The Infinera DTN has been selected by Internet2 for metro network extensions to Internet2's new national backbone network. This extension will allow Internet2 to expand the reach of the national network into key international exchange points in major cities including New York City, Chicago and Seattle. The metro networks will provide Internet2 members additional connectivity points to Internet2's international partners providing better access to international research networks and leading-edge international scientific projects like the Large Hadron Collider operated by CERN in Switzerland.

This week at its annual Fall Member Meeting, Internet2 unveiled the first major segment of its new nationwide network from New York to Chicago. In June 2006, in a joint release with Level 3 Communications, Internet2 announced its plan to deploy its new advanced nationwide research network over the Level 3 backbone. Level 3 is deploying Infinera's DTN optical system to enable Internet2 members to enjoy large-scale capacity and dynamic optical circuit provisioning. Scheduled for completion in mid-2007, the network is planned to provide 100 Gbps of bandwidth throughout the Internet2 network and offer other advanced features.

"Providing capacity and flexibility to support the various bandwidth demands for long-term and short term use is essential to the work of the research and education community," said Steve Cotter, Internet2 Director of Network Services. "The PIC technology of the Infinera DTN is a vital component of the network for the research and education community. The Infinera metro extensions will facilitate additional international connectivity making it easier for our members to access resources from all over the world."

The Infinera DTN is an optical system based on large-scale photonic integrated circuits (PICs). By integrating the functionality of more than 50 optical components onto a pair of monolithic PICs, the Infinera DTN offers 100 Gbps of DWDM capacity on each line card, to enable a new architecture known as Digital Optical Networks. The Digital Optical Network architecture deployed by Level 3 will enable Internet2 to offer advanced features to its members including integrated optical switching, GMPLS-based network intelligence, and restoration services that can be requested by members and delivered with a few clicks of a mouse. The PIC-based design is designed to enable Level 3 to deliver high levels of performance in Internet2's core long-haul network.

During this week's Fall Member Meeting, the New York-Chicago link will be used to carry SONET traffic in support of an uncompressed high-definition videoconference demonstration and then will be quickly reconfigured to transport Infinera's 100 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) demonstration. This demonstration will include sending a 100 GbE signal through the Internet2 network from Chicago to New York and back again, a total distance of 4,000 kilometers. The demonstration is the product of a collaboration of Finisar, Internet2, Level 3 Communications, University of California at Santa Cruz, and Infinera. The demonstration is designed to show the viability of 100 GbE as a transport technology and demonstrate the implementation of 100 GbE as ten parallel flows of 10 Gbps each, carried over today's Infinera DTN system.

Last week, the Higher Speed Study Group of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (IEEE) chose 100 GbE as the next step in Ethernet evolution.

Infinera co-founder and CTO Drew Perkins, who helped to organize and implement the 100 GbE demonstration, addressed the Internet2 Fall Member Meeting on Wednesday to discuss the importance of 100 GbE as a next step for research and education networks, commercial networks, and the entire Internet.

"We wish Internet2 well on this, its tenth anniversary," said Drew Perkins. "Internet2's nationwide and metro networks will provide leading-edge features and capabilities to the research and education community including 100 Gbps of bandwidth throughout the network, and intelligent auto-configuration and restoration at the optical layer, thanks to Infinera's digital architecture, including GMPLS service intelligence."