UW News

April 2, 1999

Alaska Gets A High Speed (OC-12) Connection to Internet2

News and Information

The University of Washington and WCI Cable Inc. are very pleased to announce that WCI Cable, in support of the cooperative Pacific/Northwest Gigapop and national Internet 2 efforts, is providing to the UW a state-of-the-art fiber optic connection from Seattle to the University of Alaska Statewide System in Fairbanks, Alaska. This connection will use high-speed “SONET OC-12” technology, and will bring the new Internet 2 and NGI (Next Generation Internet) capabilities and technologies to Alaska. It will link the University of Alaska to the Pacific/Northwest Gigapop, which is the major national (and only high speed) Internet 2 network hub for the region, and is located in Seattle.

This contribution will enable the University of Alaska and other research and education partners to become full and active participants in Internet2/Next-Generation-Internet development and will extend the new generation of Internet2 technologies, capabilities and opportunities to the entire research and education community in Alaska. The network link will be used for education and research purposes and will enable not only high speed access to the U of A’s supercomputing facilities and digital libraries but also provide faculty, students and staff as well as clinical and research partners with access to, as well as roles in developing, the new generation of internet based multimedia video and voice applications; powerful new forms of tele-medicine; high quality distance education capabilities; tele-immersion facilities; and the leading edge e-business technologies which Internet2 and the next generation of internet technologies enable.

High speed internet connections between Alaska and the rest of nation has been long sought by the University of Alaska, its partner institutions including the UW in the ‘contiguous 48’, and by many others in the state of Alaska and federal government. UA presently has four T-1 lines for its research and education Internet connections. The four T-1’s provide a bit rate of about 6 million bits per second. An OC-12 connection furnishes about 620 million bits per second — roughly 100 times faster than the current connection. Now, due to WCI Cable’s foresight and generosity, and their involvement with and commitment to participating in the evolution and production deployment of the fastest and most sophisticated network transport technologies, super-high-speed next generation internet capacity is coming to Alaska. Full OC-12-level services will be operational on the 2,000 mile long link by September 30, 1999 in time for the Fall Internet 2 members meeting, to be held in Seattle October 10-13.

This state-of-the-art Pacific/Northwest Gigapop link signals WCI Cable’s standing as a leading edge force in advanced and high performance networking and its commitment to becoming an active and sustaining member of, and partner in, the Internet2 and next generation internet community.

For further information contact:

University of Washington & Pacific/Northwest Gigapop
Ron Johnson
206 543-8252
ronj@cac.washington.edu

University of Alaska
Steve Smith
907 474-6309
steve.smith@mail.alaska.edu

WCI Cable Inc
Heather Sirr
Heather Sirr
503 533-5552
hsirr@wcicable.com

www.wcicable.com