Merit Network, Inc., Announces Major Internet Upgrade in Michigan (fwd)

[Mark Szidik]

I thought some of the subscribers on this list may find this
interesting.

-Mark

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2001 11:50:33 -0400
From: Candice Russell <candiceq@merit.edu>

* * * * * * * *
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Merit Network, Inc., Announces Major Internet Upgrade in Michigan

August 14, 2001 - Ann Arbor, MI - Ask your typical Internet expert how fast
an OC-48 link is, and the likely response will be "That's fast. Real fast!"

Michigan's leading Internet service is about to be upgraded to OC-48 speed.
The new backbone design will enable Michigan organizations to benefit from
next-generation Internet applications and technologies, including
high-quality interactive video, distance learning, and real-time access to
the world's most powerful scientific instruments.

Merit Network, Inc. provides Internet connectivity to all 13 of Michigan's
publicly-funded universities and to Michigan's community colleges, K-12
schools, libraries, state agencies, and cultural and research
organizations. Through these organizations, Merit serves almost a million
people in Michigan every day.

"Merit and the state of Michigan have always been at the forefront of
Internet technology," says Scott Gerstenberger, who runs the Merit
statewide network. "With this new upgrade, we will be making a smooth
transition to some of the fastest Internet speeds available anywhere in the
world today."

Merit will spend $10 million on its network infrastructure over the next
three years to implement the new backbone and other improvements. The OC-48
upgrade is expected to meet the growth needs of Merit's customers for the
next three years, and will save money over this time period compared to
other upgrade paths.

To put this story into perspective: A standard dialup connection (like AOL)
carries at most 52,000 bits of information per second. A T1 line (often
used by businesses) carries 1.5 million bits per second. A single OC-48
link carries 2.4 gigabits (2.4 billion) bits per second.

"Internet traffic doubles just about every year," says Brian Cashman, the
MichNet Backbone Manager. "With this design, Merit's customers in Michigan
will stay ahead of that growth. This design also uses dual OC-48 circuits,
which builds in redundancy and gives Michigan an even more reliable
network."

Jeff Ogden, who is Merit's Associate Director for High Performance
Networks, works closely with Michigan's universities on Internet2, the
national organization that operates the high-speed Abilene network.
Currently the only way for a Michigan organization to participate in
Internet2 is through Merit.

"Michigan organizations are already participating in Internet2 with
extraordinary results," says Ogden. "For example, Michigan Technological
University is using Internet2 to team up with NASA and the University of
Cincinnati on a proposal to monitor remote mechanical systems in factories,
highway bridges, geological fault lines, and even in-flight aircraft."

"As Internet2 applications move into the mainstream, this traffic will
place larger bandwidth demands on our network," Ogden continues. "Merit's
OC-48 upgrade will handle this increased traffic and permit new
applications to be developed that we can't even foresee today."

The Merit Board of Directors approved the OC-48 upgrade plan at its June 1
meeting. The plan was then presented to Merit's customers at the Merit
Annual Meeting on June 6. Organizations in Michigan will begin to benefit
from the Merit upgrade starting in the first quarter of 2002.

########

About Merit Network, Inc.

Merit's mission is to develop and promote advanced Internet services for
research and education. Founded in 1966, Merit is now governed by all 13 of
Michigan's publicly-supported universities.

Merit operates MichNet, Michigan's most advanced Internet service,
connecting Michigan's universities, community colleges, and K-12 schools.
Merit is an affiliate member of Internet2 and operates the Michigan
GigaPoP, which provides Internet2 access for educational and research
organizations in Michigan. In addition, Merit provides tools for online
collaboration and resource sharing, including the Michigan Teacher Network
(mtn.merit.edu) and Teach for Tomorrow (tft.merit.edu).

Merit's engineering staff has earned international acclaim for its work and
from 1987 through 1995 Merit led the development of the NSFNET, the
national network that was the precursor to today's commercial Internet.
Among its many contributions to Michigan's economic development, Merit has
developed three spinoffs: Advanced Network & Services; NextHop
Technologies, Inc.; and Interlink Networks, Inc.

For more information, visit http://www.merit.edu/ or contact:

Candice Russell
Merit Network, Inc.
734-763-7348
candiceq@merit.edu

For PDFs of the current and proposed MichNet Backbone maps, see
http://www.merit.edu/michnet/maps/