| FAIRBANKS, PORTLAND & SEATTLE - March 31, 1999
-- The University of Washington is very pleased to announce that the
University of Alaska is being connected to the next generation Internet2
super-high-speed research and education network.
This new network link provides a crucial high-performance connection
between the major national Internet2 network hub in Seattle which
serves the Northwest, and The University of Alaska Statewide System
in Fairbanks, Alaska.
The fiber optic cable based connection provides a state of the
art "SONET OC-12" link which is fully compatible with
Internet2 and next-generation Internet technologies and is being
contributed to the Pacific Northwest Gigapop Internet2 research
and education networking effort by WCI Cable Inc.
At about 2,000 miles in length it will be the longest network
segment anywhere within the Internet2 network.
The University of Alaska and the University of Washington have
a long history of collaboration in research, education and medicine
including a partnership in the late 1980's in bringing the original
internet, then called NSFnet to the Northwest and Alaska.
The new Internet2 connection will place the University of Alaska
as one of the top ten universities in the country for high-speed
next-generation Internet connectivity. It gives the Arctic Region
Supercomputing Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, as
fast a connection as exists at any other university supercomputing
center in the nation.
This link will enable the University of Alaska and other qualified
research and education partners to become full and active participants
in Internet2 next-generation Internet development and will extend
the new generation of Internet2 technologies, capabilities and opportunities
to the entire research and education community in Alaska. The network
link will be used for education and research purposes and will enable
not only high-speed access to the U of A's supercomputing facilities
and growing digital repositories, but will also provide faculty,
students and staff as well as research and clinical partners with
access to and roles in developing the new generation of Internet-based
multimedia, video, and voice applications; powerful new forms of
telemedicine; high quality distance education capabilities; teleimmersion
facilities; and the leading edge e-business technologies which Internet2
and the next generation of Internet technologies enable.
High-speed Internet connection between Alaska and the rest of
nation has been long sought by the University of Alaska, its partner
institutions including the UW in the 'contiguous 48', and by many
others in the state of Alaska and federal government. UA presently
has four T-1 lines for its research and education Internet connections.
The four T-1s provide a bit rate of about 6 million bits per second.
An OC-12 connection furnishes about 620 million bits per second
-- roughly 100 times faster than the current connection. Now, at
last, the fastest and most sophisticated network transport technologies,
super high-speed next-generation Internet capacity are coming to
Alaska. Full OC-12-level services will be operational by September
30, 1999 in time for the Fall Internet 2 members' meeting, to be
held in Seattle October 10-13.
Contacts
Ron Johnson
University of Washington &
Pacific/Northwest Gigapop
206-543-8252
ronj@cac.washington.edu
Steve Smith
University of Alaska
907 474-6309
steve.smith@mail.alaska.edu
Heather Sirr
WCI Cable Inc
503 533-5552
hsirr@wcicable.com
www.wcicable.com |
