Teleglobe to Provide Connectivity for GigaPort's Next Gen Internet

📅 August 1, 2001 - Teleglobe (teleglobe.com), a global communications and hosting company, yesterday announced an agreement with GigaPort(gigaport.nl), the Dutch next generation Internet project, to provide Internet connectivity and linkage to the world's major research and education networks.

The network of GigaPort was built by Surfnet (surfnet.nl), the organizationresponsible for the Netherlands' national computer network for highereducation and research, and was recently launched. Teleglobe also will furnish a transatlantic fiber optic wavelength (litfiber) connection for GigaPort's research use in developing the nextgeneration Internet.
The next generation Internet will have the infrastructure to supportadvanced applications for learning and research, such as interconnectingsupercomputer centers and enabling collaborative research that requiresreal-time multimedia and high bandwidth connections.
The 18-month agreement is worth an estimated U.S. $5 million. Teleglobe will provide Internet connectivity for GigaPort, a joint projectof the Dutch government, trade and industry and educational and researchinstitutions, providing GigaPort with an initial speed of 1Gbps from theGigaPort backbone location at Hempoint in Amsterdam.
In addition, Teleglobe will connect the GigaPort backbone location at theAmsterdam Internet Exchange with the StarLight Optical Internet Exchange inChicago via a 2.5 Gbps optical connection.
Starlight is the successor of the United States-based Science, Technologyand Research Transit Access Point (STAR TAP) and is becoming the commoninterconnection point for global research and education networkscollaborating on and developing new Internet technology including wavelengthswitching and the development of the "Grid" which some scientists see as thesuccessor to the worldwide web.
To meet GigaPort's requirements for connectivity to North American researchand education networks such as Abilene, vBNS, Canarie and Esnet, Teleglobewill implement a network design using 622 Mbps Multi-Protocol LabelSwitching (MPLS) end-to-end tunnels through the Teleglobe GlobeSystemnetwork.
Last month, Teleglobe became the first ISP with the capability to offer newglobal IP services seamlessly over an MPLS Packet over Sonet (PoS)infrastructure.
The GigaPort network will replace the country's existing national researchinfrastructure and is designed to develop a leading position for theNetherlands as a center for electronic communications in terms of networkinfrastructure and associated expertise, as well as services andapplications.
"The Netherlands is a European center of excellence for IP knowledge. Ourresearch and education network members throughout the country participate inthe important development and testing work that will define the newtechnologies and applications for Internet2, the next generation Internet,"said SURFnet's CEO and director of GigaPort-Netwerk Kees Neggers.
Teleglobe was a participant in the early experiments involving the UnitedStates, Canadian and European research and education networks that led tothe creation of STAR TAP with the University of Chicago. Teleglobedeveloped a managed router service for the provision of cost-effectiveconnectivity between research and education networks, while providing accessto the global Internet at the same time.
GigaPort has two major parts: GigaPort Network and GigaPort Applications.The GigaPort network will replace the country's existing national researchinfrastructure to allow access to next generation Internet services andfeatures, global collaboration with other research and education networksand a state-of-the-art testing environment for developing and usingadvanced, innovative technology.