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SURA, AT&T ENABLE SOUTHERN LEG OF NATIONWIDE RESEARCH NETWORK

The Southeastern Universities Research Association (SURA) has reached an agreement with National LambdaRail Inc (NLR) -– a consortium of leading U.S. research universities and private sector technology companies -– to light dark fiber from Jacksonville, Fla., to Houston. This initiative will help complete a key route in NLR's new and unique national networking infrastructure to foster the concurrent advancement of networking research and next generation network-based applications in science, engineering and medicine.

The agreement signals a significant alignment between SURA and NLR, and represents the first implementation of AT&T fiber assets and related services made available through the GridFiber Agreement in place between SURA and AT&T. Coupled with the participation of the Louisiana Board of Regents as a new NLR member, this agreement will create a new R&E network infrastructure along the Gulf Coast with a major NLR node in Baton Rouge, La.

As part of this agreement between SURA and NLR, SURA will have access to network services on the NLR infrastructure in support of SURA regional programs.

Jerry Draayer, SURA president, said, "SURA's goal is to exploit optical technologies to enhance the research capabilities of our nation while enabling a bridging of the digital divide."

SURA will gain access to certain optical waves on the NLR backbone routes connecting Tulsa, Okla.; Houston, Baton Rouge, Jacksonville, Atlanta, Raleigh-Durham, N.C.; Washington, D.C.; and New York City.

An immediate interest of SURA is to support the nuclear physics program of the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility that it manages and operates for the Department of Energy, the SURA Coastal Ocean Observing and Prediction (SCOOP) initiative, and anticipated Grid applications in collaborative bio-informatics and telehealth, medical research and high performance computing. "SURA also places a high value on making advanced networking capabilities available to the broadest set of institutions, especially ensuring equal access to minority serving institutions," according to Draayer.

The SURA–AT&T GridFiber Collaboration Agreement, announced last December, is a 10-year agreement designed to speed the creation of regional and national network Grid services to support the R&E community, in partnership with the Internet Educational Equal Access Foundation. Under the agreement, AT&T has made available at no cost to the nation's R&E community, 8,000 miles of dark fiber network and a substantial inventory of optical networking equipment.