Saturday, August 04, 2007

Lambda Rail

National LambdaRail is advancing the research, clinical, and educational goals of members and other institutions by establishing and maintaining a unique nationwide network infrastructure that is owned and controlled by the U.S. research community. Ownership of the underlying optical infrastructure ensures the research community unprecedented control and flexibility in meeting the requirements of the most advanced network applications and providing the resources demanded by cutting-edge network research. NLR aims to:

  • support experimental and production networks,
  • foster networking research,
  • promote next-generation applications, and
  • facilitate interconnectivity among high-performance research and education networks

NLR has acquired enabling technologies for its nationwide fiber optic infrastructure from Cisco Systems, which has provided optical DWDM multiplexers, Ethernet switches, and IP routers.

National LambdaRail will let people in the academic community experiment with network protocols and the basic network infrastructure in a way they haven't since the ARPAnet
-- Scot Colburn, network engineer National Center for Atmospheric Research