CENIC Deploys Multiple 10 Gigabit Ethernet Waves over the California Research and Education Network --CalREN-- Backbone.

Business Editors

LOS ALAMITOS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 25, 2003

CENIC Selects Cisco IP and Optical Networking Equipment for Statewide

Next-Generation Research and Education Network

The Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC) announced today that it is creating the first multi-tiered, statewide 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GigE) extended long-haul platform in the nation dedicated to serve all research and education institutions.

CENIC has acquired its own dark fiber, and is deploying Cisco optical products. The California statewide backbone -- California Research and Education Network (CalREN) -- is an end-to-end Cisco IP and Optical facility. It serves experimental and network researchers, research teams engaged in developing major applications for basic research, as well as the educational requirements of all students, faculty, researchers and staff at all K-20 and research institutions throughout California.

"The ability to own and manage a dark fiber infrastructure provides an unprecedented level of capacity, flexibility and cost-effectiveness which has a direct impact on California's leadership in research and education," said Tom West, CENIC president and chief executive officer. "This is an exciting milestone for the continued advancement of Internet technologies. With end-to-end multiple 10 Gigabit Ethernet waves we extend the bandwidth and reach of our network to accelerate experimentation and research and, at the same time, provide cost-effective advanced network services for educational uses."

Innovation in network-based scientific research and networking-technology research and development is a primary driver behind the evolution of CalREN to deploy optical technology. Creating a robust and flexible fabric to support both application-level and network-level experiments advances research in Internet technologies, services and protocols. Furthermore, this infrastructure can support research and experiments in technologies surrounding cybersecurity and critical infrastructure protection programs.

"CENIC is setting the pace for what is quickly becoming a priority for research and education programs nationwide -- that is, having a multi-tiered infrastructure in place to support ready access to a wide range of research and educational resources, services and applications," said Doug Dennerline, senior vice president, U.S. Enterprise Sales, Cisco Systems.

Information technology is an integral part of the nation's higher education and research programs and is of increasing importance in the K-12 curricula. The backbone of modern information technology systems is composed of broadband communications networks that enable ready communications among colleagues as well as access to a wide range of resources and services.

"From a research and development standpoint, having access to multiple 10 Gigabit Ethernet waves creates new opportunities for advanced experiments linking massive computations, large datasets, and collaborative environments to create LambdaGrids," said Larry Smarr, director, California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology and Harry E. Gruber Professor in the UC San Diego Department of Computer Science and Engineering. "This development encourages more innovation by our faculty in California in this new world of ultra-high bandwidth." Smarr is principal investigator of the multi-campus National Science Foundation-funded OptIPuter proposal that is exploring how experimental networks can enable new capabilities in the medical and earth sciences.

The Cisco solutions include the Cisco ONS 15540 Extended Services Platforms and the Cisco ONS 15530 Multiservice Aggregation Platforms which utilize dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) technology and provide 10 Gigabit Ethernet LAN PHY transport from the campus edge to the backbone. The IP component is powered by the Cisco 12000 Series routers delivering non-blocking 10 GigE core routing performance. Additionally, the Cisco ONS 15808 Extended Long-Haul DWDM systems are used for 10 GigE LAN PHY transport across the backbone with up to 400 Gigabits per second (Gbps) capacity on each network span.

"By delivering an end-to-end high-speed 10GigE network, Cisco provides an evolutionary path for a converged next-generation campus, metro and extended long-haul network," said Jayshree Ullal, senior vice president and general manager, Optical Networking Group, Cisco Systems. "With an integrated IP and optical 10GigE infrastructure, research networks such as CalREN have the capacity, flexibility and multi-layer intelligence to support their chief research and development objectives while critical features and services such as QoS, security, high-availability, and manageability are optimized."

Implementation planning started in January 2003 and deployment has begun with completion anticipated by the end of summer. CENIC employed a competitive bid process in selecting Cisco Systems as its industry partner for this project.

About CENIC

CENIC is a not-for-profit corporation serving the California Institute of Technology, California State University, Stanford University, University of California, University of Southern California, California Community Colleges and the statewide K-12 school system.

CENIC's mission is to facilitate and coordinate the development, deployment and operation of a set of robust multi-tiered advanced network services for this research and education community.

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