Internet2 employs Ciena for its national 100 Gbps network

Internet2 is working with Ciena (Nasdaq: CIEN) to enhance its national backbone network with 100 Gbps capabilities in support its U.S. Unified Community Anchor Network (U.S. UCAN) project.

Funded through a federal stimulus grant from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP), Ciena will help Internet2 it increase its network's bandwidth from about 100 Gbps to 8.8 Tbps to connect over 200,000 community anchor institutions.

Leveraging Ciena's ActivFlex 6500 Packet-Optical Platform equipped with WaveLogic coherent optical processors for its new network, Robert Vietzke, executive director of network services at Internet2, said that they will be able "to create a groundbreaking new national backbone scalable to 88 waves of 100G."

The UCAN project is designed to help community anchor institutions including K-12 schools, libraries, community colleges, health centers, hospitals and public safety organizations to next-generation Internet-based applications using the Internet2 Network.

Upon completion of the network upgrade, these anchor organizations will be able to leverage the UCAN to deliver constituents an array of telemedicine, distance learning and other advanced applications, which Internet2 says "can't be delivered with consumer-grade Internet service."

For more:
- see the release

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