January 13, 2005

UCSD, CENIC Partner On First U.S. Campus Production 10
Gigabit Ethernet Broadband Connection For Research, Education

By Doug Ramsey

The Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC) announced today that the first production 10 gigabit Ethernet campus connection in the United States was installed from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) to CENIC’s high-performance backbone network, CalREN. Upgrading from their one gigabit connection, this new link provides unprecedented wide area network capacity to UCSD’s students, faculty and staff. UCSD chose to pursue this connection as its researchers have extreme needs for ever larger data transfer and more powerful distributed collaboration particularly in the biomedical and ocean sciences.

Now spanning each of California’s 58 counties, CENIC’s CalREN is the nation’s most powerful statewide, education and research-focused network. Serving all educational institutions in California (from K-12 on up), CalREN network connections offer educators and researchers the ability to access and use state-of-the art resources throughout California and the nation. The network enables delivery of advanced curriculum, access to advanced research resources and service to schools regardless of size or location and provides a flexible growth path for continued high-quality, education-focused Internet connectivity. Currently, other major research universities in California are connected at one gigabit.

“UCSD prides itself in offering the best research and education assets to its faculty, staff, and students. Being first with our production 10 Gigabit connection to CENIC’s CalREN backbone network enables our researchers to have the best tools available, right at their desktop,” said Marye Anne Fox, UCSD’s chancellor. “While we have other, faster connections for specialized research projects on campus, the new 10 gigabit Ethernet connection enables every campus member to access the full power of broadband and access the global Internet and Internet2 community at large.”

Other institutions at UCSD that are participating in the high-performance campus network include the San Diego Supercomputer Center and the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology.

“This connection represents both a major milestone for California’s research and education community and a revolutionary model for the rest of the nation. CENIC continues to demonstrate success in building out advanced network capabilities and enabling the best research in the nation,” says Jim Dolgonas, president and chief operating officer of CENIC.

Media Contacts:
Julie Van Fleet, (619) 276-0090 or Doug Ramsey, (858) 822-5825

CENIC is a not-for-profit corporation serving the California Institute of Technology, California State University, Stanford University, University of California, University of Southern California, California Community Colleges and the statewide K-12 school system. CENIC's mission is to facilitate and coordinate the development, deployment and operation of a set of robust multi-tiered advanced network services for this research and education community. More information about CENIC can be found at http://www.cenic.org.

UCSD is a powerful magnet for those seeking a fresh, next-generation approach to education and research. Since its founding four decades ago, UCSD -- one of the ten campuses in the world-renowned University of California system -- has rapidly achieved the status as one of the top institutions in the nation for higher education and research. UCSD’s interdisciplinary ethos and tradition of innovation and risk-taking underlie its research strength and ability to recruit top scholars and students. For more information on UCSD visit http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu.