Gig.U member Case Western Reserve lights up 1 Gbps fiber network

Case Western Reserve University, one of the 37 partners in Blair Levin's emerging Gig.U project, is one of the first universities to build out an on-campus 1G-capable fiber network.

The Cleveland, Ohio-based university will deploy Calix's (NYSE: CALX) E7 Ethernet Service Access Platform (ESAP), including the E7-2 and the 716GE-I indoor optical network terminals (ONTs) in and around its campus. It will also leverage the vendor's Compass Flow Analyzer to monitor and analyze traffic patterns and applications running on the network.

Also participating in this project is Gigabit Squared, a new integrator focused on developing models for public-private broadband networks. All of the lessons learned and best practices of this particular deployment will be shared by Case Western Reserve, Calix, and Gigabit Squared, which launched its Neighborhood Gateway Program this week to support the Gig.U initiative.  

Gigabit Squared announced that it had secured $200 million in funding as it works with Gig.U to build fiber services out to six communities this year.

One of the first targets of the 1G network will be Judson at University Circle retirement community. While the university will test a number of broadband applications, they believe that telemedicine, medication monitoring, and virtual medical care and nursing services will be a key focus of the trial given that it's located near the Bruening Health Center.

Having a fiber-enabled 1G network for telemedicine will enable communities like Judson and Erie, Pa.-based Saint Vincent Health System remotely interact with patients via a videoconferencing link and monitor heartbeats remotely via Bluetooth-enabled stethoscopes, for example.

Even though the network is new Case Western is no novice in the fiber department, having first built a fiber network in 1989 at the university.

For more:
- see the release

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