March 7, 2002
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
StarLightSM, the optical STAR TAPSM 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.
