,
Tel: 202-331-5360
Email: ghwood@internet2.edu
Web: www.internet2.edu

CA*net 3
Shannon Cobb, Manager, Communications
CANARIE Inc.
Manager, Communications
110 O'Connor Street, 4th Floor
Ottawa, ON K1P 1H1 Canada
Tel: 613-943-5374
Email: shannon.cobb@canarie.ca
Web: www.canarie.ca

Powertel
Teresa Perdiga
55 Clarence Street
Sydney NSW 2000
Tel: 61 2 8264 3888
Web: www.powertel.com.au

SCCN
Ross Pfeffer, Director, Asia Pacific Market
Tel: 64 4 496 3248
Email: ross.pfeffer@sccn.co.nz
Web: www.southerncrosscables.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DATE: June 4, 2001
 

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Internet2 Network and Participants

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Bringing the Opportunities of Next Generation Technology to the Region

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON - June 4, 2001 - The University of Washington and the Pacific Northwest-Gigapop are pleased to announce that Washington's statewide K-20 network is now fully connected to Internet2 (I2), the national next-generation research and education network. (Click here to see diagram.) The K-20 network, which was designed and is operated by the UW, connects all of Washington's K-12 school districts, community colleges, and public baccalaureate institutions. With the new connection to I2 all teachers, faculty, and students -- in all parts of the state, and across all of public education -- will now have the opportunity to use and participate in developing the next generation of Internet resources, applications, and tools, opportunities that were previously only available at major university and corporate research labs.

"Connecting the K-20 Network to Internet2 will keep Washington at the cutting edge in our efforts to bring students the highest quality, most diverse curriculum and learning tools that can be made available over the Internet," said Governor Gary Locke.

This "will literally open whole new worlds to Washington's school children," says Susannah Malarkey, executive director, the Technology Alliance. "We are incredibly lucky to be able to participate in this cutting edge technology. All of Washington's students can now be part of designing the future." Now when students and teachers use the K-20 network for their work they will be learning and using tomorrows, rather than yesterdays, technologies. "Not only will this development put the teachers, students and schools of Washington State at the forefront in using the educational tools that are currently available, it will put them in the position of understanding and helping to build the next generation of content and tools," says Louis Fox, UW vice provost for Educational Partnerships and Learning Technologies, and recently named co-leader of the national Internet2-K20 Initiative.

Even more important than ground floor connectivity to the next generation Internet, now Washington's innovators can participate in I2 initiatives. Typical of the first wave of the tools, materials, content and program opportunities included in the Washington I2-K20 initiative are:

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K20 Designed by UW as "I2 Ready"

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Connecting All Public K12, Community Colleges, and Bacalaureates

• Special Interest Groups (SIGs) across Washington K-20 and trainings around specific technologies and content interests, workshops for K20 in Internet2 tools and content, an annual Washington conference for innovators from Washington's schools and colleges
• Linking Washington groups to national conversations, special interest and workgroups, and international collaboration efforts, particularly among Pacific Rim and southern African countries
• Connecting Washington educators to rich, often multimedia content repositories (this is the theme of some special interest and and working groups), coupled with advanced middleware intellectual property management mechanisms, enabling broad use and shared licensing; K20 versions of Catalyst, the national award-winning teaching and learning toolkit; mySchool, a sophisticated Web-based, middleware-enabled portal, creating the capacity for true "mass customization" and personalization of the Web, with complete control over content and transactions for every teacher, class, and student
• Projects to enhance and extend learning through advanced information and network technologies and content
• Educational opportunities and collaborations like Virtual UW in the High School, which offers UW college-level credit classes to schools and communities with little or no access to such opportunities, including new, cutting edge, national model classes and materials like the UW Department of Computer Science's and the UW Information School's Fluency in Information Technology (FIT)
• Network access to scientific apparatus and live data from weather radar, seismic sensors, telescopes, satellites, and ocean probes
• Participation in testbeds for the next generation of broadband and narrowband digital video, multicast, and interactive video

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Just as the UW brought the original Internet to the Northwest, and along with the Pacific Northwest Gigapop more recently played a major role in creating I2, they are committed to help bring the resources and benefits of I2 to all of Washington's schools and colleges.

Marty Smith, chair, Technology Alliance Education Task Force; partner, Preston Gates & Ellis; member K-20 Network Board: "This development is a tribute to the partnership created a decade ago involving the Technology Alliance, higher education, government and industry."

Joseph Olchefske, Superintendent of Seattle Public Schools: "Expanding access to this cutting edge technology will go a long way toward bridging the digital divide and preparing our students for the extraordinary opportunities that await them."

Earl Hale, executive director of the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges: "Access to this high-performance network will allow the community and technical colleges to enrich our educational opportunities for students across the state. The colleges have been using the K-20 network to deliver Internet-based courses, but this means we can expand training in technical fields, enhance collaboration among faculty working at different colleges, and customize courses to better meet the diverse needs of the students we serve."

Terry Bergeson, Superintendent of Public Instruction: "The K-12 community in Washington will make great use of the advanced educational and collaborative tools enabled by our partnership with the University of Washington. Washington's K-20 network provides each of our schools the opportunity to be involved in the evolving Internet2 environment. Taking advantage of the I2 offerings immediately, as well as preparing our schools and their infrastructures for the advanced programs to follow, means a bright future for teaching & learning across our state."

For more information or to get involved please contact:

Louis Fox, UW Vice Provost
206 685-4745, 543-6616
lfox@u.washington.edu
Ron Johnson, UW Vice President
206 543-8252
ronj@cac.washington.edu

About the Pacific Northwest Gigapop

The Pacific Northwest Gigapop is a partnership of the leading public and private sector R&D forces throughout the northwest that provides innovators in education, industry, content publication and government with early and direct access to the full range of current and next generation, and super high performance internet capabilities, and to a robust testbed with over a million people with broadband internet access and I2 functionality.

About Internet2

Internet2 is a consortium of research institutions working in partnership to develop and deploy advanced network applications and technologies, accelerating the creation of tomorrow's Internet. Internet2 is recreating the partnership among academia, industry and government that created today's Internet.

Pacific NorthWest Gigapop: http://www.pnw-gigapop.net
The K-20 Network: http://www.washington.edu/k20/
Internet2: http://www.internet2.edu
Catalyst: http://www.catalyst.washington.edu
UWired: http://www.washington.edu/uwired/
mySchool-myUW demo: http://www.myuw.washington.edu
Fluency in Information Technology: http://www.cs.washington.edu/education/courses/cse100/
Smart Tools Academy: http://depts.washington.edu/academy/

http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com/local/internet14.shtml

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FROM: Bob Roseth, (206) 543-2580, roseth@u.washington.edu
DATE: March 13, 2001
 

Washington is one of five states selected to be a pioneer in developing and bringing the next generation of Internet materials, applications, and tools to K-12 schools and colleges.

The Washington K-20 Education Network will have direct access to the Internet2, the high-performance, next generation Internet (called "Abilene"), and more importantly, faculty and teachers in Washington's schools will have opportunities to develop the next generation of Internet resources, applications, and tools - opportunities that were previously only available to faculty at major research institutions like the University of Washington.

In addition, schools and classroom teachers will have access to the latest tools for developing, organizing, and bringing into the classroom customized Web-based learning materials, computer-based learning tools, and multimedia content from learning centers, national museums and organizations such as the Smithsonian Institution and NASA, as well as the ability to cost-effectively employ high quality interactive and streamed video among teachers, across the state's classrooms, and to classrooms around the nation and the world.

As a result, "Connecting the K-20 Network to Abilene will keep Washington at the cutting edge in our efforts to bring students the highest quality, most diverse curriculum and learning tools that can be made available over the Internet," said Governor Gary Locke.

The University of Washington has been the region's lead institution in bringing Internet2 capabilities to the region, and also has been a key partner in the development of the K-20 network. The UW designed, is the network operations center for, and serves as the Internet Service Provider and Internet engineering group for Washington's K20 network.

Among the many tools that K-12 and community college teachers will be able to use as part of this partnership is Catalyst, a national award-winning teaching and learning toolkit developed at the UW. Using a Web browser, with Catalyst teachers can quickly and easily place complex content on the Web and create online learning activities to fit specific teaching needs - without hiring a programmer or undergoing extensive training. Students can easily be given quizzes and surveys, participate in discussions, submit homework, and review each other's work.

myUW is sophisticated Web-based middleware that enables the "mass customization" of Web materials, allowing each teacher, class, and even every student to have fingertip access to a highly personalized workspace with private information and the necessary tools for easily accessing, sharing and publishing materials, collaborating, teaching, and learning more effectively.

Together, Catalyst and myUW provide a powerful combination: access to a wealth of information and tools, and the ability to easily assemble and tailor this information to the needs of individual students, teachers, and classes.

"Connecting the K-20 Network to Internet2 will literally open whole new worlds to Washington's school children," says Susannah Malarkey, executive director, the Technology Alliance. "For example, they will have the opportunity to observe and interpret scientific data and participate in science experiments in real time. This allows our middle school, high school and undergraduate students to really be scientific investigators. We are incredibly lucky to be able to participate in this cutting edge technology. All of Washington's students can now be part of designing the future."

Participation in the next generation Internet fabric also enables broad K-12 access to the new Virtual UW in the High School program, which provides UW college-level credit classes, including the new Fluency in Information Technology (or FIT) program, to students in high schools throughout the state.

"Not only will this development put the teachers, students and schools of Washington State at the forefront in using the educational tools that are currently available, it will put them in the position of helping to build the next generation of Internet content and tools," says Louis Fox, UW vice provost for Educational Partnerships and Learning Technologies.

According to Doug Van Houweling, president and CEO of the University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development, which leads the Internet2 effort, "With UW leadership, the state of Washington continues to be a national pacesetter in successful K-20 networking; in working together across K-12 and higher education to help use technology and networks to improve teaching and learning; and in developing award winning state of the art programs for helping teachers and administrators understand and make the best uses of new technologies."

Some useful Web sites:

• Catalyst (A UW campus-wide initiative to help teachers teach and learners learn using technology): http://www.catalyst.washington.edu
• Gigapop (the Pacific Northwest's access point to Internet 2): http://www.pnw-gigapop.org/
• The K-20 Network: http://www.washington.edu/k20/
• myUW (an educational portal): http://www.myuw.washington.edu
• Fluency in Information Technology (FIT): http://www.cs.washington.edu/education/courses/cse100/
• Smart Tools Academy (classes for school leaders to learn about the Internet in education): http://depts.washington.edu/academy/
• UWired (a UW project that works to promote and support access to technology, fluency in information technology and resources, and innovation in teaching and learning through technology): http://www.washington.edu/uwired/

Selected comments on the expanded access to Internet2

Marty Smith, chair of the Education Task Force of the Technology Alliance, partner, Preston Gates & Ellis, and citizen board members if the K-20 Network Board: "This development is a tribute to the partnership created a decade ago involving the Technology Alliance, higher education, government and industry. Now, we are able to leverage the expertise gathered in the creation of the K-20 network to develop a richer context and applications that can be distributed throughout our schools."

Joseph Olchefske, Superintendent of Seattle Public Schools: "We've found Internet2 to be an invaluable tool as we work to ensure that all students in our district meet the high academic standards we have set for them. Expanding access to this cutting edge technology will go a long way toward bridging the digital divide and preparing our students for the extraordinary opportunities that await them."

Earl Hale, executive director of the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges: "Access to this high-performance network will allow the community and technical colleges to enrich our educational opportunities for students across the state. The colleges have been using the K-20 network to deliver Internet-based courses, but this means we can expand training in technical fields, enhance collaboration among faculty working at different colleges, and customize courses to better meet the diverse needs of the students we serve."

Terry Bergeson, Superintendent of Public Instruction: "We're very pleased that access to the opportunities of Internet2 has been approved. The K-12 community in Washington will make great use of the advanced educational and collaborative tools enabled by our partnership with the University of Washington. Washington's K-20 network provides each of our schools the opportunity to be involved in the evolving Internet2 environment. Taking advantage of the I2 offerings immediately, as well as preparing our schools and their infrastructures for the advanced programs to follow, means a bright future for teaching and learning across our state."

Steve Kolodney, director of the state of Washington Department of Information Services and Chair of the K-20 Network Board: "This is one more example of the UW's continuing national leadership in advanced networking and information technologies, and it complements K-20 initiatives for improving education."

For more information

Ronald Johnson
Vice President
Computing & Communications
240 Gerberding Hall
UW Mailbox: 351208
Phone: 543-8252 FAX: 543-4641
Email: ronj@cac.washington.edu

Louis Fox
Vice Provost
Office of Educational Partnerships & Learning Technologies
340-D Gerberding Hall
UW Mailbox: 352820
Phone: 685-4745, 543-6616 FAX: 221-2658
Email: lfox@u.washington.edu

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For more information, contact:
Heather Sirr
WCI Cable, Inc.
Ph: 503-533-5552
Email: hsirr@wcicable.com

HILLSBORO, OREGON - May 5, 1999 - WCI Cable, Inc.

The Pacific/Northwest GigaPoP, Oregon Health Sciences University, Portland State University, the Oregon Graduate Institute and the University of Washington today announced that WCI Cable (WCIC) has become an Internet2 Corporate Partner. As part of its next generation Internet Corporate Partnership, WCIC is providing a high-speed fiber optic cable link connecting Portland, PSU, OGI and OHSU to the national Internet2 research and education network via the Pacific/Northwest GigaPoP.

This new next generation Internet-capable link, operating at 622 million bits per second, is more than 100 times faster than the previous Internet connections for these locations. It is also more than 20,000 times faster than a typical modem, and extends unprecedented advanced networking capabilities to Oregon's academic, clinical research, and R&D communities. This link will be a key factor in enabling the continued competitiveness of local technology businesses in the Internet economy of the future.

It will catalyze the potential for delivering robust real time Internet-based applications such as interactive videoconferencing, tele-immersion, telemedicine, HDTV, on demand video, telephony, multimedia and shared virtual reality. In addition, it will enable new forms of network-aware and adaptive applications, and deliver the 'trust fabric' middleware needed for truly pervasive electronic business.

Oregon Graduate Institute President Dr. Edward Thompson said, "This far-sighted collaboration provides Portland's Research Universities with the facilities and the institutional partners necessary for our region's continued growth. The collective base of complementary knowledge and skills brought together by this initiative will enable the leading research and educational institutions in the Northwest to create and benefit from the next generation of Internet applications and content. Our students and faculty will now be able to play significant roles in the evolution of advanced networking and networked applications."

In addition to providing this advanced network infrastructure, WCI Cable technical staff is actively participating with Internet2, the Pacific/Northwest GigaPoP, and partner universities in exploring the network, content, and applications possibilities inherent in such technologies.

"The new Internet2 capabilities this provides will allow us to realize the promise of telemedicine and real time collaboration with the top medical research institutions in the country," said Peter Kohler, M.D., President of Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU). "Both health care and education are being transformed and extended by networking, much as these technologies are reshaping the landscape of business. Complimentary OHSU initiatives are underway to create high-speed linkages among Portland area educational institutions such as Portland State University and Oregon Graduate Institute, and to enhance the connectivity to UO and the statewide network. The direct connection to Internet2 afforded by WCI Cable linking Portland to the Pacific/Northwest GigaPoP in Seattle provides Portland students and faculty with direct access to the technologies that will shape the region's future."

"Portland State University is extremely excited to have the opportunity to participate and collaborate in the development of the next generation Internet in the Pacific Northwest" said Bruce Taggart, Ph.D., Executive Director, Office of Information Technologies at Portland State University. "By having enhanced access and high-speed connectivity to Internet2 in Portland via the Pacific Northwest GigaPoP we will be able to provide our faculty, researchers, and students with access to high bandwidth applications not previously available to them such as remote research instrumentation, IP video communications, and terabyte data mining of national research databases. Having high-speed access to a full Internet2 hub and related technologies will allow the university to experiment with new methods for instructional delivery, explore new research opportunities, and allow our entire university community to develop collaborative relationships with other universities regionally, nationally, and internationally."

"WCI Cable's remarkable commitment has provided completely new connections among Internet2 universities." said Douglas Van Houweling, President and CEO of the University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development (UCAID), which is leading the Internet2 project. "Partnerships such as these accelerate the accessibility to the advanced networking applications and technologies that will transform higher education and benefit the entire global Internet community."

Last month, in a related effort, WCI Cable and the Pacific Northwest GigaPoP announced provision of a similar OC-12 between Seattle and Fairbanks, Alaska. Together with today's Portland-Seattle announcement that creates one of the two or three most powerful high-speed wide area next generation Internet technology testbeds in the world.

"This collaboration with the Pacific Northwest GigaPoP places the University of Alaska on the cutting edge in the development of the next generation Internet and enhances our collective regional efforts to develop the Internet2 for research and education. Now, the University of Alaska is among the top ten universities in the country when it comes to connectivity, and that has vast implications for our research capability," said University of Alaska President Mark R. Hamilton.

"This initiative adds to WCIC's network expansion plans along the west coast of North America, including Canada and Latin America," said Patrick Estenes, VP Marketing and Sales for WCIC. "It also facilitates high bandwidth connectivity to Asia, further focusing the gateway leadership of the Northwest to the rest of the world."

Internet2 is a collaborative effort led by over 150 U.S. research universities working in partnership with industry leaders and federal agencies to develop a new family of advanced network applications and technologies to meet emerging academic requirements in research, teaching, and learning. Internet2, a project of the University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development (UCAID), is addressing this challenge by creating a leading edge network capability, enabling a new generation of applications, and working with industry and international partners to transfer new technologies into the global Internet.

WCI Cable, Inc. is a privately held USA corporation whose principal shareholders are a subsidiary of AMP Life Limited (an international financial services company with assets exceeding US$120 billion, (www.amp.com.au) and two privately owned Australian investment companies. WCI Cable was formed in 1997 to manage and construct terrestrial and submarine fiber optic systems, to build the NorthStar Network which connects Alaska with the Continental United States, and to undertake new network projects around the world.

The Pacific Northwest GigaPoP was one of the initial group of pioneering gigaPoPs attached to the Internet2 backbone last fall. It hosts the high speed Internet2 network node for the Northwest, is a key point of presence for the other major research and education as well as commodity internet networks, and provides unparalleled local and regional high performance peering facilities. The Pacific Northwest GigaPoP is a multi-state consortium of research and education institutions across Alaska, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana and includes the institutions and individuals that played key roles in the creation and evolution of the NSFnet and the region's existing Internet capabilities.

# # #

For further information:

WCI Cable, Inc.
Heather Sirr
503-533-5552
hsirr@wcicable.com

Internet2
Greg Wood
gwood@internet2.edu
202-872-9119

Pacific/Northwest GigaPoP
Ron Johnson
206-543-8252
ronj@cac.washington.edu

Oregon Graduate Institute
Andrew Black
apb@cse.ogi.edu

Portland State University
Bruce M. Taggart, Ph.D.
Executive Director
Office of Information Technologies
503-725-2927

University of Alaska
Steve Smith
907-474-6309
steve.smith@mail.Alaska.edu

WASHINGTON, April 28, 1999 — At the annual Internet2 member meeting, Microsoft Corp. today became an Internet2 Corporate Partner and announced that it will make both financial and intellectual contributions to the project. As an Internet2 Corporate Partner, Microsoft will work with researchers at over 150 universities to develop advanced Internet applications and technologies.

“At Microsoft, we envision people connected to a highly evolved and more efficient Internet – one that is accessible any time, from anywhere,” said Rick Rashid, vice president of Microsoft Research. “The Internet as we know it today is constantly pushed to its limits. Even though now we can participate in videoconferences or exchange audio and video clips with one another, the quality of the experience is not optimal or compelling enough to make it commonplace. By working with the Internet2 consortium, Microsoft is confident that together we can overcome the current technical challenges by developing the new network technologies that will eventually revolutionize the Internet experience.”

As one of more than 15 Internet2 Corporate Partners, Microsoft will make contributions exceeding $1 million in goods and services to universities involved in the Internet2 project. Microsoft® Research and the Microsoft Product Development groups will collaborate closely with Internet2 members and through the Internet2 Working Groups to build shared knowledge in current and emerging areas of common interest, including Quality of Service (QoS), IP Multicast and IPv6. Accelerating technology development in these and other areas will enable the global Internet to operate more efficiently and more reliably.

“We look forward to Microsoft joining the members of the Internet2 project in working together to enable research and education into the next century,” said Doug Van Houweling, president and CEO of the University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development (UCAID), which is leading the Internet2 project. “This relationship not only demonstrates Microsoft’s continuing commitment to R & D, but a willingness to be actively involved with the Internet2 university community in pursuit of our common goals to advance the global Internet.”

“Microsoft has a tremendous potential to contribute to systems and networking areas of Internet2,” said Ron Johnson, vice president of computing and communications, University of Washington. “The potential for delivering robust, real-time tele-immersion, tele-medicine and high-quality demand video, television, telephony and multimedia, as well as network-aware and adaptive applications and the ‘trust fabric’ middleware needed for pervasive electronic business, is no longer just a dream. But to make it real across the desktops of the world it’s essential to have Microsoft’s research and product development at the table.”

To facilitate collaboration with Internet2 universities, Microsoft Research is establishing high-speed connections to Abilene, an Internet2 backbone network, and other Internet2 research institutions via the Pacific Northwest GigaPoP led by the University of Washington in Seattle.

The Internet2 project is being led by over 150 U.S. universities, working with industry and government, to enable and facilitate the advanced network applications necessary to meet

emerging needs in higher education. Internet2 participants are developing the broadband applications, engineering and network management tools for research and education. For more information on Internet2, a project of the University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development (UCAID), see http://www.internet2.edu/ .

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of products and services for business and personal use, each designed with the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take advantage of the full power of personal computing every day.

Microsoft is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corp.

Other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

For more information on Microsoft Research:

Visit http://research.microsoft.com/ .

https://news.microsoft.com/1999/04/28/microsoft-joins-internet2-coalition-to-help-build-the-next-generation-of-the-internet/