ESnet and Internet2 to Launch Next Gen Research Network

The Department of Energy's (DOE) Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) and Internet2 will deploy a high capacity nationwide network that will greatly enhance the capabilities of researchers across the country who participate in the DOE's scientific research efforts.



Called ESnet4, the new network created through this partnership will initially operate on two dedicated 10 Gbps wavelengths on the new Internet2 nationwide infrastructure and will seamlessly scale by one wavelength per year for the next four to five years. It will deliver production IP capabilities as well as new optical services like point-to-point dynamic circuits. The network will serve large-scale DOE Office of Science projects such as DOE's participation in the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at Brookhaven National Lab and several supercomputing centers.



Significantly, the ESNet4 optical infrastructure will provide flexibility and control through the dynamic provisioning of lightpaths and sub-channels.

The new ESnet4 infrastructure will be provided by Internet2 through its recently announced agreement with Level 3 Communications to develop a new advanced nationwide hybrid network infrastructure with enhanced IP services as well as new dynamic optical capabilities. Level 3, which will provide the underlying bandwidth services over a dedicated optical platform, is deploying Infinera's Digital Optical Networking equipment a to enable the provisioning of optical circuits dynamically. The new Internet2 network builds upon successful tests of dynamically provisioned optical waves for ESnet conducted earlier this year by the Hybrid Optical and Packet Infrastructure (HOPI) project of the Internet2 member community.




ESnet, funded by DOE's Office of Science and operated by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, connects more than 30 DOE laboratories and provides networking to over 100,000 DOE laboratory scientists. It is also used by more than 18,000 researchers from universities, other government agencies and private industry. ESnet directly serves major science facilities including particle accelerators, supercomputing centers, and massive scientific data storage systems.



Internet2's network currently connects over five million users at 270 research and education institutions in the U.S. and also provides access to over 80 international research networks. This partnership will allow university and lab researchers participating in ESnet activities to leverage their institutions' Internet2 network connection to access the ESnet4 infrastructure and its global network partners around the world.



"ESnet and Internet2 share a common technical vision for the evolution of dynamically delivered network capabilities that will enable the next-generation of scientific breakthroughs," said Bill Johnston, head of ESnet at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. "In creating this partnership, ESnet and Internet2 will extend the most cutting-edge network capabilities with guaranteed carrier-class dependability, allowing our scientific community to focus its resources on its core research and educational objectives."http://www.es.net/http://www.internet2.edu/