Fujitsu Network Communications Inc.
Industry Leaders Collaborate on 40 Gbps Live Network Trial
College Park, MD, November 10, 2008 — Engineers from the Mid-Atlantic Crossroads (MAX), High-End Computer Networking (HECN) at NASA Goddard Flight Center (NASA/GSFC), Juniper Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: JNPR) and Fujitsu Network Communications have successfully completed a live trial of 40 Gbps connections between the University of Maryland campus and facilities
in McLean, Va. using routing and optical equipment from Juniper Networks and Fujitsu. While most of today’s fiber-optic transmission
infrastructure is limited to 10 Gbps, widespread implementation of 40 Gbps technology in live networks could help provide
the scale needed to support the proliferation of advanced services such as on-demand high-definition video and real-time collaboration
across the Internet.
Equipment used in the trial included Juniper’s high-performance T1600 core routers and Fujitsu FLASHWAVE® 7500 metro/regional
optical networking platforms, each equipped with 40 Gbps interfaces. The equipment was deployed in MAX’s metro-fiber network,
and MAX teamed with long-time collaborator NASA Goddard for their expertise in flow rate testing. 40 Gbps test signals were
successfully passed across 80 and 56 kilometer spans without any adverse impacts on production traffic running on separate
wavelengths. Once the interface cards were installed and provisioned, they required no special configuration settings and
encountered no compatibility issues between optical and routing platforms—proving that cutting edge 40 Gbps technology
can be deployed quickly, efficiently and with minimal impact to network operations.
“We currently use a 10 Gbps network path, partly provisioned by MAX, between our GSFC-based NASA Center for Computational
Sciences (NCCS) supercomputer facility and the larger High-End Computing Capability supercomputer facility based at NASA’s
Ames Research Center in California,” said HECN leader Pat Gary. “This year the NCCS upgraded its computing capability nearly
threefold to 67 teraflops, and next year they expect to nearly double that capability. These supercomputers are used to run
large models to simulate and better understand Earth’s climate and weather, the planet’s relationship with the sun, and the
evolution of cosmic phenomena. With the extremely large data sets that must be transferred to other NASA sites and universities
across the country for analysis, 40 Gbps links will allow us to improve the efficiency of our research work with real-time
collaboration.”
“As both an equipment vendor and research entity, Fujitsu is always looking for opportunities to support the research and
education community,” said Jim Hintze, senior vice president of marketing at Fujitsu Network Communications. “The pioneering
work that MAX and HECN are doing at the forefront of fiber optic transmission will help pave the way for enhanced research
and learning opportunities. We are extremely pleased to have been a part of this breakthrough trial.”
“As our customers introduce increasingly innovative and bandwidth-intensive services, technologies such as 40 Gbps can help
them scale their networks quickly and efficiently,” said Opher Kahane, senior vice president and general manager of the High
End Systems Business Unit at Juniper Networks. “While the T1600 router is already 100 Gbps-ready, the industry standards and
specifications that make 100 Gbps possible are still underway. As this demonstration shows, 40 Gbps is ready for deployment
today, so customers can immediately leverage this technology to increase the speed of their networks to meet the growing bandwidth
demands of critical and efficient research programs.”
Additional information on the equipment used, test configurations, and flow measurement results can be found at http://www.maxgigapop.net/40g.
About Mid-Atlantic Crossroads (MAX)
The Mid-Atlantic Crossroads (www.maxgigapop.net) is a regional optical network consortium founded by Georgetown University, George Washington University, the University
of Maryland, and Virginia Tech. The MAX mission is to serve the long-term strategic planning, deployment, operation, and coordination
for high performance advanced internetworking services and initiatives in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. MAX
serves the research and education community as well as collaborating organizations from the public sector, private/commercial
sector, not-for-profits, and state and federal agencies that require access to leading edge telecommunications technologies.
About High-End Computer Networking (HECN) at NASA/GSFC
The NASA/GSFC HECN team (http://cisto.gsfc.nasa.gov/networks.html) manages the GSFC-based Scientific and Engineering Network (SEN) as a non-mission-dedicated high-end computer network at
GSFC with high-speed links to the Internet2’s network and other Next Generation Internet networks, The SEN services GSFC projects
and users who have computer network performance requirements greater than those baselined for GSFC’s general-use campus-wide
Center Network Environment. The HECN also conducts network R&D and testbed evaluations with advanced network technologies,
protocols and applications. This research contributes to the next generation of high-end computer networks at GSFC and elsewhere
in NASA.
About Juniper
Juniper Networks, Inc. is the leader in high-performance networking. Juniper offers a high-performance network infrastructure
that creates a responsive and trusted environment for accelerating the deployment of services and applications over a single
network. This fuels high-performance businesses. Additional information can be found at http://www.juniper.net.
About Fujitsu Network Communications Inc.
Fujitsu Network Communications Inc. is an innovator and strategic partner with over 20 years of experience as a leading provider of wireline and wireless networking solutions that solve critical business issues and enable new services. With the support of Fujitsu Limited (TSE:6702), a $53B company with approximately 160,000 professionals in 70 countries, Fujitsu enables their customers to build or seamlessly migrate to fully converged networks that improve network performance and profitability. Over 400,000 Fujitsu network elements have been deployed by all major carriers across North America. Fujitsu maintains a well-established and highly-regarded position as a market leader by providing the best-in-breed data networking solutions that drive next-generation access, core, and wireless networks. For more information, please visit http://us.fujitsu.com/telecom.
Press Contacts
Bob Laurent
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Fujitsu Network Communications
Tel: 972-479-3480
E-mail:bob.laurent@us.fujitsu.com
Kim Masoner
Media/Analyst Relations Manager
Fujitsu Network Communications
Tel: 972-479-2131
E-mail:kim.masoner@us.fujitsu.com
Fujitsu Network Communications
News Bureau
Tel: 866-346-1389
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