Here’s some ground-breaking news from the TERENA Networking Conference 2013 (TNC2013) currently meeting in Maastricht, The Netherlands.
The Department of Energy’s ESnet joined five of the world’s other leading research and education (R&E) networks and two commercial partners today to demonstrate for the first time a Transatlantic 100 gigabits-per-second (Gbps or one billion bits per second) transmission link for research and education between North America and Europe during the TERENA Networking Conference 2013 (TNC2013), held in Maastricht, The Netherlands. These demonstrations showcased emerging technologies and advanced applications for science, research and education.
You can see the traffic on the 100G link at: https://my.es.net/demos/tnc2013/
The 100 Gbps link, called the Advanced North Atlantic 100G Pilot project (ANA-100G) will be used for engineering and testing the new transmission link, applications, resources, monitoring techniques and advanced technologies such as software-defined networking. The testing will be between as many as four open exchange points, including MAN LAN in New York City and NetherLight in Amsterdam for at least 12 months following the conference. These efforts will determine the operational requirements needed to effectively run 100 Gbps wavelengths between North America and Europe to meet the growing demand of specialized research organizations.
“This is a historic milestone, and many ESnet staff have worked hard to achieve it,” said ESnet Director Greg Bell. “This achievement shows how much research and education networks can do together, when focused on a common goal. I’m confident that our historic project will serve as a model for even greater accomplishments in the future.”
In addition to ESnet, the R&E networks participating in the project are Internet2, NORDUnet, SURFnet, CANARIE and GÉANT. Ciena (NASDAQ: CIEN) is also supporting the ANA-100G pilot. Ciena is providing photonic equipment, including the recently released subsea version of the 100 Gbps WaveLogic 3 transponder. Furthermore, Juniper loaned equipment that enables some of the eye-catching demonstrations.
