NETWORKS

Consortium network links institutions from Seattle to Chicago: The Northern Tier Network Consortium (NTNC) has selected Infinera for a regional optical network linking nine states from Washington to Illinois. The new network will provide the 27 member universities with the speed, flexibility and intelligence of Infinera's Digital Optical Networks. With endpoints in Seattle, Washington and Chicago, Illinois, the Northern Tier Network Consortium network links the states of Washington, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Illinois. The new network will be used to provide multi-wavelength networking resources to researchers at member institutions and to provide connectivity to the nationwide Internet2 network. The NTNC Consortium members chose Infinera for the system's flexibility in meeting the needs of the research community and its ease of service delivery. With Infinera's photonic integrated circuits (PICs), which integrate 60 optical devices on a pair of chips each less than 5 mm wide, the Infinera optical system provides 100 Gigabits/second of capacity on every line card. In addition the intelligence of Infinera's GMPLS-powered network operating system makes the Infinera system easy and quick to install and add capacity. "Members of the Northern Tier Network Consortium went through a very rigorous selection process and Infinera came out on top," said Bonnie Neas, vice president for Information Technology at North Dakota State University. Features that impressed them included the simplicity of deploying the Infinera platform, the wide range of services it supports, the ease of adding new services to the platform, and the responsiveness of Infinera's customer support team. Ms. Neas said she was particularly impressed with how quickly an Infinera network can be installed and provisioned, in comparison with many other long-haul systems, which can take weeks. "Infinera was literally provisioned on Day One," she said. The NTNC includes Pacific Northwest Gigapop, which supports the network in Washington; the University of Montana and Montana State University, which support the Idaho and Montana portions; and the University of North Dakota, North Dakota State University, and North Dakota state government, which support the North Dakota portion. The NTNC network also includes capacity provided by previously announced Infinera customers SDN Networks (in South Dakota) and BOREAS-Net (which has an Infinera network spanning Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa). Last year, Internet2 completed the deployment of a nationwide Infinera network which delivers a minimum of 100 Gb/s of capacity to every point of presence on the Internet2 network. "We are pleased to support the Northern Tier Network Consortium with a state-of-the-art Digital Optical Network," said Infinera Chief Technology Officer Drew Perkins. "Research and education networks nationwide have found that Infinera's photonic integration-powered Digital Optical Networks is the ideal platform to support academic researchers as they develop the network applications of the future." Infinera at Fall Internet2 Member Meeting At the Internet2 Fall 2008 Member Meeting, which begins today in New Orleans, Infinera will present a poster session on Advances in Digital Optical Networking. Further information on the Internet2 Fall 2008 Member Meeting is available at its Web site. The Infinera DTN is a Digital ROADM for long-haul and metro core networks, combining high-capacity DWDM transport, integrated digital bandwidth management, and GMPLS-powered service intelligence in a single platform.