Infinera has announced its partnership in the recently funded “United States Unified Community Anchor Network,” also known as U.S. UCAN. In early July, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) of the U.S. Department of Commerce announced that the U.S. UCAN project has been awarded $62.5 million as part of the federal broadband stimulus program. Infinera was a member of the partner group that submitted this application, and will be providing support to the partnership as part of the matching funds required by the NTIA. The U.S. UCAN partnership is led by Internet2 and National LambdaRail, the nation’s two national research and education networks as well as the Northern Tier Network Consortium (NTNC) and Indiana University.

U.S. UCAN will leverage Infinera's Digital Optical Networks as part of a planned 3.2 Terabit per second network that will eventually support 200,000 community anchor institutions across the country including schools, libraries, community colleges, health centers, and public safety organizations. According to the grant proposal, services that will be enabled by this new network include innovative next-generation capabilities like telemedicine, distance learning, and other services to help rural areas and depressed areas use technology to achieve opportunities on a par with other parts of the country that already benefit from advanced technologies.

In 2006, Internet2 selected the Infinera DTN for its nationwide backbone network to deliver the benefits of Digital Optical Networks to its members. Infinera’s digital technology enables the Infinera network to provide scalability, flexibility, and ease of use. Based on Infinera’s photonic integrated circuits, Infinera DTN networks deliver a minimum of 100 Gb/s of capacity on every route in the network as well as ease of operation and network management, including a powerful GMPLS control plane for enabling intelligent, automated network discovery, service provisioning, and service recovery.

“Internet2 is pleased to extend our long standing partnership with Infinera through their participation in this important national project. Infinera’s innovative technology, excellent reliability, and ease of use will be critical to ensuring the advanced network capabilities promised by this network,” said Rob Vietzke, Internet2 executive director of network services.

In 2008, the NTNC deployed an Infinera network to serve its members, which include universities in nine states from Washington to Illinois. NTNC looks forward to working with Infinera on the U.S. UCAN project.

“Our Infinera network has provided a highly scalable easy to operate network which interoperates well with other university networks based on Infinera, and we are pleased to extend our relationship and partner with Infinera on the important U.S. UCAN project, which will bring greater access to advanced services to many communities in our region,” said Michael Adelaine, president of the Northern Tier Network Consortium.

“We are delighted to partner with the U.S. UCAN team to support the development of this new nationwide network,” commented Infinera Chief Technology Officer Drew Perkins. “Infinera values its close relationships with leading research and education networks as we focus on developing innovative solutions to expand the capabilities and the intelligence of optical networks and meet the ever-growing needs of these important communities.”

The Infinera DTN is the first optical networking system powered by large-scale photonic integrated circuits. Deployed worldwide in long-haul and metro core networks, the Infinera DTN combines high-capacity DWDM transport, integrated digital bandwidth management, and GMPLS-powered service intelligence in a single platform.