The upgrade of NLR's northern loop to a next-generation optical transport platform has been completed in record time, thanks to strong support from across NLR's community.
Further boosting the performance of the NLR backbone, the upgrade sets the stage for total capacity increases beyond the current 400 gigabits per second (Gbps).
The massive effort involved installing 143 Cisco ONS 15454 DWDM platforms and 200 transponder cards in 116 physical locations across 6,750 miles of NLR's total 12,000 mile footprint. Covered Los Angeles through Seattle, Chicago and Washington, DC to Jacksonville, Florida.
Many thanks to BoreasNet, CENIC, Pacific Northwest Gigapop, MCNC and Internet2 who loaned or leased fiber and waves to NLR to ensure uninterrupted service for NLR users during the upgrade. Also our appreciation to LightRiver Technologies, for handling the physical installation, turn-up, performance testing and removal of the obsolete gear, to Level 3 Communications for running new fiber cross-connects and helping with the preparation for the installation and to Cisco which, in addition to providing the 15454's, performed service quality and platform monitoring and testing services.
More info can be found at: http://www.nlr.net/release.php?id=41
NLR Blog
Monday, April 27, 2009 Wednesday, April 22, 2009Darkstrand, Calit2 Collaborate with NLR as Platform
NLR business alliance partner Darkstrand announced this past week a collaboration agreement with the California Institute for Communications and Information Technology or Calit2, at the University of California, San Diego. Calit2 participates in NLR through its association with the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California, CENIC.
Darkstrand commercial customers can now connect to Calit2 over NLR’s infrastructure and take advantage of research facilities and expertise at Calit2.
“It’s really about empowering research and industry by closing the technology gap that impedes innovation now,” said Thomas A. DeFanti, senior research scientist at Calit2 and a globally recognized pioneer in visualization technologies and cyberinfrastructure, as quoted in Darkstrand’s announcement.
For additional details, see www.darkstrand.com
Darkstrand commercial customers can now connect to Calit2 over NLR’s infrastructure and take advantage of research facilities and expertise at Calit2.
“It’s really about empowering research and industry by closing the technology gap that impedes innovation now,” said Thomas A. DeFanti, senior research scientist at Calit2 and a globally recognized pioneer in visualization technologies and cyberinfrastructure, as quoted in Darkstrand’s announcement.
For additional details, see www.darkstrand.com
First Int'l R&E TelePresence Call
The first TelePresence session between national research and education networks was achieved as a result of joint efforts of NLR and its counterpart in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), ANKABUT.
Demonstrating tremendous new opportunities to bridge physical distances and enable researchers and educators from other sides of the globe to collaborate live, literally face to face, NLR and ANKABUT announced they successfully arranged for and managed a Cisco TelePresence connection between the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC) and Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi.
As a result, PSC engineers were able to join via TelePresence His Highness Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, UAE and Dr. Arif Sultan Al-Hammadi, Interim President of Khalifa University in a joint session at the UAE Forum on Information and Communication Technology Research 2009 held in Abu Dhabi.
This connection was the result of tremendous teamwork across NLR and ANKABUT and kudos to all involved.
For more information, please see:
http://www.nlr.net/release.php?id=40
NLR in 2009/10: More Financially Feasible; Same Leading-Edge, Flexible Infrastructure
A reminder to check out, if you haven't already, NLR's 2009/10 membership benefits and costs.
The cost structure, reduced over the prior year, demonstrates NLR's commitment to providing a highly financially feasible infrastructure for the research and education community while maintaining NLR's leading-edge, completely flexible infrastructure and customized project support.
Careful budget management, longer-term infrastructure planning and advances in technology and productivity tools have all contributed to NLR being able to make its infrastructure much more accessible and affordable to its members and their participants.
The new guidelines are effective July 1, and can be found at links below on www.nlr.net.
Summary:
http://www.nlr.net/release.php?id=39
Complete Membership Benefits and Guidelines:
http://www.nlr.net/docs/NLR_Cost_Guidelines-Class_A_Sustaining_Members.pdf
The cost structure, reduced over the prior year, demonstrates NLR's commitment to providing a highly financially feasible infrastructure for the research and education community while maintaining NLR's leading-edge, completely flexible infrastructure and customized project support.
Careful budget management, longer-term infrastructure planning and advances in technology and productivity tools have all contributed to NLR being able to make its infrastructure much more accessible and affordable to its members and their participants.
The new guidelines are effective July 1, and can be found at links below on www.nlr.net.
Summary:
http://www.nlr.net/release.php?id=39
Complete Membership Benefits and Guidelines:
http://www.nlr.net/docs/NLR_Cost_Guidelines-Class_A_Sustaining_Members.pdf
Full Agenda at All Hands Meeting
This week's All Hands Meeting at Calit2, University of California at San Diego and attended by NLR members from around the country covered a lot of ground. Here's a quick take on key topics.
The backbone upgrade to Cisco 10454's has been completed in record time, thanks to a tremendous team effort led to Grover Browning, Ron Milford and others. Related engineering changes, capacity planning and new opportunities for members were a major topic of discussion.
Also, transition to 40 GE and what it means to NLR, the NLR Dynamic VLAN service via Sherpa and NLRView performance tests.
TelePresence on the NLR infrastructure also received a good chunk of the agenda. NLR provided guidance on specific steps needed for members to become Cisco TelePresence ready, how TelePresence can be supported in a campus/RON environment and opportunies presented by the NLR TelePresence Exchange.
Several updates provided on research running on NLR, including Open Cloud Computing and GENI.
A highlight was Tom DeFanti of Calit2 and his teams hosting several bleeding-edge demos on next-gen virtual reality and graphics. More on these and NLR's role in a separate post soon.
The backbone upgrade to Cisco 10454's has been completed in record time, thanks to a tremendous team effort led to Grover Browning, Ron Milford and others. Related engineering changes, capacity planning and new opportunities for members were a major topic of discussion.
Also, transition to 40 GE and what it means to NLR, the NLR Dynamic VLAN service via Sherpa and NLRView performance tests.
TelePresence on the NLR infrastructure also received a good chunk of the agenda. NLR provided guidance on specific steps needed for members to become Cisco TelePresence ready, how TelePresence can be supported in a campus/RON environment and opportunies presented by the NLR TelePresence Exchange.
Several updates provided on research running on NLR, including Open Cloud Computing and GENI.
A highlight was Tom DeFanti of Calit2 and his teams hosting several bleeding-edge demos on next-gen virtual reality and graphics. More on these and NLR's role in a separate post soon.
Some Pics from All Hands Meeting
A few faces from the Monday, March 23 reception on the eve of the All Hands Meeting at Calit2, University of California San Diego. Good company, good discussions, good learnings. For those members who couldn't make it, we missed you.
Full Agenda at All Hands Meeting
This week's All Hands Meeting at Calit2, University of California at San Diego and attended by NLR members from around the country covered a lot of ground. Here's a quick take on key topics.
The backbone upgrade to Cisco 10454's has been completed in record time, thanks to a tremendous team effort led to Grover Browning, Ron Milford and others. Related engineering changes, capacity planning and new opportunities for members were a major topic of discussion.
Also, transition to 40 GE and what it means to NLR, the NLR Dynamic VLAN service via Sherpa and NLRView performance tests.
TelePresence on the NLR infrastructure also received a good chunk of the agenda. NLR provided guidance on specific steps needed for members to become Cisco TelePresence ready, how TelePresence can be supported in a campus/RON environment and opportunies presented by the NLR TelePresence Exchange.
Several updates provided on research running on NLR, including Open Cloud Computing and GENI.
A highlight was Tom DeFanti of Calit2 and his teams hosting several bleeding-edge demos on next-gen virtual reality and graphics. More on these and NLR's role in a separate post soon.
The backbone upgrade to Cisco 10454's has been completed in record time, thanks to a tremendous team effort led to Grover Browning, Ron Milford and others. Related engineering changes, capacity planning and new opportunities for members were a major topic of discussion.
Also, transition to 40 GE and what it means to NLR, the NLR Dynamic VLAN service via Sherpa and NLRView performance tests.
TelePresence on the NLR infrastructure also received a good chunk of the agenda. NLR provided guidance on specific steps needed for members to become Cisco TelePresence ready, how TelePresence can be supported in a campus/RON environment and opportunies presented by the NLR TelePresence Exchange.
Several updates provided on research running on NLR, including Open Cloud Computing and GENI.
A highlight was Tom DeFanti of Calit2 and his teams hosting several bleeding-edge demos on next-gen virtual reality and graphics. More on these and NLR's role in a separate post soon.
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