AMPATH Adds Top Research Connection Point in São Paulo, Brazil to its Americas High-Speed Network

MIAMI, FL -- The AmericasPath (AMPATH) project is announcing the recent connection of the Academic Network at São Paulo (ANSP), the network of the State of São Paulo in Brazil. Late last year, ANSP and Florida International University (FIU) signed a Memorandum of Understanding to connect this Brazilian network to AMPATH. Now, ANSP is connected to AMPATH through a 45 Mbps fiber optic connection, provided in part by telecommunications firm Global Crossing, and is peering with the highly regarded Abilene research network. Services going through AMPATH to ANSP include unicast and multicast peering, as well as engineering support, and NOC services, provided through the Global Research NOC at Indiana University.

ANSP unites São Paulo's University networks, as well as the Scientific and Technological Research Centers in the State of São Paulo. The ANSP network is managed by the State of São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP). It is the main Internet connection point of all the Institutions that belong to the State of São Paulo Science and Technology System. The international traffic of the ANSP network is encoded independently through a 155 Mbps fiber optic connection. The ANSP Network also encompasses the PoP of the National Research Network (RNP) in São Paulo.

Prof. Hartmut Glaser, ANSP's Network Coordinator, sees a future of international collaboration and exploration. "Through this connection to AMPATH, all of the institutions connected to ANSP will have new opportunities to expand their cooperation with US universities and research centers, offering these centers significant potential for new applications and services. I expect that, because of this new connectivity, the partnership between AMPATH and ANSP researchers will enhance the quality of our relationships, and working together will result in new scientific developments."

AMPATH, now supported in part by grants from the National Science Foundation, began as a collaborative project between FIU and Global Crossing. Using Global Crossing's terrestrial and submarine optical-fiber network, AMPATH will interconnect the Research and Education (R&E) networks in South and Central America, the Caribbean and Mexico to US and non-US R&E networks via UCAID's Abilene network. Participants will also be able to utilize the StarLight/STARTAP peering points led by the University of Illinois at Chicago, with grant support from the National Science Foundation.

The AMPATH PoP currently consists of a GSR 12012 router donated by Cisco Systems, a CBX-500 ATM switch donated by Lucent Technologies, and a Juniper Networks M10 router. The Global NOC at Indiana University provides network monitoring and back-up engineering services in coordination with FIU's network engineering staff.

About FIU
FIU, Miami's public research university, educates 33,000 students on campuses throughout South Florida and Latin America. It is the only public urban university in Florida with both a Phi Beta Kappa chapter and the Carnegie Foundation's top rating for research universities. Over the past three years, its sponsored research program has been the fastest growing of any research university in the state. FIU delivers high-quality education and training, conducts and promotes research to enhance Florida's role as a leader in telecommunications and information technology, offers training necessary to fostering business development and workforce preparedness and promotes technology transfer to enhance enabling technologies for the telecommunications and information technology industries. More information about FIU can be found at http://www.fiu.edu and http://www.ampath.fiu.edu.

About Global Crossing
Global Crossing provides telecommunications solutions over the world's first integrated global IP-based network, which reaches 27 countries and more than 200 major cities around the globe. Global Crossing serves many of the world's largest corporations, providing a full range of managed data and voice products and services. Global Crossing operates throughout the Americas and Europe, and provides services in Asia through its subsidiary, Asia Global Crossing (NYSE: AX).

On January 28, 2002, Global Crossing and certain of its affiliates (excluding Asia Global Crossing and its subsidiaries) commenced Chapter 11 cases in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York and coordinated proceedings in the Supreme Court of Bermuda. For more information, see Global Crossing or Asia Global Crossing.

About StarLight
StarLight^SM, the optical STAR TAP^SM initiative, is an advanced optical infrastructure and proving ground for network services optimized for high-performance applications. Operational since summer 2001, StarLight is a 1GigE and 10GigE switch/router facility for high-performance access to participating networks and will ultimately become a true optical switching facility for wavelengths. StarLight is being developed by the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), the International Center for Advanced Internet Research (iCAIR) at Northwestern University, and the Mathematics and Computer Science Division at Argonne National Laboratory, in partnership with Canada's CANARIE and Holland's SURFnet. STAR TAP and StarLight are made possible by major funding from the US National Science Foundation to the University of Illinois at Chicago. STAR TAP and StarLight are service marks of the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.

About Abilene
Abilene, developed in partnership with Qwest Communications, Cisco Systems, Nortel Networks and Indiana University, is an Internet2 backbone network providing nationwide high-performance networking capabilities for over 200 Internet2 universities in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.