A long-standing Australia-United States (US) joint venture to facilitate research and education (R&E) network capacity across the Pacific Ocean was celebrated on 28 April 2015 at a special event held at the Embassy of Australia in Washington DC.

AARNet provides the network infrastructure connecting Australia to the US West Coast in partnership withSouthern Cross Cable Network (SCCN). With the very generous support of SCCN, AARNet is upgrading the submarine optical fibre links known as SXTransPORT to 100 Gbps by the end of 2016. Building on a series of investments, the US National Science Foundation (NSF) this week announced funding for upgrading the US side of the infrastructure interconnecting AARNet to the US research networks.

Technology leaders from AARNet, NSF, REANNZ, Internet2, Pacific Wave and the University of Hawaii were among the guests celebrating the ongoing international collaborative effort that has contributed to the development of the trans-Pacific research network infrastructure over many years.

AARNet CEO Chris Hancock said this investment continues the strong relationship between the NSF and Australia for interconnecting AARNet to the US R&E community that dates back to the early 1990s. The relationship has been characterized by aligned and supportive network investments on both sides of the Pacific.

“AARNet’s upgrades to the SCCN and SXTransPORT links have been critical for accommodating the growth of international traffic over the network, largely driven by data-intensive science. Developing international R&E network capacity between Australia and the US has also evolved into a truly Pacific activity, with AARNet recently connecting REANNZ, the New Zealand NREN, as well as supporting connectivity into Pacific Island countries such as Fiji, Tonga and the Marshall Islands,” said Hancock.

Jim Kurose, Assistant Director of NSF’s Computer and Information Science and Engineering Directorate said the award builds on successful, proven prior partnerships between the Australian Government and the NSF.

“The funding will provide a critical network upgrade to the US end to accommodate today’s data-intensive science and to drive scientific discovery in many areas, including astronomy, oceanography, and high-energy physics,” he said.

The forthcoming upgrade will support US connectivity that passes through Hawaii to connect one of the world’s most important international astronomy sites, Mauna Kea (Hawaii Island), as well as the international observatories on Haleakala (Maui).

Australia’s Ambassador to the USA Kim Beazley acknowledged the vital role globally interconnected research network infrastructure plays.

“The Embassy of Australia is pleased to celebrate the continued Australia-US partnership in critical research infrastructure and the advanced Pacific R&E network connection. The project builds on a rich history of research collaboration between our two nations, and will greatly expand opportunities to work together in areas of mutual interest, including astronomy, global climate issues, biodiversity, and coral reef study, and medicine,” he said.

http://news.aarnet.edu.au/australia-us-partnership-powers-trans-pacific-science-and-research-networking/

Upgrade to Major US West Coast Peering Exchange for Research and Education Enhances Worldwide Ultra-High-Performance Networked Collaboration

Pacific Wave today announced the completion of a second 40-Gigabit per second (Gb/s) connection from the US West Coast to Australia and New Zealand.  Crossing the Pacific Ocean from Los Angeles through the Big Island of Hawaii and on to Australia, this ultra-high-performance network link complements an existing 40 Gb/s link from Seattle through Oahu to Australia.

Both links provide increased performance and robustness to the Pacific Wave distributed international peering exchange, which is the chief means by which the world's advanced research and education networks cross the Pacific Ocean and a crucial part of the global advanced networking infrastructure.  In this capacity, Pacific Wave enables cutting-edge activity in all realms of data-intensive science, including cancer treatment, climate research, digital media, genomics, oceanography, seismography, software-defined networking, space science, and more.

A joint project between the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC) and the Pacific Northwest Gigapop (PNWGP) with support from the University of Southern California and the University of Washington, Pacific Wave is a state-of-the-art international peering exchange designed to serve research and education networks throughout the Pacific Rim and beyond and features connection points at three US West Coast locations: the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, and Seattle.  

"Global innovation, particularly in the data-intensive sciences where our most pressing modern challenges lie, is no longer possible without global networking," observes Louis Fox, President and CEO of CENIC.  "Maintaining our shared advanced network infrastructure at the highest possible level is critical if we are to overcome the challenges we confront in climate change, medicine, and economics, to name but a few areas."

"Shared infrastructure improvements like this -- and others yet to come -- are probably among the most effective investments that society can make nowdays, given the positive impact they can create for global communities and for our planet," Fox added.

"It's important to note that upgrades like this are not an endpoint in themselves but a step toward the future," states PNWGP's Executive Director Amy Philipson.  "Increased bandwidth invariably brings increased demand for bandwidth, which is why Pacific Wave's planned connectivity upgrades include 100 Gbps connectivity as well -- and I'm sure it won't end there."  Adds Philipson, "It's also important to note that this will not only benefit innovation in Australia and New Zealand but around the world as well.  Some of the most significant institutions and data-intensive scientific instrumentation in the world is located there, which means that researchers around the globe will also benefit from greatly improved connectivity to their colleagues two nations."

"This upgrade significantly improves global access to the unparalleled collection of international astronomical observatories in Hawaii," said University of Hawaii President David Lassner, who also serves as principal investigator for the NSF International Research Network Connections (IRNC) project that supported the US costs of the upgrade.  "Current instruments already generate terabytes of data every 24 hours, and next generation projects like the Thirty Meter Telescope on Mauna Kea and NSF-supported Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope on Haleakala will challenge our international research networks even more.  So it was critical that we built into this upgrade our plans to move to 100 Gbps in 2016."

This announcement also comes on the heels of an announcement by the Australian advanced network AARNet of their new partnership with New Zealand advanced network REANNZ and Southern Cross Cable Networks to provide New Zealand scientists and researchers with access to ultra high-speed international connectivity as well as the general Internet.  The partnership means that New Zealand scientists and researchers will, for the first time, have capacity for big-data transport between New Zealand and the rest of the world.

"As long time participants in Pacific Wave, REANNZ has benefited greatly from the distributed multi-city and multi-network exchange model that provides convenient 'one-stop' high performance connectivity to the US scientific community," says Steve Cotter, CEO of REANNZ.  "We look forward to continued collaboration as we plan to scale our networks to 100G and deploy emerging technologies like software defined networking."

"We're pleased to be contributing to the expansion of vital global research network infrastructure," adds AARNet CEO Chris Hancock.  "Built in partnership with Southern Cross Cable Networks, this second high-speed AARNet link across the Pacific adds capacity, diversity and redundancy to our network, further bolstering our international connectivity to ensure Australia's, and New Zealand's, participation in major international scientific research collaborations."

More information including network maps and a full list of participants can be found at www.pacificwave.net.

* TransLight/Pacific Wave is funded by NSF Award No. 0962931.

Pacific Wave announced the completion of a 100-Gigabit connection for the Energy Sciences Network (ESnet), the high-speed computer network serving US Department of Energy (DOE) laboratories and scientific facilities.  With the completion of this new connection in Sunnyvale, CA, ESnet has upgraded its peering capabilities to research networks in 40 countries throughout the Pacific Rim and beyond.

"International exchange points such as Pacific Wave serve a critical role in the architecture of the Internet, and they are especially important in supporting large-scale scientific collaboration," stated ESnet Division Director Greg Bell. "This new 100-Gigabit connection will improve data mobility for scientists at the cutting edge of discovery in high-energy physics, fusion energy research, climate science, and many other fields."

ESnet provides the high-bandwidth, reliable connections that link scientists at national laboratories, universities and other research institutions, enabling them to collaborate on some of the world's most important scientific challenges including energy, climate science, and the origins of the universe. Funded by the DOE Office of Science, and managed and operated by the ESnet team at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, ESnet provides scientists with access to unique DOE research facilities and computing resources.

"The international advanced network infrastructure that first emerged as an aspiration in the 1990s has become a vital part of 21st century collaborative research in a vast number of disciplines," said CENIC President and CEO Louis Fox. "Ensuring that the research labs and partners served by ESnet enjoy cutting-edge connectivity to colleagues around the world is an equally vital part of maintaining the pace of innovation, as well as the United States' continued position as a global leader in data-intensive research."

"Pacific Wave and ESnet are both cornerstones of international advanced networking," adds Amy Philipson, Executive Director of Pacific Northwest Gigapop. "The better the connectivity between our networks, the more value we bring to our participants and the bigger the positive impact we both have through supporting data-intensive collaborative research into topics of great global importance."

A joint project between the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC) and the Pacific Northwest Gigapop (PNWGP) with support from the University of Southern California and the University of Washington, Pacific Wave is a state-of-the-art international peering exchange designed to serve research and education networks throughout the Pacific Rim and beyond and features connection points at three US West Coast locations: the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, and Seattle.

Over the ten years since its inception, the Pacific Wave international peering exchange has become a critical part of the international advanced network infrastructure and the dominant means by which all of the world's such networks cross the Pacific Ocean.

SEATTLE, WA and LOS ANGELES, CA – Representatives of Asia Pacific Advanced Network Ltd. (APAN) and Pacific Wave have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) building on their longstanding relationship by agreeing to promote their respective and mutual objectives by providing for appropriate collaborations and peerings between their participants/members.  They will collaborate on the development, deployment, and communication of network technologies, services and applications to support the global research and education community.

As part of this MOU, they will encourage the use and development of common standards and their technical implementations; the development of next-generation networking and applications in research and higher education; the encouragement of technology transfer to accelerate leadership in research and higher education; and collaboration with each other and government agencies and departments to promote and encourage the interconnection of advanced networks and deployment of advanced technologies around the world.

“The APAN membership is of enormous significance to global research and education, including CENIC members in California, and the Pacific Wave Internet Exchange provides the perfect venue to facilitate collaborations between APAN and other research and education networks in the Pacific Rim, the United States, and even Europe and South America ” said Louis Fox, President and CEO of CENIC, the nonprofit corporation which, together with the Pacific Northwest Gigapop, runs Pacific Wave with the support of the University of Washington and the University of Southern California.  “Strengthening the relationship between APAN and Pacific Wave in areas like collaboration, next-generation technology, and tech transfer will help maintain the Pacific Rim and their collaborators as major forces for innovation in the coming century.”

Pacific Wave is a joint project between the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC) and the Pacific Northwest Gigapop (PNWGP), and is operated in collaboration with the University of Southern California and the University of Washington.

With a total of five exchange points located in Seattle, Sunnyvale, and Los Angeles and connected by a 100G fiber backbone, the Pacific Wave international peering facility provides research and education networks throughout the Pacific Rim and beyond the opportunity to peer with one another, removing international borders as boundaries to network-enabled global collaboration and innovation.  Current participants represent networks and agencies from Australia, Canada, China, Japan, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Qatar, Singapore, South America, Taiwan, and the United States.  Many multi-national networks such as GLORIAD, NORDUnet (Nordic countries), and redCLARA (Central and South America) also participate, bringing the total of nations whose research and education communities can collaborate on network-enabled projects via Pacific Wave to more than 40.

About APAN • www.apan.net

APAN (Asia Pacific Advanced Network) is the name both of the network itself and of the non-profit organization created in 1997 to undertake the network’s creation and development on behalf of its members.  The APAN network is designed to be a high-performance network for research and development on advanced next generation applications and services. APAN provides an advanced networking environment for the research and education community in the Asia-Pacific region, and promotes global collaboration.  The international members of APAN represent the global research and education network interests in the countries and economies of Asia and Oceania.

APAN’s objectives are to coordinate and promote network technology developments and advances in network-based applications and services, to coordinate the development of an advanced networking environment for research and education communities in the Asia-Pacific region, and to encourage and promote global cooperation to help achieve these.  APAN also coordinates developments and interactions among its members and with international peering organizations both in networking and applications.

About Pacific Wave • www.pacificwave.net

“Pacific Wave was created by organizations with a vested interest in serving research and education along the West Coast of the United States, as APAN was created on behalf of the Pacific Rim,” said Pacific Northwest Gigapop CEO Ron Johnson.  “Enabling vibrant collaboration between our respective communities is among the most important ways we can serve them in today’s landscape of boundary-free innovation.”

“APAN was founded not just to connect devices but to connect people,” said Dae Young Kim, Chairman of APAN and professor of Information Communications Engineering at Chungnam National University in Korea.  “As an organization, we must build pathways for collaboration and cooperation as well as for fiber-optic cable, including those between academic and commercial researchers.  This will maintain not only network-dependent research but the network itself in its most cutting-edge state.”

SEATTLE, WA and LOS ANGELES, CA – Representatives of the Pacific Wave international network peering facility and the Trans-Eurasia Information Network*Corporation Center (TEIN*CC) today announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding highlighting the two organizations’ desire to work together to promote advanced networking, collaboration, and advocacy among and on behalf of the Pacific Rim research and education communities.

With this Memorandum of Understanding in effect, researchers across the Pacific Rim will be even better able to collaborate globally on world-class research projects in areas such as radio astronomy, distributed (grid) computing, telemedicine, climatology, digital cinema, high-energy physics, and more. Global educational collaboration will also be further enabled, as high-performance networks have enhanced distributed classrooms and student exchange programs through high-quality videoconferencing and other technologies.

“Pacific Wave is an integral part of the worldwide fabric of research and education networks,” said Louis Fox, President and CEO of CENIC, the nonprofit corporation which, with the Pacific Northwest Gigapop, runs Pacific Wave with the support of the University of Washington and the University of Southern California. “Formalizing the relationship with TEIN*CC is yet another building block in ensuring robust, high-performance connectivity of the sort that is essential in today’s landscape of borderless global collaboration.”

“This relationship with TEIN*CC further emphasizes the vital role Pacific Wave plays among advanced research and education networks,” adds Pacific Northwest Gigapop CEO Ron Johnson. “Each such agreement between the world’s advanced networks and exchanges strengthens the web of interconnected high-performance optical networks, enabling them to function as the foundation beneath so much 21st century research and education.”

With a total of five exchange points located in Seattle, Sunnyvale, and Los Angeles and connected by a 100G fiber backbone, the Pacific Wave international peering facility provides research and education networks throughout the Pacific Rim and beyond the opportunity to peer with one another, removing international borders as boundaries to network-enabled global collaboration and innovation. Current participants represent networks and agencies from Australia, Canada, China, Japan, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Qatar, Singapore, South America, Taiwan, and the United States. Many multi-national networks such as GLORIAD, NORDUnet (Nordic countries), and redCLARA (Central and South America) also participate, bringing the total of nations whose research and education communities can collaborate on network-enabled projects via Pacific Wave to more than 40.

Launched at the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) 3 Summit in Seoul in 2001, the TEIN network created by the Trans-Eurasia Information Network initiative began with a single link between France and South Korea and evolved to provide a dedicated high-capacity Internet network between research and education communities in the Asia Pacific region. Through westbound links to GN3 (formerly GÉANT), its pan-European counterpart, TEIN offers direct high-speed intercontinental connectivity, and with support from the European Commission, the TEIN partner countries now include Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam. Now in its third generation as TEIN3, the network’s upgrade to TEIN4 will receive funding support from the European Commission and from the participating National Research and Education Networks (NRENs).

About Pacific Wave

Pacific Wave is a joint project between the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC) and the Pacific Northwest Gigapop (PNWGP), and is operated in collaboration with the University of Southern California and the University of Washington. The distributed design of Pacific Wave allows participants to engage in bilateral peerings regardless of which node they are physically connected to. This design offers significant flexibility and opportunities for networks utilizing any of a dozen trans-Pacific cables for their circuits as well as for building redundancy and robustness into peering relationships that would otherwise be cost prohibitive and complex . For more information, please visit http://www.pacificwave.net/.

Source: TechZone360

We’re beginning to get accustomed to news involving software-defined network applications within individual service provider networks. But Pacific Wave now has the ability to use SDN within its international peering facility to enable service providers to dynamically establish circuits between one another.

Pacific Wave is a joint project of the Corporation for Education and Network Initiatives in California (CENIC) and the Pacific Northwest Gigapop (PNWGP), and its dynamic circuit provisioning capability is based on the On-Demand Secure Circuits and Advanced Reservation System (OSCARS) developed by the U.S. Department of Energy – Energy Sciences Network (ESNet).

“This software is a form of SDN,” wrote a Pacific Wave spokesperson in response to an e-mail inquiry from TMCNet. “Reservations can be made literally seconds before [circuits] are used, so it’s pretty much real-time on-demand.”

Read the full article at TechZone360

SALT LAKE CITY — International distributed network peering facility Pacific Wave announced today the enabling of dynamic circuit provisioning using the On-demand Secure Circuits and Advance Reservation System (OSCARS) developed by the US Department of Energy – Energy Sciences Network (ESnet). This new capacity of Pacific Wave will allow researchers (via their regional network provider) to reserve, and have dynamically allocated during the reservation period, a point-to-point network facility across one or more networks.

Pacific Wave is a distributed international peering facility that enables high-performance research and education networks in the Pacific Rim and beyond to connect with one another in any of three cities in the US West Coast (Seattle, Sunnyvale, and Los Angeles). Pacific Wave is a joint project of the Corporation for Education and Network Initiatives in California (CENIC) and the Pacific Northwest Gigapop (PNWGP), and is designed to enhance the efficiency of IP traffic across the west coast of the United States and with partners around the Pacific Rim. With the advanced connectivity provided by Pacific Wave, researchers in data-intensive sciences including astronomy, ocean research, genomics, and high-energy physics can collaborate with one another from anywhere in the world.

“This new offering by Pacific Wave, a major international interconnect point for research and education networks around the Pacific Rim, could vastly expand the number of networks that can interact via such a utility and the kinds of research that can be enabled by it,” said Louis Fox, President and CEO of CENIC.

“The implementation of OSCARS with the new Pacific Wave 100G capacity, when combined with Science DMZs at research institutions, brings a whole new set of collaborative opportunities for data intensive science,” noted Amy Philipson, Executive Director, PNWGP. “More importantly, testing and refining this utility now will enable the research, data sharing, and collaboration envisioned by projects like the Square Kilometre Array which seeks to probe the early universe, test Einstein’s theory of gravity, and search for intelligent life.”

OSCARS open-source software is the most widely adopted inter-domain dynamic circuit services application within the global research and networking community. Its open and evolving framework is inspiring, and inspired by many collaborators that include academic institutions, global networking members as represented at Global Lambda Integrated Facility (GLIF) and standards body, Open Grid Forum (OGF).

About Pacific Northwest Gigapop

The Pacific Northwest Gigapop 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, please visit http://www.pnw-gigapop.net/.

About CENIC

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. For more information, please visit http://www.cenic.org/.

About ESnet

ESnet provides the high-bandwidth, reliable connections that link scientists at national laboratories, universities and other research institutions, enabling them to collaborate on some of the world’s most important scientific challenges including energy, climate science, and the origins of the universe. Funded by the DOE Office of Science, and managed and operated by the ESnet team at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, ESnet provides scientists with access to unique DOE research facilities and computing resources. For more information, please visit http://www.es.net/.

SEATTLE – Today Pacific Wave and Northern Wave announced an agreement that will allow their participants to peer with each other. Northern Wave will now connect Pacific Wave (www.pacificwave.net) in Seattle to the StarLight International/National Communications Exchange Facility (www.startap.net/starlight) in Chicago. This relationship provides new opportunities for international research and education networks and university participants to exchange networking traffic at multi-Gigabit rates between the Pacific Rim, the US, and Europe. In addition, researchers and educators at any connecting institution along the Northern Wave path in Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, and Washington will have access to participants on the Pacific Wave exchange.

Pacific Wave is state-of-the-art peering exchange facility that, for over 10 years, has connected research, scientific, and education institutions and networks throughout the Pacific Rim and the world, increasing network efficiency and throughput while reducing latency and costs. Pacific Wave is a joint project of the Corporation for Education and Network Initiatives in California (CENIC) and the Pacific Northwest GigaPoP (PNWGP) and is designed to enhance the efficiency of research and education network traffic across the west coast of the US and with partners around the Pacific Rim.

Northern Wave is a similar facility recently funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) via North Dakota State University (NDSU) and PNWGP to provide a new shared 10Gbps optical network connection between Seattle and Chicago for research and education institutions. The grant, part of NSF’s Academic Research Infrastructure program, funded optical equipment to build the network along a fiber path provided by PNWGP and the BOREAS network (a collaboration among the Universities of Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin-Madison, and Iowa State University (www.boreas.net).

“Northern Wave brings a significant new capacity to research and education networks through improved international communication facilities as well as the easy exchange of data for initiating collaborations with other institutions. This is especially important for the establishment of large competitive research centers. It will also provide connectivity to large computational and visualization platforms at remote locations,” says Kalpana Katti, North Dakota State University Distinguished Professor of Civil Engineering and NSF CAREER Award grantee.

“Connecting Northern Wave and Pacific Wave puts into place a new piece of the cyberinfrastructure necessary for complex interdisciplinary work on the cutting edge of science and technology,” said Amy Philipson, Executive Director, PNWGP. “Together with the other advances that Pacific Wave offers its participants, such as 100G networking along the US west coast, dynamic circuits, support for Science DMZ-model research networks, and software-defined networking, we’re delighted help facilitate the arrival of true 21st century networking.”

Northern Wave is supported by the National Science Foundation ARRA ARI Award No. 0963559.

Pacific Wave is supported by the National Science Foundation IRNC Award No. OCI-0962931.

StarLight receives support from the National Science Foundation, IRNC Award No. OCI-0962997 and ARRA ARI Award No. 0963095.

About CENIC

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. For more information, visit www.cenic.org.

About North Dakota State University (NDSU)

North Dakota State University is a student-focused, land-grant, research university — an economic engine that educates students, conducts primary research, creates new knowledge and advances technology. The university provides affordable access to an excellent education at a top-ranked research institution that combines teaching and research in a rich learning environment, educating future leaders who will create solutions to national and global challenges that will shape a better world. For more information, please visit http://www.ndsu.edu/.

About Pacific Northwest Gigapop (PNWGP)

The Pacific Northwest Gigapop 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, please visit http://www.pnwgp.net/.

About StarLight

StarLight is the world’s most advanced national and international communications exchange facility. StarLight provides advanced networking services and technologies that are optimized for high-performance, large-scale metro, regional, national and global applications. With funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), StarLight was designed and developed by researchers, for researchers. StarLight is managed by the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) at the University of Illinois at Chicago, the International Center for Advanced Internet Research (iCAIR) at Northwestern University, the Mathematics and Computer Science Division at Argonne National Laboratory, and Calit2 at University of California, San Diego, in partnership with Canada’s CANARIE national networking organization and The Netherlands’ SURFnet. (www.startap.net/starlight)

West Coast network peering facility leverages Ciena’s coherent technology across the Internet2 backbone to support data-intensive research and education efforts

HANOVER, MD — 11/13/2012

Ciena® Corporation (NASDAQ: CIEN), the network specialist, today announced that the Pacific Wave international network peering facility—which connects research and education (R&E) networks in 40 countries in the Pacific Rim and beyond—was recently upgraded with Ciena’s 6500 Packet-Optical Platform, equipped with WaveLogic™ coherent optical processors. This deployment will provide 100Gb/s networking capabilities to Pacific Wave’s extensive R&E network infrastructure across the western coast of the United States, from Los Angeles to Seattle.

The 100G backbone now connecting Pacific Wave’s major peering locations will not only provide regional and national high-speed connectivity between higher education and research institutions throughout the U.S. Pacific Coast, but will also allow R&E institutions around the world to collaborate more quickly and effectively in data-intensive, international sciences such as astronomy, oceanography, high-energy physics, and genomics.

In choosing Ciena for this deployment, the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives (CENIC) and the Pacific Northwest Gigapop (PNWGP) –who together operate Pacific Wave as a joint project – are ensuring that Pacific Wave is consistent with the recent Internet2 and the US Department of Energy (ESnet) 100G backbone upgrades.

Key Facts:

• Pacific Wave is a distributed international peering facility that enables R&E networks to share traffic at any of five locations in three cities: Los Angeles, Sunnyvale, and Seattle. Current network participants are located throughout the Pacific Rim and beyond including Australia, Canada, China, Japan, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Qatar, Singapore, South America, Taiwan, and the United States. Connectivity to Europe is further facilitated via peering with StarLight Chicago.

• The Pacific Wave peering facility’s West Coast backbone will be powered by Ciena’s coherent technology, a critical component of the company’s OPn architecture, to provide significant scale and capacity to support the increasing bandwidth requirements of large-scale e-science, distributed computing, and storage applications.

• In addition, the network supports ESnet’s On-Demand Secure Circuits and Reservation System (OSCARS) that enables the dynamic provisioning of multi-domain, high-bandwidth virtual circuits that provide bandwidth and service guarantees to support research applications and has the potential to incorporate software defined networking in the future.

• Ciena’s 6500 allows Pacific Wave’s West Coast backbone to ride on the Internet2 backbone as a fully separated “virtual wave,” capturing the benefits of a private fiber network at a fraction of the cost through managed spectrum.

• Funded through grants from the National Science Foundation to the University of New Mexico, the Pacific Wave network will also provide advanced broadband network capabilities, services, content, and applications, expanding the use of the Internet2 network in the western United States and enabling new capabilities to participants in CENIC, PNWGP, and Internet2 R&E networks. 

Executive Comments:

• “Now more than ever, research and education efforts require high speed networks that can quickly and reliably transfer massive amounts of data and applications over greater distances. Ciena’s coherent optical solutions provide the economical and exponential growth in bandwidth requirements required to support data-intensive, collaborative research projects so that scientists can conduct experiments, investigate, and collaborate with peers in new and innovative ways.”
  – Rod Wilson, Senior Director of External Research, Ciena 

• “This upgrade is the latest step forward in Pacific Wave’s long history of advanced approaches to Layer 2 networking. The 100G upgrade to the Pacific Wave backbone will help empower the next revolution in global scientific collaboration and Science DMZ-model research networking. Ciena’s impressive track record in high-speed fiber-optic network builds makes them a welcome ally in our mission to ensure that California research and education benefits fully from advanced networking and the innovation it enables.”
  – Louis Fox, President & CEO, CENIC

• “This 100G upgrade to Pacific Wave enables new research along one of the most vital corridors in the West.”
  – Dr. Gil Gonzales, Principal Investigator, University of New Mexico

• “With this new 100G West Coast upgrade for Pacific Wave, plus the 10G Northern Wave peering connection between PacWave in Seattle and StarLight in Chicago, PNWGP is delighted to be taking part in what amounts to a massive advance in research networking throughout North America. This is truly 21st century networking, made possible by organizations that work together for a common goal.”
  – Amy Philipson, Executive Director, PNWGP 

•  “Providing America’s leading universities with access to the most advanced network technology and increasing the global capacity for advanced science collaboration among our members and their partners is critical to Internet2. We are proud to work with our partners at CENIC, PNWGP and Ciena to support our members in accelerating scientific discovery and providing access to advanced technologies to the public through our nation’s community anchor institutions.”
  – Rob Vietzke, Vice President of Network Services, Internet2 

Supercomputing 2012:

• Ciena is participating in several demonstrations at the SC Conference 2012 (SC12), in Salt Lake City, November 12-15. To learn more about the Pacific Wave network, visit CENIC and PNWGP at SC12 booth #3647.

Technology Background:

• The pioneer and market leader in coherent technology for optical transmission, Ciena has to date shipped over 16,000 coherent 40G/100G line interfaces to more than 100 customers across the globe, with over 15 million coherent kilometres deployed worldwide. Ciena has a long standing commitment to the research and education sector and powers several of the world’s largest research networks include Internet2 (US); ESnet (US); SURFnet (Netherlands), RENATER (France), CANARIE (Canada), and JANET (UK).

• OPn is Ciena’s approach for building open, programmable next-generation networks that scale and automatically adapt to handle the changes created by cloud/data center migration, mobile broadband and the growing demand for high-bandwidth applications and services including those that support R&E efforts across the globe.

Supporting Resources and Multimedia:

• Application Note: Coherent Optical Processing for High-Capacity Networks
• Data Sheet: 6500 Packet-Optical Platform
• White Paper: Addressing Network Uncertainty with an Intelligent Infrastructure
• Video: 100G and Beyond for Research and Education Networks
• White Paper: OPn Network Architecture

About CENIC
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 onnected. 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. For more information, visit www.cenic.org.

About Pacific Northwest Gigapop
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. For more information, visit http://www.pnw-gigapop.net/.

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

About Ciena
Ciena is the network specialist. We collaborate with customers worldwide to unlock the strategic potential of their networks and fundamentally change the way they perform and compete. Ciena leverages its deep expertise in packet and optical networking and distributed software automation to deliver solutions in alignment with OPn, its approach for building open next-generation networks. We enable a high-scale, programmable infrastructure that can be controlled and adapted by network-level applications, and provide open interfaces to coordinate computing, storage and network resources in a unified, virtualized environment. We routinely post recent news, financial results and other important announcements and information about Ciena on our website. For more information, visit www.ciena.com.

Note to Ciena Investors
Forward-looking statements. This press release contains certain forward-looking statements based on current expectations, forecasts and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties. These statements are based on information available to the Company as of the date hereof; and Ciena’s actual results could differ materially from those stated or implied, due to risks and uncertainties associated with its business, which include the risk factors disclosed in its Report on Form 10-Q, which Ciena filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on September 5, 2012. Forward-looking statements include statements regarding Ciena’s expectations, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future and can be identified by forward-looking words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “should,” “will,” and “would” or similar words. Ciena assumes no obligation to update the information included in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Press Contacts:
Nicole Anderson
Ciena Corporation
(877) 857 -7377
pr@ciena.com

Investor Contacts:
Gregg Lampf
Ciena Corporation
(877) 243 6273
ir@ciena.com

Jamie Moody
Ciena Corporation
(214) 995-8035
jmoody@ciena.com

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

pnwgp.net/CANS2012/

Chinese American Networking Symposium
October 8-10, 2012
Seattle, Washington, USA

Information on the 2012 symposium, hosted by Pacific Northewst Gigapop, Pacific Wave, and the University of Washington, can be found on this page. For details on the Chinese American Networking Symposium, please visit the main CANS website (archive).

Pacific Northwest Gigapop, Pacific Wave, and the University of Washington are honored to host the 2012 Chinese American Networking Symposium in Seattle.  PWNGP, Pacific Wave and UW have built extensive partnerships with many institutions in China.  We are confident that the symposium will greatly enhance relationships among our colleagues in the United States and China.

Since 1999, this annual event brings together leading networking experts from the US and China to share cutting-edge technical knowledge and information on state-of-the-art networks, and best practices for managing advanced international networks. CANS continues to foster creative collaborations among educational and research institutions. The symposium brings together technology partners from both nations to spur innovation, new ideas, and further the beneficial uses of global networking and infrastructure deployment.

PWNGP, Pacific Wave and UW are thankful for the tremendous support of the National Science Foundation, Internet2, and other generous symposium sponsors to make this year's event the best ever! The planning committee is working hard to ensure that our discussions and collaborations expand our research and scholarly activities and strengthen institutions on both sides of the Pacific.

Program

All events will be at the Crowne Plaza Seattle unless otherwise noted.

Printable Program (PDF)

Sunday, October 7
18:00 – 20:00  Conference Check-in, Crowne Plaza hotel lobby

Monday, October 8
7:00 – 9:00      Conference Check-in, Crowne Plaza hotel lobby
7:30 – 8:30      Continental Breakfast, Yellowstone room, lobby level
8:30 – 10:00    Working Group Meetings
                        IPv6, SanJuan, 5thfloor
                        Software Defined Networks, Yosemite, 3rd floor
                        e2e Performance and Measurement, Carlsbad, lower level
                        Federated Identity, McKinley, 3rd floor
10:00 – 10:30  Morning Break, Yellowstone room, lobby level
10:30 – 12:00  Working Group Meetings continue, same rooms
12:00 – 13:00  Lunch, Yellowstone room, lobby level
13:00 – 13:30  Private meeting with University of Washington President, Michael Young
13:30 – 15:00  Opening Ceremony, Sequoia/Glacier, lobby level 
                        Chair: Steve Smith, PNWGP Board Chair                      
                        President Michael Young, University of Washington
                        Jianping Wu, CERNET
                        Kai Nan, CAS CNIC
                        David Lambert, Internet2
                        Xiaoming Sheng, CAST-USA
                        Kevin Thompson, National Science Foundation
                        Don Riley, University of Maryland
                        Shuigen Xiao, Georgetown University
                        Michael Sinatra, ESnet
                        John Silvester, CENIC
                        Ron Johnson, Pacific Northwest Gigapop
15:00 – 15:30  Afternoon break, Yellowstone room, lobby level
15:30 – 17:00  Keynote Presentations, Sequoia/Glacier, lobby level
                        Chair: Steve Wolff, Internet2
                        eScience: Computational Science for the 21st Century
                            Ed Lazowska, Bill and Melinda Gates Chair in Computer
                            Engineering, University of Washington          
                        Cyberinfrastructure Frameworks for Community Driven Science
                            Gwen Jacobs, Professor of Neuroscience, Montana State University
17:30               Depart for Opening Reception and Dinner, University of Washington
                        Motorcoaches will leave from the lobby level of the Crowne Plaza
                        If driving yourself, please consult the UW site for directions
                        http://www.cs.washington.edu/visitors/getting_here    
18:30               Dinner in the Atrium of the Paul G. Allen Center for Computer Science & Engineering 
21:30               Expected return to the Crowne Plaza

Tuesday, October 9
7:30 – 8:30      Continental Breakfast, Yellowstone room, lobby level
8:30 – 10:00    Session I: Scientific Research Collaborations, Sequoia/Glacier
                        CSTNET Collaboration on Science and Technology
                             Yan Zha
                        The Scientific and Educational Research Collaborations of CERNET
                              Jilong Wang
10:00 – 10:30  Morning Break, Yellowstone room, lobby level
10:30 – 12:00  Session II: End-to-end Performance and Measurement,                         Sequoia/Glacier
                        perfSONAR Introduction, US Deployment and Development Plans
                             Jason Zurawski  
                        Research on Key Technologies for Large-scale Network Measurement
                              Haina Tang 
                        CERNET Activities on End-to-end Performance and Measurement
                               Jilong Wang 
                        IPv6 Measurement Related Activities
                               Michael Sinatra 
                        Elephant Flows
                               John Hicks and Jilong Wang 
12:00 – 13:30  Lunch, Yellowstone room, lobby level
13:30 – 15:00   Session III: Federated Identity, Sequoia/Glacier
                        An Identity and Access management cloud for a very large
                        organization
                               Jiwu Jing
                        Introduction of CARSI Federation
                               Ping Chen
                        IAAA (Identity, Authentication, Authorization, Auditing) practice of
                        E-Campus
                               Zhikun Zhang
                       Grouper and CIFER Projects in the U.S.
                               Tom Barton and Rob Carter
                       InCommon and U.S. Efforts in Federation and Identify Management
                               Jack Suess
15:00 – 15:30  Afternoon Break, Yellowstone room, lobby level
15:30 – 17:00  Session IV: Software Defined Networks and other Developments, Sequoia/Glacier, lobby level
                        Openflow Testbed in CSTNet
                               Yuepeng E    
                        FINE Project – Future Internet Innovation Environment
                               Jun Bi
                        Mobile Trends and the Future
                               David Morton  
17:30               Depart for the Museum of Flight
                        Motorcoaches will leave from the lobby level of the Crowne Plaza 
                        If driving yourself, please consult the MOF site for directions                         http://www.museumofflight.org/ 
18:15               Private tour of the Museum
19:15               Dinner 
21:30               Expected return to the Crowne Plaza

Wednesday, October 10
7:30 – 8:30      Continental Breakfast, Yellowstone room, lobby level
8:30 – 10:00    Session V: University Technology Organization and                         Management, Sequoia/Glacier
                        Zhensheng Zhao, CSTNet
                        Ling Zhang, CERNET
                        Tom Delaney, New York University
                        Kelli Trosvig, University of Washington
                        Steve Smith, University of Hawaii
                        Jack Suess, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
10:00 – 10:30  Morning Break, Yellowstone room, lobby level
10:30 – 12:00  Session VI: Panel on University Technology Organization and                         Management, Sequoia/Glacier
                        Jianping Wu, Tsinghua University
                        Bei Zhang, Peking University
                        Zhensheng Zhao, CSTNet
                        Tom Delaney, New York University
                        Kelli Trosvig, University of Washington
                        Steve Smith, University of Hawaii
                        Jack Suess, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
                        Songlin Feng, Shanghai Advanced Research Institute
                        Tiejun Luo, Chinese Academy of Sciences
                        Lin Zhang, South China University of Technology
12:00 – 13:30  Lunch, Yellowstone room, lobby level
13:30 – 15:00  Session VII: IPv6, Sequoia/Glacier
                        Research and Implementation of IPv6 Network Intrusion Detection
                                    Chun Long               
                        Risks of Not Deploying IPv6 Now
                                    Michael Sinatra
                        IPv6 in the NGN
                                    Bill Manning                     
15:00 – 15:30  Afternoon break, Yellowstone room, lobby level
15:30 – 17:00  Wrap-up and Next Steps, Sequoia/Glacier, lobby level

Sponsors

We would like to thank the symposium's organizers for their generous support in presenting the 2012 Chinese American Networking Symposium.

China Association for Science and Technology, USA
China Education and Research Network (CERNET)
China Science & Technology Network (CSTNET)
Internet2
National Science Foundation
Pacific Northwest Gigapop (host)
Pacific Wave (host)
University of Washington (host)

Please click here for information about becoming a sponsor.

Committees

Organizing Committee

Co-Chairs:

• Jianping Wu, Director, CERNET Center, Tsinghua University, China

• Xiangyang Huang, Director, Computer Network Information Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

• H. David Lambert, President and CEO, Internet2, USA

• Donald R. Riley, Professor, University of Maryland, SURA IT Fellow, and Chair, Internet Educational Equal Access Foundation, USA

• Shuigen Xiao, CAST-USA and Georgetown University, USA

Members:

• Ana Hunsinger, Internet2, USA

• Stephen Wolff, Internet2, USA

• Jacqueline Brown, Internet2 and Pacific Wave, USA

• Amy Philipson, Pacific Northwest Gigapop, USA

• Chris Kong, CAST-USA

• Xing Li, CERNET Center, Tsinghua University, China

• Jennifer (Jie) An, CERNET Center, Tsinghua University, China

• Bowei Dai, CSTNET, Computer Network Information Center, China

• Hualin Qian, Computer Network Information Center, China

• Zhimin Li, Ministry of Education, China

• Jinghua Cao, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

Program Committee

Co-Chairs:

• Xing Li, Deputy Director, CERNET Center, Tsinghua University, China

• Hualin Qian, Chief Scientist, Computer Network Information Center, China

• Jacqueline Brown, Senior Advisor, International Relations, Internet2, USA

• Stephen Wolff, Interim CTO, Internet2, US

Members:

• Ling Zhang, CERNET, China  

• Jian Gong, CERNET, China  

• Yan Ma, CERNET, China   

• Bei Zhang, CERNET, China   

• Jennifer (Jie) An, CERNET, China   

• Hai Jin, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China  

• Jun Bi, Tsinghua University, China  

• Jilong Wang, Tsinghua University, China  

• Jun Li, CSTNET, China

• Jingguo Ge, CSTNET, China

• Haina Tang, CSTNET, China

• Tiejian Luo, CSTNET, China

• Zhongcheng Li, CSTNET, China

• Liming Sun, CSTNET, China

• Kai Nan, Computer Network Information Center, CAS, China

• Xuebin Chi, Computer Network Information Center, CAS, China

• Ed Lazowska, University of Washington

• David Lassner, University of Hawaii

• Tom Delaney, New York University

• Anita Nikolich  University of Chicago

• Jack Suess, University of Maryland

• Robert Johnson, Duke University

• Michael Sinatra, ESnet

• James Williams, Indiana University

• Dan Massey, Colorado State University

• Chris Kong, CAST-USA

Logistics Committee

Chair:

• Martha Sellers, Pacific Northwest Gigapop

Members:

• Amy Philipson, Pacific Northwest Gigapop

• Clare Donahue, University of Washington

• Jacqueline Brown, Pacific Wave

• Edward Moynahan, Internet2

• Jennifer (Jie) An, CERNET, China

• Zhuoxi LI, CERNET, China

• Haina Tang, CSTNET, China

• Jian-ru Zheng, CSTNET, China

• Susannah Malarkey, Technology Alliance

• Susan Sigl, Washington Technology Industry Association

• Carole Goodwin, Georgetown University

• Microsoft Research (to be determined)

Travel Needs

Letters of Invitation
If you require a letter of invitation before registering, please complete the Letters of Invitation Request Form, providing your name, title, organization, email, physical address, and passport details. We will respond to your request as soon as possible. You will receive a PDF version of your letter via e-mail, unless you indicate another preference in the comments section of the form.

Passports and Visas
Visitors to the United States are required to have a passport from their country of citizenship and, in most cases, a visa. Visit the official visa information website of the US State Department for information on getting a visa. For questions on how to obtain a visa, send e-mail to cans-info@internet2.edu.

Registration

Registration includes: Participation in all sessions, all conference materials, continental breakfasts (Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday), lunches (Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday), morning and afternoon refreshment breaks, Reception and Dinner hosted by the University of Washington (Monday, October 8th), Gala reception and dinner at the Museum of Flight (Tuesday, October 9th).

Registration fees: $400.00 early registration by September 15th. $450.00 registration after September 15th.

Registration is closed

Lodging

The 2012 Chinese American Networking Symposium will be held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in downtown Seattle.
CANS accommodations at the Crowne Plaza Hotel are at the rate of $149/night, single or double occupancy (for reservations made by September 16).

2012 Symposium Contacts

For any questions related to the conference (program or schedule, registration, sponsorship, lodging) contact the Internet2 or Pacific Northwest Gigapop conference organizers.

You may contact the following representatives from each organization:
Pacific Northwest Gigapop: Martha Sellers
Internet2: Edward Moynihan
CERNET: Jennifer An: anjie@cernet.edu.cn
 +86 10 6278 5093
CSTNET: Haina Tang: tanghn@cstnet.cn
 +86 10 5881 2926

Today the North Dakota State University (NDSU) and Pacific Northwest Gigapop (PNWGP) announced “first light” on a new 10 Gbps optical connection between Seattle and Chicago called Northern Wave. Built using National Science Foundation (NSF) grant funds, Northern Wave will ultimately provide for a shared 10Gbps network for research and education institutions choosing to participate from Seattle to Chicago. The grant, part of NSF’s Academic Research Infrastructure program, funds the optical equipment to build the network along a fiber path provided by PNWGP (from Seattle to Minneapolis) and the BOREAS network (a collaboration among the Universities of Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin- Madison, and Iowa State University (www.boreas.net).

Ultimately, Northern Wave will connect to Pacific Wave (www.pacificwave.net) in Seattle and to StarLight (www.startap.net/starlight) in Chicago where a large number of international networks and universities choose to exchange networking traffic in very large, multi-gigabit flows. Researchers and educators in any connecting institution along the path in Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho and Washington will have access to this 10Gbps pathway and exchange facility.

“Northern Wave brings a significant new capacity to network through improved communication facilities as well as easy exchange of data for initiating collaborations with other institutions. This is especially important for the establishment of large competitive research centers. It will also provide connectivity to large computational and visualization platforms at remote locations,” says Kalpana Katti, North Dakota State University Distinguished Professor of Civil Engineering and NSF CAREER Award grantee.

“Northern Wave puts into place a new piece of the cyberinfrastructure necessary for the complex interdisciplinary work that is on the cutting edge of science and technology,” said Amy Philipson, Executive Director, Pacific NorthWest Gigapop (PNWGP)

Once completed and operational, Northern Wave will enhance research and education network capabilities by seeking to increase network efficiency, reduce latency, increase throughput, and reduce costs; and will provide a state-of-the-art national and international peering exchange facility designed to serve researchers throughout this region by connecting them to research and education networks throughout the U.S., the Pacific Rim and the world.

About North Dakota State University
North Dakota State University is a student-focused, land-grant, research university — an economic engine that educates students, conducts primary research, creates new knowledge and advances technology. The university provides affordable access to an excellent education at a top-ranked research institution that combines teaching and research in a rich learning environment, educating future leaders who will create solutions to national and global challenges that will shape a better world. For more information, visit www.ndsu.edu.

About Pacific Northwest Gigapop
The Pacific Northwest Gigapop is a nonprofit corporation serving research and education organizations throughout the Pacific Rim. They provide cost-effective, robust, reliable, highbandwidth, 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 www.pnwgigapop.net.

About Boreas
BOREAS is the Broadband Optical Research, Education and Sciences Network, a collaboration of four major research institutions in the upper Midwest: Iowa State University, the University of Iowa, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. BOREAS operates a Regional Optical Network (RON) to service the advanced production and experimental network requirements of the research and education institutions in our region. For more information, visit www.boreas.net

About the StarLight Interational/National Communications Exchange Facility
The StarLight International/National Communications Exchange Facility provides advanced network services optimized for high-performance applications, especially data-intensive scientific research. StarLight provides high-performance multi-layer switching among participating networks, including true optical switching for wavelengths. StarLight is developed and managed by the the International Center for Advanced Internet Research (iCAIR) at Northwestern University, the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), and the Mathematics and Computer Science Division at ArgonneNational Laboratory, in partnership with Canada’s CANARIE and the Netherlands’ SURFnet. StarLight receives funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation. See www.startap.net/starlight.

Press Release also available in PDF Format.

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

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Summer 2011 PNWGP Newsletter (PDF)

Autumn 2010 PNWGP Newsletter (PDF)

Spring 2010 PNWGP Newsletter (PDF)

New Connections Establish Regional Services to Improve Research and Resource Sharing

Regional optical networks (RONs) in four Western States have agreed to expand and share network services in support of advanced research, operations, and support of academic, economic development, and inter-regional services. Pacific Northwest Gigapop (PNWGP), Front Range GigaPoP, the University of New Mexico (on behalf of the State of New Mexico), and the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC) announced the formation of the Western Regional Network, a multi-state partnership to ensure robust, advanced, high-speed networking availability for research, education, and related uses through the sharing of network services. As a result of this collaboration among WRN members, we have increased the potential for shared applications among communities across the west. These RONs provide networking services to the following states: Alaska, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Washington, Oregon, and Wyoming.

“This new collaboration allows the University of New Mexico to reinvent regional networking by establishing programmatic services within RONs,” said Gil Gonzales, UNM CIO. “WRN will help UNM’s faculty and students gain access to private high speed networks from faculty offices and labs to our regional partners.”

“WRN provides opportunities to benefit all participants in obtaining better services and lower costs. Networking offers tremendous economies of scale, which the WRN participants will be exploiting for the benefit of their members,” said Jim Dolgonas, President and CEO of CENIC. “For CENIC, WRN will not only provide us the ability to offer our members more diverse and therefore robust networking but also the ability to acquire commodity networking at lower costs for our members.”

“WRN creates a wonderful new and flexible vehicle for us to work together as we explore the challenges and opportunities facing our communities across the region” said Amy F. Philipson, Executive Director, PNWGP.

The Front Range GigaPoP is pleased to be partnering with CENIC, PNWGP, and the University of New Mexico on this new, exciting endeavor that provides cost savings in the commodity and R&E areas, enhances opportunities via inter-regional networking, peering, and new arrangements with vendors, stimulates new research opportunities for our members, and improves resiliency in our Wide Area Network made possible through cost-effective back-up paths,” said Marla Meehl, FRGP

WRN will provide access to shared NLR, Internet2, Pacific Wave, and other regional fiber and IP based services for academic and economic development initiatives. This regional affiliation ensures a reliable connection to high-speed networks and research destinations.

The Western Regional Network will initiate services to partners in Spring 2010. For more information, visit: http://www.wrn.net

ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO

Founded in 1889, The University of New Mexico now occupies 600 acres along old Route 66 in the heart of Albuquerque, a city of more than 700,000 people. From the magnificent mesas to the west, past the banks of the historic Rio Grande to the Sandia Mountains to the east, Albuquerque is a blend of culture and cuisine, styles and stories, people, pursuits and panoramas. Offering a distinctive campus environment with a Pueblo Revival architectural theme, the campus echoes the buildings of nearby Pueblo Indian villages. The nationally recognized Campus Arboretum and the popular Duck Pond offer an outstanding botanical experience in the midst of one of New Mexico's great public open spaces.

For more information: http://www.unm.edu

ABOUT FRONT RANGE GIGAPOP (FRGP)

The Front Range GigaPOP (FRGP) is a consortium of Universities, non-profit corporations, and government agencies that cooperate in an aggregation point called the FRGP in order to share
Wide Area Networking (WAN) services, access to the commodity Internet, national peering services, Internet2, and National LambdaRail (NLR). The current members are listed on the FRGP Members page.

For more information, visit: http://www.frgp.net

ABOUT THE CORPORTATION FOR EDUCATION NETWORK INITIATIVES IN CALIFORNIA (CENIC)

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.

For more information, visit: http://www.cenic.org

ABOUT THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST GIGAPOP (PNWGP)

The Pacific Northwest Gigapop (PNW Gigapop) is a not-for-profit serving leading edge organizations and Research and Education networks throughout the Pacific Rim. We provide 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.

For more information, visit: http://www.pnw-gigapop.net

CONTACT:
Gil Gonzales, CIO UNM
Western Regional Network
wrn@unm.edu
505-277-3486

http://nets.ucar.edu/nets/ongoing-activities/wrn/wrnroot/WRN_Press_Release_2_19_10.pdf

Educause —2008— recognizing innovations and initiatives centered on information technologies that provide groundbreaking solutions to major challenges in higher education, or change prevailing conditions in remarkable ways so as to allow new solutions to be deployed.

The Regional Networks that evolved in the late 1980s and early 1990s were an essential part of the collaborative dynamics that created the Internet. Evolving from and supporting higher education consortia with roots in supercomputing research centers, the Regional Networks were able to solve formidable technical problems and create critical interoperability standards, develop and share organizational models, evangelize for new applications, and bring together diverse academic and corporate entities in a trusted network environment that had not existed before.

The Regional Networks formed an essential link in an unprecedented partnership that included the federal government’s National Science Foundation Network (NSFNET), emerging campus networks, supercomputing centers at research institutions, and commercial network providers that were created to manage a nascent national backbone. These organizational players, in turn, followed the lead of the predecessor Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) of the U.S. Department of Defense. What had its roots in basic science and military research blossomed into a world-wide knowledge tool and economic engine.

The Regional Networks and their visionary pioneers shaped a concept into reality with government and corporate entities that ultimately benefited institutions of all types, sizes, and missions. Few enterprises in history have depended on such broad, deep, and sustained collaboration. Without the direct and catalytic impact of the Regional Networks, neither higher education nor, indeed, the global information web could have been transformed as quickly as they were just two decades ago.

This award is sponsored by SunGard Higher Education, An EDUCAUSE Platinum Partner.

Cypress, CA — June 28, 2007 — The Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC) and Pacific Northwest Gigapop (PNWGP) today announced the expansion of the TransitRail commodity peering program’s national footprint with the activation of a connection point in Chicago, IL.

With the Chicago node now active and the national footprint in place, TransitRail members have more TransitRail connection points to choose from, allowing groups to engineer both service redundancy and improvement of network performance through reduced transit times.

TransitRail’s US footprint is connected by 10Gbps waves provided by National LambdaRail (NLR). Each TransitRail node will be connected to, and accessible at, NLR points of presence throughout the United States, enabling NLR participants to leverage their membership in that organization even further through participation a national-level peering program.

In addition, the completion of the new node solidifies TransitRail’s role within the widely-respected community of Tier-1 national and international peering networks.

TransitRail’s positive reputation as a professional, engineering, and policy member within this community will foster new peering relationships among large Tier-1 networks and add to the effectiveness of the program for its participants, which can anticipate major savings with most cost-effective network peering.

A Case Study: Significant Cost Savings for Education Networks of America

For an R&E group concerned about the costs of their Internet connectivity, participating in TransitRail can spell significant savings over the higher-cost commodity Internet.  Education Networks of America (ENA) is one such organization.

According to Bob Collie, ENA’s Senior Vice President of Technology and Chief Technology Officer, “TransitRail has proven to be an invaluable resource for us to meet the rapidly expanding bandwidth needs of the 4,500 K-12 schools and libraries ENA serves.”  Adds Collie, “CENIC, PNWGP, and ENA are working together to leverage ENA’s successful commodity peering program (and co-location facilities at major Internet facilities in Chicago and Ashburn) with CENIC and PNWGP’s strong relationship with NLR and extensive peering along the west coast to create TransitRail’s national presence.”

Collie was also pleased to report that, “ENA’s school and library network members are already seeing the benefit of TransitRail’s national scope as over 51% of our peak commodity Internet demand is served via our peering links.”

ENA’s experience mirrors that of other TransitRail participants including Oklahoma’s ONENet, Utah Education Network, Mid Atlantic Terascale Partnership, North Carolina Research & Education Network, MERIT Network, Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, California’s CENIC, Pacific Northwest Gigapop, and more.

Both peers and participants are expected to grow significantly as TransitRail continues to expand its operations.

For more information about TransitRail, please contact info@transitrail.net.

About TransitRail

TransitRail is a national-level AUP-free commodity peering program jointly implemented and operated by CENIC and PNWGP in a consortia-type arrangement with TransitRail members.

The full TransitRail national footprint is comprised of five nodes in Seattle, Sunnyvale, Los Angeles, Ashburn, and Chicago, enabling research and education institutions to take advantage of low-cost network peering on a national scale.

TransitRail peers with major ISPs, and its current participant base represents a substantial segment of the research and education community within the United States. TransitRail is available to any interested R&E network groups.

Joint operations of a peering facility are not new to PNWGP and CENIC. Together, they have a combined track record of nearly 20 years of commodity peering activity, and since 2004, they have successfully and jointly operated the extended R&E Pacific Wave peering facilities (Seattle, Sunnyvale and Los Angeles). Their working relationship is already well cemented with communications and processes that can be leveraged in support of TransitRail.

CENIC and PNWGP staff are experienced in all facets of peering: peering solicitations, contracts, policies, infrastructure, monitoring, reporting, routing, troubleshooting, NOC-related functions and participant support.

CENIC and PNWGP already have over 80 established peering relationships with major regional and national entities. A majority of CENIC’s and PNWGP’s existing commodity peers will all be available for participation in TransitRail.

More information about TransitRail can be found at http://www.transitrail.net/.

More information about CENIC can be found at http://www.cenic.org/.

More information about Pacific Northwest Gigapop can be found at http://www.pnwgp.net/.

More information about National LambdaRail can be found at http://www.nlr.net/.

More information about ENA can be found at http://www.ena.com/.