ACADEMIA

SANTA CLARA, Calif., -- Extreme Networks, Inc.'s (NASDAQ: EXTR) market-leading Ethernet switching platforms are assisting scientists to understand distant space astronomy and global tectonic plate movements. Extreme's high performance technology enables them to swiftly process data and share their research findings over the high-speed network. Extreme's wire-speed switching with high reliability boosts the rate of information transfer, strengthening the effectiveness and precision for this fundamental scientific research. The MIT Haystack Observatory and NASA, along with support from organizations including DARPA and the National Science Foundation (NSF), are pioneering the use of electronic data transfer in Very-Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) observations. In these observations, up to 20 large radio antennas spaced around the globe simultaneously gather data at rates up to 1 Gbps/antenna from a target astronomical radio source, which must all be transmitted to a central site for correlation processing. This data is used to create images of distant sources with resolutions comparable to reading a license plate at a distance of 3000 miles and to measure the motions of Earth's tectonic plates to a precision of better than 1 centimeter. Traditionally, this data has been recorded locally on tape, which is then physically shipped to the processing center. With modern high-speed networks, it has become possible to transmit this data in real-time or near real-time, dubbed 'e-VLBI', resulting in much more timely results and lower costs. And, since the sensitivity of the measurements increases with wider bandwidths and higher data rates, e-VLBI raises the potential for more sensitive and prolific research while substantially increasing the number of observable objects. The network configurations, combined with a new, advanced Mark 5 data collection system designed by Haystack Observatory, affords researchers powerful new tools for studies of our universe. "The potential of e-VLBI is just beginning to be tapped with the initial projects we have completed between Haystack Observatory in Massachusetts and NASA/GSFC in Maryland", said Dr. Alan Whitney, associate director of MIT Haystack Observatory. "With continued work, we expect remarkable results in the coming years." The benefits to astronomy and geodesy are clear. Along with greatly improved resolution for distant astrophysical images, increased bandwidth provides rapid processing turnaround, lending the ability to study transient phenomena with near-real-time feedback to better steer observations. In the area of geophysics, higher-precision measurements help to better understand the fundamental forces driving the dynamics of our changing Earth. "The ongoing work with MIT and NASA represents how world-class organizations are implementing our high-performance switching solutions to achieve breakthroughs as part of their vital research," said Duncan Potter, vice president of marketing for Extreme Networks. "In order for the scientists to achieve their research goals, they must have a network that can deliver wire-speed performance, strong reliability and redundancy.