IP: Indiana I-Light Announcement

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2001 18:39:34 -0500 (EST)
> From: "Michael A. McRobbie" <vpit () indiana edu>
> X-Sender: vpit () lear ucs indiana edu
> To: farber () cis upenn edu
> Subject: Indiana I-Light Announcement
>
> Dave,
>
> Thought you might be interested in the appended for IP. Many are
> talking about such university-owned regional fiber networks but I
> believe the one we launched yesterday (and which is already lit &
> passing data) is one of the very first in the country.
>
> On a personal matter let me say what a superb job you have been doing
> in providing such a wide variety of material over IP since Sept 11!
>
> Regards,
>
> Michael
>
> ***********************************************************************
> December 12, 2001
>
> GOT LIGHT? INDIANA LEADS THE WAY LIGHTING ITS I-LIGHT FIBER
>
> Indiana has a first-of-its-kind resource to help propel the State forward
> in the Information Age.
>
> INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana  -- Indiana University, Purdue University, and the
> State of Indiana now have their own optical fiber network, creating an
> ultra-high-capacity communications system that makes Indiana a major
> center for information technology and maintains the universities'
> leadership roles in the development of advanced communication
> applications.  Indiana becomes the first State to boast such a resource.
>
> "In addition to being the 'Crossroads of America,' - a title earned
> because the State was a transportation hub during the Industrial
> Revolution - Indiana is now the 'Crossroads of Information,' - fulfilling
> that same role in the Digital Revolution." said Indiana Governor Frank
> O'Bannon at a ceremony Tuesday December 11 to officially light the fiber.
>
> Led by the State's two major, public, research universities, and with the
> support and leadership of the State's executive and legislative branches,
> I-Light (as the fiber network is known) provides near limitless
> connectivity between the two universities, hubbing out of their Indiana
> University - Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) campus, and connecting
> within the city to the Internet2 backbone, and other national and
> international networks.
>
> Funded by a $5.3-million appropriation, I-Light is today delivering
> gigabit speed connections, and will quickly expand to deliver multiples of
> 10-gigabit connections in the next few months, providing communication
> capabilities unheard of even today to the Universities' researchers and
> general populations.  As technology advances, the Universities will have
> the capability to expand their connectivity well beyond terabit levels and
> increase their role in the development of advanced applications.
>
> Essentially, I-Light creates a virtual campus network for the three major
> campuses of Indiana and Purdue Universities, enabling researchers to
> communicate over long distances, real time, as if they were in the same
> room.  Demonstrating this during the I-Light event, researchers located in
> West Lafayette, Bloomington, and Indianapolis collaborated on a project to
> view and analyze a 3-D medical data image; something not possible until
> now, due to the limitations of the network.
>
> A Boost to the Indiana Economy
>
> And this is only the beginning.  I-Light contributes to economic
> development in Indiana.  Many states are competing to provide the fertile
> ground to create the next Silicon Valley.  With its central location, and
> high quality of life, the addition of fiber 'on ramps' to the national and
> international research and business internets, Indiana is well positioned
> to attract start-up companies and established information-age enterprises.
>
> "Today, we are illuminating the future of Indiana" said Myles Brand,
> President of Indiana University.  "Working hand-in-hand with our partners
> around the State, Indiana University is helping to create the information
> technology that will be so important to our State's economic future."
>
> And it's not just new enterprises that will be attracted to Indiana, due
> to initiatives like I-Light.  Verizon - the company that installed the
> fiber for I-Light - is a Fortune Top Ten company.  Said Verizon's Great
> Lakes Region President, John Dudley, "For businesses such as Verizon here
> in Indiana, this partnership will impact our growth as well as the quality
> of employees we can attract to Indiana."  Dudley went on to say:  "Not
> only does I-Light signal to the rest of the country that Indiana is 'open
> for business', but it also says 'we have the light on for you.'"
>
> "Indiana first began planning for I-Light in 1998 and moved swiftly
> through the concept-to-reality process, in what was a very complex
> project" said Michael A. McRobbie, Vice President for Information
> Technology and Chief Information Officer of Indiana University.  "Many
> other states have followed our lead, developing plans for such networks to
> aid in the research and development of advanced applications; but we
> believe we are the first in the nation to have our network fully
> operational."
>
> Another facet of I-Light is its future impact for local economic
> development. For example, the City of Bloomington was able to leverage the
> initiative by adding two empty conduits connecting that city's new carrier
> hotel to the regional facilities located in Indianapolis.  In addition,
> the greater Lafayette area is currently launching an initiative to develop
> a comprehensive plan for fiber infrastructure in that region.
>
> Collaboration and Enabling Science
>
> Owning its own fiber resource significantly reduces the barriers to
> digital collaboration.  I-Light will usher in a new age of collaboration
> between the Universities.  "With I-Light, Purdue University and Indiana
> University will have greater leverage and potential for federal grants and
> can help Indiana become a more capable player in the Information Economy"
> said Purdue President Martin Jischke.
>
> "Medical personnel and engineers throughout the State will have the
> advantage of virtual, real-time collaborative workspaces, as they explore
> the diagnostic process for identifying diseases and their treatments" said
> Indiana University School of Medicine professor Gary Hutchins.  "We can
> confer in real time and virtual space about treatment options and discuss
> potential refinements to the diagnostic process and the technology
> involved; something we could not do without I-Light."
>
> Importance of Connectivity to National Fiber Infrastructure
>
> University ownership of optical fiber infrastructure is a key advantage of
> I-Light.  Rather than having to pay commercial providers, the universities
> and the State of Indiana have the ability to expand capacity to whatever
> level is needed for little marginal cost.
>
> "By investing in their own high performance regional network
> infrastructure, Indiana has taken a very strong forward looking position
> in the development of high performance networking for the academic
> community," said Aubrey Bush, Division Director, National Science
> Foundation. "This unique new capability is highly complementary to the
> Federal role in national and international connectivity for the research
> and education community.  Indiana, with this new capability, builds on its
> already well established leadership role, and ensures a strong foundation
> for future developments both regionally and nationally."
>
> Importance of Connectivity to Internet2
>
> A key component of I-Light is that it not only links researchers at the
> two Universities with each other, but with colleagues at other research
> institutions.  I-Light acts as a digital on-ramp, extending the access to
> Internet2 networks and other high-speed research networks out further into
> the heart of the State to IU at Bloomington and Purdue at West Lafayette.
> "Indiana University and Indianapolis have been integral to the success of
> Internet2" said Douglas van Houweling, President and CEO of Internet2.
> "With I-Light, the State of Indiana is taking a lead role by providing the
> foundation upon which the future of Internet technology can be built."
>
> Indianapolis is home to the Internet2 Abilene Network Operations Center,
> managed by IU on the IUPUI campus, as well as the site of the Indiana
> GigaPoP, one of Internet2's regional network aggregation points.  Both IU
> and Purdue have been charter partners in Internet2 since its inception in
> the late 1990's, and Indiana University President Myles Brand is also a
> member of the Internet2 Board of Directors.
>
> How fast is fast?
>
> A great deal is made of the speeds of connectivity represented by fiber
> paths.  But a more critical component is capacity - how much data can be
> moved at one time.  I-Light guarantees no bottlenecks in transporting
> information across the network
>
> Initially, I-Light will provide for gigabit Ethernet connections between
> the campus networks at West Lafayette, Indianapolis, and Bloomington.
> Those campuses today feature 1-gigabit backbones, like all high-end
> research institutions in the nation.  As those backbones grow to
> 10-gigabit rates, 100-gigabit rates and beyond, I-Light will be capable of
> expanding to match those rates by simply upgrading hardware technology at
> the cutting edge of these technologies.  I-Light also has the ability to
> provide even larger, on-demand wavelengths between research groups on the
> various campuses, enabling very-high-capacity terabit connectivity when
> that functionality is needed.
>
> "It's misleading to focus just on interconnecting capacities when
> enterprise local networks currently run only at, say, 1 Gigabit per
> second" said Steven Wallace, Director and Chief Scientist of the Advanced
> Network Management Lab, part of the Pervasive Technology Labs at Indiana
> University.  "What's important is that these fiber-interconnecting
> networks keep pace with rapid developments occurring on the sub-internet
> elements; and I-Light certainly will be able to do that long into the
> future."
>
> "It's also important to note that we can establish multiple connections
> across the I-Light.  Sort of like a coronary bypass - we can add as many
> routes as we need across the fibers, until the flow allows for all data to
> move in an unfettered fashion" said Brian D. Voss, Associate Vice
> President for Telecommunications at Indiana University.  "While we need
> only move at 1-gigabit capacities on any route - or whatever the backbone
> rate might be - we have the ability to simply add more connections until
> the flow-rate capacity meets demand."
>
> Indiana Virtual Machine Room
>
> I-Light not only presents the opportunity for researchers and scientists
> to collaborate more effectively, it also allows the universities to pool
> their high-end computational resources to build larger, more effective
> facilities for those researchers and scientists to use.
>
> This Fall, Indiana University installed the largest university-owned
> supercomputer in the country at its Bloomington campus.  It will be
> expanding that resource to include nodes in Indianapolis at the IUPUI
> campus.  At the same time, Purdue's IBM supercomputing capability in West
> Lafayette continues to grow and will be integrated with IU resources and
> massive data storage to form the Indiana distributed terascale
> computational facility.
>
> "Supercomputers, massive data storage facilities, and visualization
> environments are easily assembled into 'grids' of virtually unlimited
> capabilities" said James Bottum, Vice President for Information Technology
> and Chief Information Officer of Purdue University.  "That these resources
> - some of the largest in the world - are now available in the State of
> Indiana cannot be ignored."
>
> A Resource for Today  and Tomorrow
>
> "This network will help us illuminate the future - for example by shedding
> light on the causes and cures for disease - and create a stronger economy"
> said Indiana University President Myles Brand, accepting the Governor's
> challenge to the universities to harness this resource.  The opportunities
> that I-Light provides for sharing of information and ideas, combined with
> the talents of the universities' researchers and scientists can lead
> Indiana to discoveries that will change our world.
>
> For further information, contact:
> Brian D. Voss
> Associate Vice President for Telecommunications
> Office of the Vice President for Information Technology
> Indiana University
> 812-855-3931
> bvoss () indiana edu
>
> Jerry Sheehan
> Associate Vice President for Planning and Operations
> Office of the Vice President for Information Technology
> Purdue University
> 765-496-2266
> js () purdue edu
>
> Related Sites:
> www.i-light.iupui.edu
> www.indiana.edu
> www.purdue.edu
> www.internet2.edu
> www.nsf.gov

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