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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For more information, contact:
Gary Crane
SURA Director of IT Initiatives
gcrane@sura.org
January 8, 2003
SURA and Major Research Institutions Develop "Cookbook" to Aid Deployment of Optical Networks
SURA (Southeastern Universities Research Association), in collaboration with major universities, research organizations, and networking experts from regional network aggregations, announces the availability of the SURA Optical Networking Cookbook (www.sura.org/opcook). The Cookbook is a practical resource that details the ingredients required for optical networking and offers "recipes" in the form of case studies that illustrate a variety of optical networking implementations. The cookbook draws heavily upon the advanced networking activities of the higher education and research communities and serves as a tool to share knowledge, expertise and best practices gained in advanced networking by R&E, government, and industry. The Cookbook will be a valuable resource for any community or organization that is considering implementation of an optical network, enabling them to advance their network communications capabilities and reach "light-speed" on key aspects of optical networking deployment.
"Optical networking" is a term used to refer to a wide variety of networking features and functions, including new business models that make use of fiber optic cabling as a basic element for improving networking capabilities. Many universities and academic networking organizations are actively exploring and deploying optical networking technology to expand their networks' reach and capacity. Essential topics covered in the Cookbook include an overview of optical networking principles and mechanisms for implementation, a guide to the building of fiber optic cable plant systems and implementation examples including business case development.
The SURA Optical Networking Cookbook is a compelling example of the R&E community working together to devise resources that are tailored for the immediate needs of research and education but broadly applicable outside that community as well. Contributors to the first version include topical experts from universities, regional and national networking initiatives, supercomputing centers, and industry. Contributors are listed within the Cookbook and SURA acknowledges the invaluable contributions of this energetic and community-minded team.
The SURA Optical Networking Cookbook evolved from a NSF-funded workshop on Optical Networking held at MCNC in December 2001 (http://www.sura.org/events/2001/optical.html). This workshop both inspired and enabled the development of the Cookbook through the assembly of experts and recognition of the need for more resources on the topic. The first version of the Cookbook was formally announced at the Internet2 Members' meeting in October (http://www.internet2.edu/activities/html/fall_02.html)
and will be highlighted again at the next Joint Techs meeting in January (http://www.ncne.org/training/techs/2003/0202/jt-miami.html).
SURA and the SURA membership have developed and organized similar, practical tools for assisting the higher education and research community in utilizing emerging technology. SURA supported the initial development of the popular R&E resource for video conferencing over IP, the "Video Conferencing Cookbook", http://www.videnet.gatech.edu/cookbook/. Such tools offer guidance in topics of high interest to the community at times when critical information on a given topic may be unavailable, highly dispersed and difficult to locate, or abundant but not digested in a way that easily enables its deployment. Such tools also provide a viewpoint that is community driven by objective implementation experiences rather than vendor preferences.
About SURA
The Southeastern Universities Research Association (SURA) is a consortium of colleges and universities in the southern United States and the District of Columbia established in 1980 as a nonstock, nonprofit corporation. SURA serves as an entity through which colleges, universities, and other organizations may cooperate with one another and with government in acquiring, developing, and using laboratories and other research facilities and in furthering knowledge and the application of that knowledge in the physical, biological, and other natural sciences and engineering. SURA created and operated SURAnet, one of the preliminary regional networks to interconnect research universities to the Internet in the late 1980's. Today, SURA and its members are active participants in the development of the emerging national optical research infrastructure and continue a leadership role in networking and community-based advancements of academic and research tools. For more information see http://www.sura.org.
Gary Crane
Director, SURA IT Initiatives
gcrane@sura.org
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