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/

What's New?

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

In this Circular 001

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

PNWGP Participants (March 2001)

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

Save Dollars and Time

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

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

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

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

Updating Your Contact Information

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

The PNWGP Challenge

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

Nisqually Earthquake Impact

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

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

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

PNWGP Services Manager's Note

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

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

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

Dot.Smart

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

October PNWGP Meeting

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

Internet2 Notes

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

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

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

PNWGP Contact List

General Information

206-934-5588

888-934-5588

gigapop-info@pnw-gigapop.net

www.pnw-gigapop.net

Network Operations Center (7x24)

206-934-5580

888-934-5580

noc@pnw-gigapop.net

Web Site Contact

webmaster@pnw-gigapop.net

PNWGP Services Manager

Jan Eveleth

206-221-2300

Network Engineering Manager

David Richardson

206-934-5580

Mailing Address

4545 15th Ave N.E.

Seattle, WA 98105-4527

Fax

206-934-5589

888-934-5589

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

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

MURRAY HILL, N.J. - August 28, 2000 -- Lucent Technologies (NYSE: LU), Canoga Perkins, and the University of Washington today announced the industry's first enhanced Wideband Wave Division Multiplexing (WWDM) trial transmitting in the 1400 nanometer (nm) band of optical fiber. The trial will be conducted at the University of Washington, Seattle, using Canoga Perkins' 6000 Series WWDM optical networking system and Lucent's revolutionary AllWave Fiber beginning in the fall.

This trial allows the University a more cost-effective way to maximize existing fiber optic assets by utilizing the WWDM technology to provide more bandwidth between locations. The applications and capabilities of the technology are inherent in the Internet technologies that they use.

"University of Washington has been looking for cost effective ways to increase the flexibility and capacity of our existing AllWave fiber to extend multiple IP (Internet Protocol) connections between our major points of presence," says Scott Mah, Director of Communication Technologies, University of Washington. "Canoga Perkins' 6000 Series WWDM system provides us with a solution that enables more customer connections to our core network without adding additional fiber or replicating costly intelligent routing equipment."

The trial will significantly increase bandwidth between the University of Washington and Pacific/Northwest Gigapop (P/NWGP). P/NWGP is the Northwest's Next Generation Internet applications cooperative, connecting universities as well as research institutions and R&D; enterprises to very high performance national research networks.

Canoga Perkins introduced its new 6000 Series WWDM system earlier this year at SuperComm 2000 and, using Lucent's AllWave Fiber, conducted the industry's first demonstration of optical transmission in the 1400 nm region.

"With our new 6000 Series WWDM system and AllWave Fiber, we are able to utilize virtually all of the fiber spectrum -- for the first time ever -- to provide up to twice as much operating capability on each fiber," said Doug Meyer, VP Engineering and CTO, Canoga Perkins.

The 1400 nm region of the fiber spectrum is a previously untapped region within the fiber spectrum that only became available to network service providers with the introduction of Lucent's AllWave fiber. Lucent's scientists developed a new ultra-purifying manufacturing method to eliminate water molecules inherent in optical fiber during the production process, making it the only fiber with no water peak and increasing the capacity of high-speed optical networks by 50 percent, compared to conventional single mode fiber.

"This trial validates Lucent's position as a leader in application-specific fiber," said Denys Gounot, president of Lucent's Optical Fiber Solutions. "We applaud forward-looking companies like Canoga Perkins that recognize the metropolitan area as the next opportunity in optical network design.

University of Washington and Pacific/Northwest Gigapop

The University of Washington (UW) is one of the world's leading research institutions. While the UW has great strength in a comprehensive array of disciplines and professions in technical and non-technical realms, it is especially well known for its world class programs in computer science and the health sciences, and for its long and continuing role in the evolution of the Internet, Internet messaging technologies, software agents, and digital convergence in new media. For more information, see www.washington.edu

The Pacific/Northwest Gigapop (P/NWGP) is the Northwest's Next Generation Internet applications cooperative, testbed, and point of presence. P/NWGP connects universities as well as research institutions and R&D; enterprises throughout Washington, Alaska, Montana, Idaho and Oregon, to one another, to the next generation Internet backbones (including Internet2/Abilene and High Speed Connectivity Consortium), to federal research networks, and to super-high-performance commodity Internet's. For more information, visit www.pnwgp.net

Macro Com, Kirkland, WA, a wholly owned subsidiary of NetVersant Solutions installed Lucent's AllWave Fiber on the University's campus.

Canoga Perkin's 6000 Series WWDM System

Canoga Perkins' 6000 Series Wideband Wave Division Multiplexing system is based on uncooled lasers and is part of the company's Universal Chassis System (UCS) in which multiple technologies function in the same base chassis system. Specifically, the WWDM system consists of modular transponders (TLIM) that perform the function of wavelength conversion to the wavelengths used by the Canoga Perkins system. Not only are the traditional second (1300nm) and third (1550nm) transmission windows supported, but it also supports the new 1400nm window opened up by AllWave fiber. Wideband WDM solutions, like the Canoga Perkins' 6000 Series system, enable the lowest cost per wavelength because they use the lowest cost components, e.g. uncooled lasers and broad-spectrum optical filters.

Headquartered in Chatsworth, CA, Canoga Perkins designs, manufactures, and sells fiber optic modems and multiplexers (TDM and WDM), LAN extension products, DSL modems, video conferencing products, and outside plant test equipment. Deloitte & Touche recognized Canoga Perkins as one of the 50 fastest growing technology companies. With over 30 years of servicing the fiber optic data communications marketplace, Canoga Perkins has an impressive list of customers. Markets served include carriers, service providers, corporate enterprise networks, manufacturing, banking and financial institutions, health care, and government/military. For further information, please contact Canoga Perkins at 818.718.6300, via e-mail at fiber@canoga.com, or www.canoga.com

Lucent's AllWave Fiber

Lucent's AllWave Fiber is the industry's first fiber optimized for WDM transmission in metropolitan optical networks and CATV applications. AllWave Fiber provides greater than 50 percent more spectrum than today's conventional single mode fiber. Not only does AllWave provide more wavelengths, but also the added wavelengths near 1400 nm are in an optimum dispersion region for economically carrying high-speed (10+ Gb/s) signals.

Lucent began its Wave Family of Application Specific fibers with its highly successful TrueWave. fiber, the world's first non-zero dispersion fiber. AllWave Fiber is designed and manufactured specifically for metropolitan and broadband applications.

Lucent Technologies, headquartered in Murray Hill, N.J., USA, designs and delivers the systems, software, silicon and services for next-generation communications networks for service providers and enterprises. Backed by the research and development of Bell Labs, Lucent focuses on high-growth areas such as broadband and mobile Internet infrastructure; communications software; communications semiconductors and optoelectronics; Web-based enterprise solutions that link private and public networks; and professional network design and consulting services. For more information on Lucent Technologies, visit its Web site at www.lucent.com.

Contacts
Becky Boger
Lucent Technologies
770-798-3183 (office)
678-442-0852 (home)
boger@lucent.com

Susan Laury
Canoga Perkins
818-678-3894 (office)
slaury@canoga.com

Scott Mah
University of Washington
206-543-5411 (office)
scottm@cac.washington.edu

LAS VEGAS, NAB (BOOTH #L12107), April 10, 2000 -- Broadcasters, telecommunication, and Internet experts celebrated today when the first live high definition television newscast produced over the Internet successfully reached television viewers in Seattle on KING 5's digital television channel. Attendees at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Convention in Las Vegas watched the live production in progress as four simultaneous HDTV streams were sent from Seattle over new high speed Internet networks to the Sony exhibition booth at the Convention Hall, switched on site for the live newscast, and streamed back over the Internet to Seattle for KING 5 viewers.

The demonstration required the use of high performance "Internet HDTV" software developed by a team of engineers at the University of Washington sponsored by the ResearchChannel. Internet HDTV software is compatible with both Sony HDCAM compression and HD switching technologies, as well as Internet protocols.

The first live long distance production over Internet networks was made possible using long-haul Internet transport from Enron Broadband Services and Internet backbone routers provided by Juniper Networks. Electric Lightwave Inc. provisioned the local loop from the KING 5 studios to the Pacific/Northwest Gigapop in Seattle.

"We've demonstrated a successful convergence at the pinnacle of the telecommunication and broadcast industries," said Amy Philipson, executive director of the ResearchChannel. "The quality and speed of this live production are unsurpassed, and we see this demonstration as a model and springboard for future collaborations and experiments."

The team of engineers from the broadcast, Internet, and telecommunications industries represent the new synergy that is pioneering the next generation of video/Internet technologies. For this demonstration, more than a billion bits per second of HDTV data flowed through Internet networks - without the use of ATM or video-only networking.

"High-quality video transmission using Internet technology is exactly the kind of application our new infrastructure supports," said E. Ted Seitz, Vice President for Wholesale, Enron Broadband Services. "The work that Sony and the University of Washington/ResearchChannel have been doing in this area proves the feasibility of applying Internet approaches to high-end multimedia distribution challenges."

At the demonstration, NAB attendees had the opportunity to see the convergence in action as HDTV streams arrived from Seattle in Sony's exhibition booth, were directed to commodity PCs where they were decoded and then fed into Sony's HD-Switcher for live production and compression for Internet travel back to Seattle for KING 5's live broadcast.

According to Hugo Gaggioni, Vice President of Technology for Sony Electronics' Broadcast and Professional Company, "This demonstration is significant in that it shows that digital convergence can happen at the high-end of professional broadcast services and we also see a fast adoption towards consumer-level implementation."

The joint demonstration will continue through the NAB Convention. For more information about the technology used in this demonstration, see www.washington.edu/hdtv.

HDTV Over Internet Project Participants:

ResearchChannel/University of Washington
ResearchChannel sponsors University of Washington experiments to pioneer new methods of Internet based distribution for broadcast quality video programming, ResearchChannel is building high quality channels of direct communication about research news, discoveries, and applications with the public and between institutions. For more information see: www.researchchannel.com or write researchchannel@washington.edu

Sony Electronics' Broadcast and Professional Company (BPC) provides advanced products and systems for a variety of professional and broadcast markets, including production, corporate, industrial, government, security, medical and education. BPC products, systems and applications are designed to facilitate the transition to digital technologies and the emerging broadband network era, while managing current assets. Sony BPC products and services include those for broadcast and professional acquisition, production, storage, data management, system integration, digital imaging, digital printing, large and small venue display and projection needs. BPC is a division of Sony Electronics Inc., a U.S. company that had record sales exceeding $11 billion for fiscal year 1999. For more information, visit www.sony.com/professional. For information regarding the nearest Sony authorized dealer or service location, call 1-800-686-SONY. Press releases and digital images are available online at www.sel.sony.com/news.

Enron Broadband Services is a leading provider of high quality, broadband Internet content and applications. The company's business model combines the power of the Enron Intelligent Network, Enron's Broadband Operating System, bandwidth trading and intermediation services, and high-bandwidth applications, to fundamentally improve the experience and functionality of the Internet. Enron introduces its Broadband Operating System to allow application developers to dynamically provision bandwidth on demand for the end-to-end quality of service necessary to deliver broadband content. Enron has also created a market for bandwidth that will allow network providers to scale to meet the demands that are required by increasingly complex applications. A wholly owned subsidiary of Enron Corp., Enron Broadband Services can be found on the Web at www.enron.net. Enron is one of the world's leading electricity, natural gas and communications companies. The company, which owns approximately $34 billion in energy and communications assets, produces electricity and natural gas, develops, constructs and operates energy facilities worldwide, delivers physical commodities and financial and risk management services to customers around the world, and is developing an intelligent network platform to facilitate online business. The stock is traded under the ticker symbol (NYSE:ENE)

Juniper Networks, Inc. is a leading provider of purpose-built systems that meet the scalability, performance, density, and compatibility requirements of rapidly evolving, optically enabled IP networks. The company's purpose-built systems provide new IP infrastructure solutions for the world's leading service providers. Juniper Networks service, manufacturing teams, and IP engineers work closely with customers to build and support customer networks. The company is headquartered in Mountain View, California. www.juniper.net.

Pacific Northwest Gigapop (P/NWGP)
The Pacific/Northwest Gigapop is the Northwest's Next Generation Internet applications cooperative, testbed, and point of presence. P/NWGP connects universities as well as research institutions and R&D; enterprises throughout Washington, Alaska, Montana, Idaho and Oregon, to one another, to the Next Generation Internet backbones (including Internet2/Abilene and the High Speed Connectivity Consortium), federal research networks, and to super-high-performance commodity internets. For more information, see www.pnwgp.net

KING 5, the first television station to ever broadcast in the Northwest, made high definition history on October 29, 1998 with the live HD broadcast of the John Glenn space launch. On April 26, 1999 KING 5 broadcast the first regularly scheduled network program in HDTV, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, followed by an Evening Magazine special on April 29, 1999, which was shot entirely in high definition. On June 24, 1999 KING 5 News began broadcasting all newscasts in high definition from a studio redesigned specifically for the new technology. KING 5 continues its legacy of pioneering television by expanding on high definition efforts and exploring new digital technologies. www.king5.com/

Electric Lightwave Inc. (NASDAQ: ELIX) is a broadband integrated communications provider of Internet, data, voice and dedicated access services to communications-intensive businesses and the growing online business community. The company owns and operates high-speed fiber optic networks that interconnect major markets in the West and operates a nationally acclaimed Internet and data network. Headquartered in Vancouver, Wash., the company employs 1,167 and generated revenues of $187 million in 1999, up 85 percent from 1998. Additional information about Electric Lightwave is located on the Web at www.eli.net. The company is 82 percent owned by Citizens Utilities (NYSE:CZNPr).

PORTLAND, Oregon, November 15, 1999 -- Seven high technology leaders collaborated at SC99 today to set a number of internet speed records, demonstrating that long-distance gigabit-per-second networking is ready for prime time and that next generation Internet technologies and capabilities are emerging in applications, in end-systems, and in network infrastructure.

To set the stage, at the network infrastructure level, the DARPA-sponsored National Transparent Optical Network (NTON), the University of Washington-led Pacific/Northwest Gigapop (P/NWGP), and Nortel Networks joined forces to deliver 2.4 gigabits per second (Gbps) of packet-over-SONET based standard Internet capacity from the Microsoft Corporation and University of Washington (UW) campuses, through a shared point of presence at the Pacific/Northwest Gigapop in Seattle, to the SC99 exhibition hall in Portland.

Microsoft, the National Computational Science Alliance (Alliance), the University of Washington (UW) and Sony (in support of the ResearchChannel consortium) demonstrated two working, real-time gigabit applications in their coordinated SC99 exhibits. Further, the UW, Microsoft, the Alliance and Sony were able to run these applications concurrently, setting a record of 2 Gbps in aggregate throughput -- by a wide margin clearly the fastest real-time applications ever run over a wide area network.

Earlier this year, the UW and Sony were the first to demonstrate live studio quality, High Definition Television (HDTV) broadcasts over Internet2/Abilene. Today, in another record-breaking effort, they and the partnership successfully transmitted a real-time gigabit HDTV stream of five simultaneous channels of minimally-compressed, studio-quality HDTV over the internet, using industry-standard HDTV video, 'Wintel' computer systems, and networking equipment from leading vendors such as Juniper. Each channel within the overall stream consumed more than 200 million-bits-per-second (Mbps), for a total of well over a billion-bits-per-second in concurrent throughput in a state-of-the-art real-time application.

"More than just showing the stunning quality and immediacy that next generation internet capabilities can bring to the desktop computers, TV's and HDTV's around the world, this demonstration illustrates the feasibility of regularly using Internet transport technology for the real-time delivery of extraordinarily high quality video, virtual reality, tele-medicine, and other imaging streams" said UW Vice President Ron Johnson. He added that the demonstration shows "it is now possible to run distributed broadband applications over high-speed, next generation Internet WANS using hardware and software available in the consumer market". The demo used broadcast and Internet standards, Sony's suite of HDTV gear, off-the-shelf networking equipment, and commodity PCs with Microsoft NT running custom high performance software the UW C&C; group developed using Microsoft Visual Studio and other tools.

By way of comparison, the UW/Sony/ResearchChannel demonstration is the equivalent of the simultaneous transmission of the entire channel lineup of a 150 channel cable TV system, or of 50 channels of broadcast quality HDTV, five feature movies, or interactions among a large number of high-resolution video walls, shared virtual realities, &/or immersive environments. And, it shows that the internet is capable of speeds and quality impossible to achieve with traditional broadcast technologies.

Microsoft and the Alliance and the partners demonstrated that it is now possible to send a gigabit-per-second TCP/IP stream from one Windows 2000 workstation to another over a WAN. Microsoft teamed with the Alliance's NT cluster development team and with the National Laboratory for Applied Network Research (NLANR) to verify that Windows 2000 TCP/IP software performance scales at Gbps rates on long-distance networks. This work demonstrates speed breakthroughs in end-to-end workstation internetworking and shows the capabilities of Windows 2000 TCP/IP.

"Our role in NLANR is to work with application teams to help them harness the capabilities of high performance networks," said Larry Smarr, director of the Alliance and NCSA, the leading-edge site for the Alliance. "Because many of these applications involve Windows workstations, gigabit per second performance of Windows over wide area networks is a capability that impacts the entire high performance computing community."

Jim Allchin, senior vice president of the Platforms Division at Microsoft Corporation, said this demonstration showed that distributed computing over high-speed, long-distance networks is a major part of the future for the Windows OS. "This exhibition shows that Windows 2000 truly is a broadband operating system prepared for the next millennium. Microsoft is thrilled that Windows 2000 is able to display its gigabit-readiness through such a tremendously innovative engineering feat."

Ed Lazowska, Chair of UW's Computer Science & Engineering Department, added that "enabling gigabit networking capabilities on what will eventually be tens of millions of desktops is the first step in unleashing developers worldwide to create the next generation of applications, architectures and content."
Together, these collaborative demonstrations show that the era of gigabit-per-second networking and the next generation of Internet applications and content is at hand.

The joint demonstrations will continue throughout the rest of SC99. For demonstration times, visit the Alliance research booth (R300) or the joint demo booth (RE602), or to see the demonstrations go to the UW research booth (RE602) where the suite of coordinated demos are being run.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software - any time, any place and on any device. Microsoft and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

About the Alliance/NCSA

The National Computational Science Alliance is a partnership to prototype an advanced computational infrastructure for the 21st century and includes more than 50 academic, government and industry research partners from across the United States. The Alliance is one of two partnerships funded by the National Science Foundation's Partnerships for Advanced Computational Infrastructure (PACI) program, and receives cost-sharing at partner institutions. NSF also supports the National Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure (NPACI), led by the San Diego Supercomputer Center. The National Center for Supercomputing Applications is the leading-edge site for the Alliance. NCSA is a leader in the development and deployment of cutting-edge high-performance computing, networking, and information technologies. The National Science Foundation, the state of Illinois, the University of Illinois, industrial partners, and other federal agencies fund NCSA. For more information, see www.ncsa.uiuc.edu

About The University of Washington (UW)

The University of Washington is one of the world's leading research institutions. While the UW has great strength in a comprehensive array of disciplines and professions in technical and non-technical realms, it is especially well known for its world class programs in computer science and the health sciences, and for its long and continuing role in the evolution of the Internet, Internet messaging technologies, software agents, and digital convergence in new media. For more information, see www.washington.edu/hdtv/sc99

About ResearchChannel

ResearchChannel is a consortium of many of the world's leading research institutions that is dedicated to providing greater, much more timely, and far broader access to progress in, and the findings and outcomes of university, government and corporate R&D; efforts. In partnership with University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development (UCAID), ResearchChannel also conducts core Internet2 (www.internet2.edu) broadcast and high speed demand video initiatives. For more information, see www.washington.edu/researchtv

About Sony

Sony Electronics is the premier provider of leading-edge digital video technology for broadcast, production and HDTV, as well as exceptional quality consumer electronics, computer, and display products. The University of Washington and Sony have partnered successfully to pioneer HDTV over Internet capabilities. For more information, see www.sony.com/professional

About the Pacific/Northwest Gigapop (P/NWGP)

The Pacific/Northwest Gigapop is the Northwest's Next Generation Internet applications cooperative, testbed, and point of presence. P/NWGP connects universities as well as research institutions and R&D; enterprises throughout Washington, Alaska, Montana, Idaho and Oregon, to one another, to the next generation Internet backbones (including vBNS, Internet2/Abilene and now NTON), to federal research networks, and to super-high-performance commodity internets. For more information, see www.pnw-gigapop.net

About National Transparent Optical Network (NTON)

The National Transparent Optical Network links government, research and private sector labs and provides the ability to interface with most of the broadband research networks in the U.S. NTON is a 2000 km 10-20 Gbs Wavelength Division Multiplexed network deployed using in-place commercial fiber. NTON provides direct access to nearly all of the major universities on the West Coast at data rates up to, and potentially beyond, 2.5 Gbs. For more information, see www.ntonc.org

About National Laboratory for Applied Network Research (NLANR)

The National Laboratory for Applied Network Research is an NSF-supported collaboration to provide technical, engineering and traffic analysis support for NSF's High Performance Connections sites and the broad vBNS user community. NLANR major activities are performed by three teams: a distributed applications support team based at the University of Illinois' National Center for Supercomputing Applications; a measurement and analysis team based at the San Diego Supercomputer Center; and a networking engineering support team based at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center.

Contacts
Jennifer Todd
Waggener Edstrom/Microsoft
jtodd@wagged.com
425-637-9097

David Richardson
University of Washington
drr@u.washington.edu
206-543-2876

Karen Green
NCSA/Alliance
kareng@ncsa.uiuc.edu
217-265-0748

Susan Brandt
ResearchChannel
sbrandt@u.washington.edu
212-414-4672

Lisa Young
Sony Electronics
lisa.young@am.sony.com
408-955-5683

Jacqueline Brown
P/NWGP
jbrown@cac.washington.edu
206-685-6238

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON - October 10, 1999

Efforts at the University of Washington (UW) to send studio-quality High Definition Television (HDTV) over the Internet paid off on September 9, when computer engineers and television experts celebrated their first successful demonstration of HDTV video transmission over the Internet2 network.

Working in support of ResearchTV, a consortium of leading research institutions creating greater access to research information, engineers from UW and the Pacific Northwest Gigapop teamed with colleagues at Sony Electronics and Stanford University to demonstrate the first-ever streaming of High Definition Television (HDTV) using only Internet transport technologies, rather than ATM networks or dedicated circuits.

The experimental transmission originated at the Stanford University campus in Palo Alto, and was carried across the new "Abilene" Internet2 backbone to the Pacific/NorthWest Gigapop in Seattle, which is the interconnection point for high-performance networks in the Northwest. From there the HDTV signals were delivered to the University of Washington campus network using Gigabit Ethernet technology. On October 12, this demonstration will be repeated at a meeting of Internet2 developers at the University of Washington.

"HDTV over the Internet brings us closer to a more perfect transfer of visual data," said Amy Philipson, executive director of the ResearchTV consortium, "Particularly in the case of the accessing vivid images that are important to the progress of research activity. This is one of the highest speed applications ever run over the Internet."

University of Washington and Sony developers were extremely pleased as they viewed the success of their work that culminated in a 40 minute stream of HDTV video sent from Stanford to the University of Washington at over 200 megabits/sec, which is more than ten times faster than 19.2 Mbps "consumer grade" HDTV streams. The demonstration used the highest quality industry standards with Sony HDCAM/HDVS equipment to capture, encode, and compress HDTV video. The success in the transfer of data is a result of original software written by UW programmers that handled error correction and encapsulated the data into packets which were transferred across Internet2 and reassembled as HDTV video in Seattle. This is a significant achievement as currently most television broadcasts on the commercial Internet are constrained to 20 to 200 kilobits per second using short clips of video shown in small windows on PC screens.

"The challenge of these demonstrations is to be able to sustain a continuous stream of high definition video with perfect HD picture quality over Internet2," said Michael Wellings, ResearchTV chief engineer at the University of Washington, "The demanding data streams required by high definition video have significantly tested the performance characteristics of Internet2 and pushed the boundaries of HDTV video distribution over the Internet. With these tests we have seen the future and we know that with more work this quality can be something everyone will be able to enjoy."

https://news.wsu.edu/1999/06/07/wsu-connects-to-gigapop-and-internet2/

PULLMAN, Wash. — Washington State University has established a connection to the next
generation communications network known as Internet2. This very-high-speed network is a
collective effort of more than 150 U.S. universities, the federal government and private industry.
The Internet2 connection is accomplished over fiber-optic circuits and is approximately 1,500
times faster than a typical dialup modem connection. The connection will greatly enhance
transmission of data for a variety of applications critical to higher education and research.
WSU President Sam Smith said the Internet2 connection is another significant advance in
the university’s use of technology. “With WSU’s established reputation in technology support,
notably Yahoo’s designation as the ‘most wired’ state university in the country, the Internet2
connection opens even more doors for students, faculty and researchers in their use and
application of advanced networking technologies.”

WSU connected to Internet2 via the Pacific Northwest GigaPoP, operated by the University
of Washington, on May 25. A GigaPoP, or gigabit point-of-presence, is a facility that allows for
the regional connection of several participating organizations to a number of national
high-performance backbone networks as well as test-bed networks for leading-edge research on network technology.

The connection was made possible through a collaboration of technical staff at the UW and
at WSU. Funding was provided in part by a supporting grant from the National Science
Foundation’s High Performance Connections Program. An additional grant from Cisco Corp.
helped defray the cost of specialized equipment.

WSU’s high-performance connection will allow researchers and educators to collaborate
with peers at other institutions and national or corporate research laboratories that are
participants in the Internet2 project and have high-performance connections.
WSU researchers in astronomy, biochemistry, biophysics, electrical engineering, computer
science, materials science, physics and other disciplines have applications that can benefit from
a high-performance network connection.

One research example is the remote use of the Apache Point Observatory telescope in New
Mexico from WSU’s Pullman campus. The network connection is used to send control information to the telescope and to receive images back. This remote observation reduces travel time and expense and allows more efficient scheduling of time on the telescope.

Other research activities include access to supercomputing centers, scientific visualization,
transfers of large data files, remote data acquisition, virtual laboratories, interactive simulations, and the transmission of digital video for research and education.

Participants in the Pacific Northwest GigaPoP also include the University of Idaho, Montana
State University, the University of Alaska, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, the Fred
Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, the Children’s Hospital and Research Medical Center,
Microsoft Research and the Washington State K-20 Network. Currently only WSU, UW and
NOAA-PMEL have working connections to the GigaPoP.

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/

FAIRBANKS, PORTLAND & SEATTLE - March 31, 1999 -- The University of Washington is very pleased to announce that the University of Alaska is being connected to the next generation Internet2 super-high-speed research and education network.

This new network link provides a crucial high-performance connection between the major national Internet2 network hub in Seattle which serves the Northwest, and The University of Alaska Statewide System in Fairbanks, Alaska.

The fiber optic cable based connection provides a state of the art "SONET OC-12" link which is fully compatible with Internet2 and next-generation Internet technologies and is being contributed to the Pacific Northwest Gigapop Internet2 research and education networking effort by WCI Cable Inc.

At about 2,000 miles in length it will be the longest network segment anywhere within the Internet2 network.

The University of Alaska and the University of Washington have a long history of collaboration in research, education and medicine including a partnership in the late 1980's in bringing the original internet, then called NSFnet to the Northwest and Alaska.

The new Internet2 connection will place the University of Alaska as one of the top ten universities in the country for high-speed next-generation Internet connectivity. It gives the Arctic Region Supercomputing Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, as fast a connection as exists at any other university supercomputing center in the nation.

This link will enable the University of Alaska and other qualified research and education partners to become full and active participants in Internet2 next-generation Internet development and will extend the new generation of Internet2 technologies, capabilities and opportunities to the entire research and education community in Alaska. The network link will be used for education and research purposes and will enable not only high-speed access to the U of A's supercomputing facilities and growing digital repositories, but will also provide faculty, students and staff as well as research and clinical partners with access to and roles in developing the new generation of Internet-based multimedia, video, and voice applications; powerful new forms of telemedicine; high quality distance education capabilities; teleimmersion facilities; and the leading edge e-business technologies which Internet2 and the next generation of Internet technologies enable.

High-speed Internet connection between Alaska and the rest of nation has been long sought by the University of Alaska, its partner institutions including the UW in the 'contiguous 48', and by many others in the state of Alaska and federal government. UA presently has four T-1 lines for its research and education Internet connections. The four T-1s provide a bit rate of about 6 million bits per second. An OC-12 connection furnishes about 620 million bits per second -- roughly 100 times faster than the current connection. Now, at last, the fastest and most sophisticated network transport technologies, super high-speed next-generation Internet capacity are coming to Alaska. Full OC-12-level services will be operational by September 30, 1999 in time for the Fall Internet 2 members' meeting, to be held in Seattle October 10-13.

Contacts
Ron Johnson
University of Washington &
Pacific/Northwest Gigapop
206-543-8252
ronj@cac.washington.edu

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

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

University of Washington Computing & Communications, Windows on Computing, No. 23, Spring 1999
http://www.washington.edu/computing/windows/issue23/gigapop.html

The University of Washington, a key player in bringing the Internet to the Pacific Northwest, is actively addressing the next generation of Internet challenges: efficient and reliable data exchange over significantly increased bandwidths. The UW is bringing its expertise to bear on these issues by participating in several nationwide high-bandwidth initiatives:

• Internet 2
• The Abilene network, an ultra high-speed network backbone supporting research
• The NSF's (National Science Foundation) vBNS, very high performance Backbone Network Service

These Internet Protocol (IP) networks move data over large circuits at volumes up to four hundred times greater than today's commodity Internet.

The newly designed Pacific/ Northwest (P/NW) Gigapop is the focal point in the Pacific Northwest for these high-bandwidth networks. Coverage of service may eventually include the entire Pacific Rim.

"The stage is set for a new era of real-time, data-intensive information exchange," predicts Ron Johnson, UW's vice president for Computing and Communications and vice provost. "It will become increasingly common to access 24-hour-a-day educational and research TV programs through your computer, and for physicians to perform real-time surgery with multiple specialists advising from remote locations."

What Is a Gigapop?

A Gigapop is a regional data transfer center that efficiently moves large volumes of data between regional networks. Because this "point of presence" (or POP) connects with gigabit networks to transfer data, it is commonly referred to as a "gigapop."

How fast a binary digit, or bit, is transmitted between computers is usually roughly expressed in thousands or millions of bits per second (Kbps or Mbps). A gigabit network can transmit about a billion bits per second.

A Boon for Researchers

The UW is committed to providing its researchers with leading-edge Internet capabilities. Through the P/NW Gigapop, researchers can effectively utilize these high-bandwidth networks.

"Much of our work involves high data rate astronomy, and it is important that we be able to transfer data quickly and reliably," says Christopher Stubbs, professor of astronomy and physics, who partners with other universities engaged in projects that span the nation and the globe.

One such project involves the telescope at Apache Point, New Mexico. "We sit at our computer screen at the UW and drive the telescope at the observatory, exchanging data and images," explains Stubbs. "Undergraduates can participate in research like this right here in Seattle."

The challenge of moving huge volumes of data around is one of the largest problems facing researchers, according to Stubbs. "There is a mismatch in our ability to generate large amounts--gigabytes and terabytes--of data, and our ability to move it around. Thanks to Steve Corbat and others at C&C;, we are addressing those needs better than ever before."

Who Will Be Connected

Research and education organizations and network service providers will use the P/NW Gigapop to connect to high-performance networks such as Abilene and vBNS.

The initial core of research institutions connecting to the Gigapop include this region's NSF High Performance Connections grant awardees: University of Washington, Washington State University, Montana State University, University of Idaho, and University of Alaska. Premier research sites, including Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center, and Microsoft Research, plan to connect in the early stages of this service as well.

Benefits for All Involved

Institutions need only connect to the P/NW Gigapop to gain access to both the high performance Internet2 networks and to the commercial networks via circuit sizes that include Gigabit Ethernet, OC-12, OC-3, and DS-3 (that transmit at 1000, 622, 155, and 45 Mbps, or millions of bits per second, respectively).

If two universities or companies that want to share their research are both connected to the P/NW Gigapop, they can do so without their network traffic being routed through California. Specifically, connecting to the P/NW Gigapop offers organizations and companies such as the UW, Microsoft, and Boeing these benefits:

• Facilitates participation in newly developed and deployed national high-speed networks
• Increases the reliability and efficiency with which data from high-bandwidth applications gets to its intended locations
• Provides a vehicle through which cutting-edge applications can be developed and delivered
• Consolidates the region's high-bandwidth research network services within one quality telecommunications facility at the region's premier telecommunications hub
• Fosters collaboration between regional entities, contributing to the region's future economic well-being

Researchers and others involved in developing and using innovative, cutting-edge, high-bandwidth applications in such areas as meteorology, astronomy, health sciences, computer science, and oceanography will enjoy the initial advantages of being connected to the Gigapop. Those developing protocols to increase the efficiency with which data is transported on the Internet will also be among the first beneficiaries. It is entirely likely that these developments will, as they are refined over time, become the norm both in research as well as in commerce.

"By connecting to the P/NW Gigapop, entities throughout the Pacific Northwest will conveniently and efficiently utilize their high-bandwidth applications for research, education, and commerce," says Terry Gray, UW's director of Networks and Distributed Computing.

For More Information

The P/NW Gigapop, developed by UW's Computing & Communications, has received strong start-up support from the Washington State Legislature.

The Gigapop facilities are physically located at the Westin building in downtown Seattle and at the main computing center on the UW Seattle campus. The Westin location is the primary focal point for telecommunications in the Pacific Northwest and is occupied by major backbone service providers as well as Internet Service Providers.

Visit the P/NW Gigapop Web site, or contact gigapop-info@pnw-gigapop.net for more information.

Original Article Link: http://www.seattlep-i.com/local/web16.shtml
Internet Archive Copy

University of Washington Computing & Communications, Windows on Computing, No. 22, Winter 1999
http://www.washington.edu/computing/windows/issue22/abilene.html

The UW became a pilot site this autumn for the Internet2 Abilene project, the most advanced Internet network for research and education.

High Performance Network

In addition to the advanced networking capabilities that are the focus of Internet2, the Abilene project provides a high performance backbone network to support the applications research and development needed to advance the state of the art in virtual laboratories, digital libraries, and distance-independent education.

With backbone network links running at 2.48 gigabits--or 2.48 billion bits--per second, Abilene will be 1500 times faster than the T1 circuit used for typical dedicated Internet connections. Future links may run at 9.6 gigabits per second.

Help From the Legislature

To develop the Abilene project, the University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development is working with three major telecommunications corporations: Qwest, Nortel, and Cisco. The resulting advanced backbone network will connect the handful of pilot regional network aggregation points--called Gigapops ("pops" for points-of-presence)--including the UW-managed Pacific Northwest Gigapop, which received significant support from the Washington State Legislature.

The Abilene project will connect with other advanced research/education networks, like the very high performance Backbone Network Service (vBNS) provided by MCI, to serve as an Internet2 backbone network and support work at over 120 universities. See the Web site www.ucaid.edu/abilene/ for more information.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FROM: Bob Roseth
206-543-2580
roseth@u.washington.edu
DATE: Sept. 28, 1998

http://www.washington.edu/news/1998/09/28/university-of-washington-raises-the-internet-speed-limit-for-the-northwest/

The University of Washington today announced two major milestones in advanced Internet connectivity for the Pacific Northwest. Both developments are part of UW's Pacific Northwest Gigapop project, the recipient of significant support from the 1998 Washington State Legislature.

First, UW became one of four inaugural sites directly connected to the new Internet2 "Abilene" network, a national high-performance backbone network intended to support advanced application research and development. The Abilene project is a collaboration of the University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development (UCAID), Qwest Communications, Nortel, and Cisco Systems. UW's attachment bandwidth to the Abilene backbone network is an impressive 622 Mbps (an OC-12c circuit in the terminology of the underlying SONET technology) -- over 300 times the capacity of the typical high-speed attachment deployed in today's Internet.

View fullsize

Second, UW has completed its connection to the "very high performance Backbone Network Service" (vBNS), a complementary national high-speed research network funded by the National Science Foundation and operated by MCI Worldcom. Notably, UW is the first vBNS site to attach using the more efficient "Packet-over-SONET" (POS) transmission technology, as opposed to the earlier Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) technology. A POS circuit provides over 20% more Internet throughput than an ATM circuit of the same bandwidth. UW is connected to the vBNS at a bandwidth of 155 Mbps (OC-3c in SONET terms).

Note: A map of both networks is attached.

"This is terrific news for research and educational institutions in the Northwest and particularly in Washington State," according to Professor Ed Lazowska, chair of the University of Washington's Department of Computer Science & Engineering department and a member of the Internet2 network research liaison council. "Not only will faculty and students at UW and other Northwest institutions benefit, but the bandwidth will stimulate regional economic development in ways we can't begin to anticipate." "The activation of vBNS has caused great excitement over here," said Professor Craig Hogan, chair of UW's Astronomy department. Astronomy researcher Thomas Quinn observed a factor of 10-20 improvement in performance over the vBNS compared to his prior work using the UW's commodity Internet connection.

The University gratefully acknowledges the substantial support that it has received from Cisco Systems in providing state-of-the-art routing equipment for the Abilene connection on very short notice. The University was invited to participate in the Abilene "alpha" network rollout in late August, and the UW's connection to the Abilene network became operational barely one month later - in time for this week's Internet2 meeting and Abilene announcement today in San Francisco.

As one demonstration of the capabilities of the Abilene network, the Research Television consortium, a UW-led group of major universities and corporate research centers dedicated to the distribution of video materials featuring research and education, is showing its very high-quality on-demand video streaming service at the Internet2 members meeting. The consortium is providing MPEG2 DirectTV quality video distribution over the new Abilene backbone. "This is just the beginning," according to Amy Philipson, who leads the Research TV consortium. "Our goal is to push the state of the art in video distribution and determine what the barriers are to increasing the quality and timeliness of video content delivery in an advanced network environment such as Abilene." This too is a major component of the national Internet2 multimedia network and middleware partnership being announced today at the Internet2 meeting in SF.

Both of these national network connections are part of UW's "Pacific NorthWest Gigapop" project. A Gigapop is a regional hub for high-speed Internet connections and services, and provides the foundation for efficient distribution of and access to advanced network services in a geographic region. The UW's Pacific Northwest Gigapop was founded earlier this year, when the Washington State Legislature provided substantial startup funding. These connections to the vBNS and Abilene networks represent the first tangible results of this partnership between UW and the state legislature.

###

Contact Information:

Ron Johnson 206 543-8252 ronj@cac.washington.edu 206 605-3021 cell
Ed Lazowska 206 543-4755 lazowska@cs.washington.edu

UW Seeks $4.6 Million to Link to Internet 2: Legislators urged to act to let colleges, industries remain competitive
January 10, 1998 | News Tribune, The (Tacoma, WA) | Cynthia Flash | Page B1

https://thenewstribune.newspapers.com/newspage/740199586/

https://www.proquest.com/usnews/docview/264733944?sourcetype=Newspapers