May 13, 2004 Washington, D.C. -- National LambdaRail Inc. (NLR), a consortium of U.S. research universities and private sector technology companies, has successfully lit the optical-network path between Washington, D.C., and Atlanta, GA, giving the D.C., Raleigh, NC, and Atlanta regions access to the national NLR network infrastructure. The path completes the route between Atlanta, D.C., Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Chicago.
The deployment began in January with Cisco Systems Inc. installing DWDM extended long-haul platforms approximately every 100 km on intercity dark fiber NLR purchased from Level 3 Communications Inc. Meeting the target completion date on April 16, Cisco deployed eight 10-Gigabit Ethernet (10-GbE) lambdas for NLR along the 766 fiber miles (1532 strand miles) between Washington, D.C. and Atlanta. Overall, the system supports expansions up to 40 10-Gbit/sec lambdas.
Phase one installation is complete with the path between Chicago to Atlanta fully operational. The remaining paths are in final testing, with operational roll-outs scheduled on the paths from Seattle to Sunnyvale, CA, by mid-May; Denver to Chicago by the end of June; Atlanta to Jacksonville, FL, by mid-July; and Seattle to Denver by late August. All of phase one will be fully operational by the start of the next academic school year.
Cisco Systems is the key provider of networking equipment, including optical DWDM platforms, Ethernet switches and IP routers. The company has been tapped to provide installation, testing, and product maintenance services as well.
Level 3 is the preferred provider of the dark fiber and collocation facilities on the NLR core backbone infrastructure.