Ciena and Internet2 Partner on New National Terabit Network
Ann Arbor-based Internet2 and Linthicum, Md.-based Ciena Corp. (Nasdaq: CIEN) announced a partnership on a new national network with an astounding 8.8 terabits per second data capacity in support of the United States Unified Community Anchor Network (U.S. UCAN) project.
Internet2 is significantly upgrading its national backbone network through a federal stimulus grant from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's Broadband Technology Opportunities Program.
Through its partnership with Ciena, Internet2 will increase its network's bandwidth from approximately 100 gigabits per second to 8.8 terabits (trillion bits) per second to provide the necessary capabilities to connect more than 200,000 community anchor institutions nationwide as part of the U.S. UCAN project.
The new network will also support the exponential growth in capacity needs of the research and the higher education community that Internet2 serves today.
Developed by Internet2 under the auspices of its BTOP grant, U.S. UCAN is a project intended to help connect community anchor institutions, including K-12 schools, libraries, community colleges, health centers, hospitals and public safety organizations across the country to next-generation Internet-based applications utilizing the Internet2 Network.
The U.S. UCAN project will enable these organizations to serve their constituents with telemedicine, distance learning and other advanced applications that are not currently possible with consumer-grade Internet service.
"This new collaboration with Ciena to create a groundbreaking new national backbone scalable to 88 waves of 100G builds on a long standing and successful partnership,: said Robert Vietzke, executive director of network services at Internet2. "After several successful field trials with Ciena, we are confident in their field-proven technology, strong product roadmap and focus on optimizing total costs to support a large scale deployment like this."
Internet2 will be using Ciena's ActivFlex 6500 Packet-Optical Platform equipped with WaveLogic coherent optical processors for its new network and will leverage its ability to deliver high network capacity while reducing overall operational expenses through automated wavelength provisioning and restoration.
"Our partnership with Internet2 to deliver this leading edge new national network underscores Ciena's unique ability to meet the advanced networking needs of the research and education and high performance computing communities," said Mike Aquino, senior vice president of global field operations at Ciena. "This collaboration also demonstrates the work we've done to support a variety of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act projects that are driving broadband connectivity throughout the U.S. to improve education, healthcare, public safety and other critical areas of everyday life."
Internet2 is an advanced networking consortium led by the research and education community. Led by its members and focused on their current and future networking needs since 1996, Internet2 blends its human, IP and optical networks to develop and deploy revolutionary Internet technologies.
More at www.internet2.edu.
