NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] R&E Partners Awarded BTOP Grant
----- Forwarded message from David Farber <dave@farber.net> ----- Date: Fri, 2 Jul 2010 17:23:45 -0400 From: David Farber <dave@farber.net> Subject: [IP] R&E Partners Awarded BTOP Grant Reply-To: dave@farber.net To: ip <ip@v2.listbox.com> Begin forwarded message: From: "National LambdaRail" <National_LambdaRail@mail.vresp.com> Date: July 2, 2010 2:45:22 PM EDT To: dave@farber.net Subject: R&E Partners Awarded BTOP Grant Reply-To: "National LambdaRail" <reply-162d071057-bf5036e1d7-8d4c@u.cts.vresp.com> Click to view this email in a browser National LambdaRail, Partners Awarded $62 Million BTOP Grant to Interconnect Community Anchors with Advanced Broadband Research and Education to Benefit from 100 Gbps Upgrade to NLR Backbone, Additional Fiber Routes Cypress, CA, July 2, 2010 - Today the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) awarded $62 million in federal stimulus funding to National LambdaRail (NLR), Internet2, the Northern Tier Network Consortium and the Indiana University Global Research Network Operations Center (GRNOC) to interconnect schools, libraries, healthcare providers, public safety agencies and other "community anchors" across the country with advanced broadband. "National LambdaRail and our members and partners in the research and education networking community already have 15 years collective experience serving community anchors, as well as an extensive, advanced network footprint and expertise managing next-generation broadband applications like telepresence," said Glenn Ricart, president and CEO, National LambdaRail. "U.S. UCAN is an historic opportunity for the research and education community to work together and to extend broadband capabilities beyond the 66,000 anchors we are already serving, to all interested anchor organizations coast to coast." Cisco also made a significant contribution to the success of the proposal and will be providing state of the art networking equipment and other assistance to help ensure leading-edge capabilities are in place to support the most advanced needs of the community anchors. The grant, awarded under the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP), will enable NLR to upgrade its infrastructure with a new, 100Gbps backbone to serve research and education (R&E) as well as the broader anchor community. In addition, all routers on NLR’s Layer 3, PacketNet network will be upgraded, reducing the costs of connecting to NLR’s network as well as doubling the number of places where NLR can connect to its members and customers. Access to additional fiber optic routes will enable greater participation by the R&E community and other community anchors in NLR services; the routes will also provide additional alternate routes to help minimize downtime. For example, a new Dallas to Nashville route will provide in-land fiber optic connectivity in the South that is not as prone to possible hurricane damage. New fiber optic paths in the Northeast will give NLR greater capacity to serve institutions in that part of the country. To extend the reach of R&E networks to all approximately 200,000 community anchors in the country while ensuring that R&E governance remains focused on R&E, NLR and its partners will be forming a non-profit organization, the U.S. Unified Community Anchor Network (U.S. UCAN), to provide the coordination needed, in collaboration with community anchor organizations, to serve the expanded set of anchor institutions. NLR’s member regional optical networks (RONs) will continue to play the role they have so successfully in the past, as the local connectors, under U.S. UCAN. With regard to timeframe, the NTIA requires infrastructure projects to be substantially completed in the first two years of funding (2nd half 2010 through 1st half of 2012), with some work allowed in to the third year. With NTIA funding being awarded in July, 2010, major elements of the upgrade could be online by late 2010, with completion of final components in 2013. More information on U.S. UCAN can be found at www.usucan.org Questions specific to NLR may be sent to info@nlr.net U.S. UCAN release: http://www.nlr.net/release.php?id=62 Contact NLR We welcome your questions and feedback. Contact us at editor@nlr.net. To learn more about National LambdaRail, visit www.nlr.net. National LambdaRail (NLR) P.O. Box 1610, Cypress, CA 90630 www.nlr.net Forward this message to a colleague If you no longer wish to receive these emails, please reply to this message with "Unsubscribe" in the subject line or simply click on the following link: Unsubscribe National LambdaRail P.O. Box 1610 Cypress, California 90630 Read the VerticalResponse marketing policy. ------------------------------------------- Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/ Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com ----- End forwarded message -----