ACADEMIA

National LambdaRail, Inc.'s (NLR) unique leading-edge infrastructure is providing more bandwidth than any other nationwide network for the SC|05 conference in Seattle, Washington beginning on November 13. NLR is a major initiative of U.S. research universities and private sector technology companies. SC|05, the premier international conference on high performance computing, networking and storage, will showcase how these technologies lead to advances in research, education and commerce. More than 240 gigabits-per-second of networking capacity over 24 individual wavelengths of the NLR infrastructure are being used for SC|05, including the first-ever 40 gigabit-per-second capable wide-area link specifically established for SC|05, which is being provided in partnership with Cisco Systems. Network connectivity for the conference includes ten wavelengths being provided by NLR and its partner Cisco Systems, as well as 14 NLR wavelengths already acquired and in use by CENIC and PNWGP; Internet2; Oak Ridge National Laboratory; the U.S. Department of Energy's ESnet; and the University of California, San Diego and the University of Illinois, Chicago. Because NLR owns the underlying optical fiber and networking equipment, it is able to flexibly provision connections for SC|05 with more than 150,000 times the capacity of typical home broadband to support demonstrations in areas such as Grid computing, visualization, and collaboration, as well as next generation networking development. "We are pleased that the NLR infrastructure is the wide area networking choice for some of the most demanding applications being demonstrated at the SC conference this year," said Tom West, CEO of NLR. "NLR is committed to providing the research and education community the power and flexibility of next-generation IP and optical networking technologies, and the SC conference is an ideal opportunity to see these capabilities in action." NLR's WaveNet, FrameNet, and PacketNet services provide nationwide cutting-edge wavelength, Ethernet, and IP based services for NLR members and sponsored users. The NLR infrastructure enables dedicated production and experimental networks to exist side-by-side yet remain physically and operationally separate. The infrastructure simultaneously supports cutting- edge network research as well as ambitious scientific projects that require guaranteed levels of networking reliability, availability, and performance.