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November 15, 2001

Dutch SURFnet and Internet2’s Abilene Connect Via Gigabit Ethernet

CHICAGO, IL - A new transatlantic high-performance internet connection today joined the research and education communities in the Netherlands and the U.S. at gigabit speed.

The upgraded connection between SURFnet, the advanced research and higher education network in the Netherlands, and Abilene, an Internet2® backbone network serving over 200 universities and research centers in the United States, will enable applications such as TV-quality videoconferencing, MPEG2 video streaming, data mining and remote collaboration between researchers, teachers and students in the US and the Netherlands. The connection was established through StarLight℠, a National Science Foundation funded project providing a Gigabit Ethernet-based interconnection point for national research networks from around the world.

SURFnet and Internet2 have worked together since 1998 to provide connectivity and promote collaboration between the advanced networking initiatives of the U.S. and the Netherlands.

“With the introduction of dark fiber in the local loop and Gigabit Ethernet switches as interconnect points, global research networking is entering a new phase,” said Kees Neggers, Managing Director of SURFnet.

“This new Gigabit Ethernet connectivity marks an important milestone where connections between the United States and Europe are no longer bottlenecks for researchers using advanced network applications,” said Steve Corbato, Director of Backbone Network Infrastructure for Internet2.

The new connection between SURFnet and Abilene will utilize two 622 megabit per second connections SURFnet has acquired between the Netherlands and its new Chicago based Point of Presence. The new Abilene-SURFnet peering marks the first connection of StarLight to the Abilene network via Gigabit Ethernet.

About Internet2
Led by over 180 US universities, working with industry and government, Internet2 is developing and deploying advanced network applications and technologies for research and higher education, accelerating the creation of tomorrow’s Internet. Internet2 recreates the partnerships of academia, industry and government that helped foster today’s Internet in its infancy.

About SURFnet
SURFnet operates and innovates the national research network, to which 200 institutions in higher education and research in the Netherlands are connected. To remain in the lead SURFnet puts in a sustained effort to improve the infrastructure and to develop new applications in order to give users faster and better access to new Internet services. In the context of GigaPort - a project of the Dutch Government, the business community, educational institutions and research centers - SURFnet has recently launched a new network, SURFnet5, which is among the best research networks in the world, offering its users at Universities, polytechnics, research centers and similar institutions both native IPv4 and native IPv6 connectivity via 10Gbit/s wide area lambda’s. It also offers businesses the opportunity to develop next generation Internet applications.

About StarLight
StarLight is an advanced optical infrastructure and proving ground for network services optimized for high-performance applications. It is being built in parallel with STAR TAP℠, the Chicago-based international, interconnection point that has facilitated the long-term interconnection and interoperability of advanced international networking since 1997. StarLight is being developed by University of Illinois at Chicago’s Electronic Visualization Laboratory, 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. StarLight and STAR TAP are funded by the National Science Foundation.

Contact:
Greg Wood
Internet2
ghwood@internet2.edu

Sandra Passchier
SURFnet
sandra.passchier@surfnet.nl