National LambdaRail (NLR) was a , high-speed national

computer network A computer network is a collection of communicating computers and other devices, such as printers and smart phones. In order to communicate, the computers and devices must be connected by wired media like copper cables, optical fibers, or b ...

owned and operated by the U.S. research and education community. In November 2011, the control of NLR was purchased from its university membership by a billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong. NLR ceased operations in March 2014.

Goals

The goals of the National LambdaRail project were: *Provide infrastructure for multipurpose advanced networking *Allow multiple high-speed networks to be run simultaneously

Description

NLR used

fiber-optic An optical fiber, or optical fibre, is a flexible glass or plastic fiber that can transmit light from one end to the other. Such fibers find wide usage in fiber-optic communications, where they permit transmission over longer distances and at ...

lines, and was the first transcontinental

10 Gigabit Ethernet 10 Gigabit Ethernet (abbreviated 10GE, 10GbE, or 10 GigE) is a group of computer networking technologies for transmitting Ethernet frames at a rate of 10 gigabits per second. It was first defined by the IEEE 802.3ae-2002 standard. Unlik ...

network. Its high capacity (up to 1.6 Tbit/s aggregate), high bitrate (40 Gbit/s as of 2010; 100 Gbit/s as of 2011) and high availability (99.99% or more), enabled National LambdaRail to support demanding research projects. Users included

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

, the

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA ) is an American scientific and regulatory agency charged with Weather forecasting, forecasting weather, monitoring oceanic and atmospheric conditions, Hydrography, charting the seas, ...

Oak Ridge National Laboratory Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is a federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1943, the laboratory is sponsored by the United Sta ...

, and over 280 research universities and other laboratories. In 2009 National LambdaRail was selected to provide wide-area networking for U.S. laboratories participating in research related to the

Large Hadron Collider The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator. It was built by the CERN, European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) between 1998 and 2008, in collaboration with over 10,000 scientists, ...

project, based near

Geneva, Switzerland Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the capital of the Republic and Ca ...

. It was primarily oriented to aid terascale computing efforts and to be used as a network testbed for experimentation with large-scale networks. National LambdaRail was a university-based and -owned initiative, in contrast to a university-corporate sponsorships such as

Abilene Network Abilene Network was a high-performance backbone network created by the Internet2 community in the late 1990s. In 2007 the Abilene Network was retired and the upgraded network became known as the "Internet2 Network". History One of the aims of th ...

and

Internet2 Internet2 is a not-for-profit United States computer network A computer network is a collection of communicating computers and other devices, such as printers and smart phones. In order to communicate, the computers and devices must ...

. National LambdaRail did not impose any acceptable use policies on its users, in contrast to commercial networks. This gave researchers more control to use the network for these research projects. National LambdaRail also supported a production layer, called "PacketNet," on its infrastructure. Links in the network used

dense wavelength-division multiplexing In fiber-optic communications, wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) is a technology which multiplexes a number of optical carrier signals onto a single optical fiber by using different wavelengths (i.e., colors) of laser light. This techniq ...

(DWDM), which allows up to 64 individual optical

wavelength In physics and mathematics, wavelength or spatial period of a wave or periodic function is the distance over which the wave's shape repeats. In other words, it is the distance between consecutive corresponding points of the same ''phase (waves ...

s to be used (depending on hardware configuration at each end) separated by 100 GHz spacing. At present, individual wavelengths are used to carry traditional OC-X (OC3, OC12, OC48 or OC192) time-division multiplexing circuits or

Ethernet Ethernet ( ) is a family of wired computer networking technologies commonly used in local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN) and wide area networks (WAN). It was commercially introduced in 1980 and first standardized in 198 ...

signals for

Gigabit Ethernet In computer networking, Gigabit Ethernet (GbE or 1 GigE) is the term applied to transmitting Ethernet frames at a rate of a gigabit per second. The most popular variant, 1000BASE-T, is defined by the IEEE 802.3ab standard. It came into use in ...

or 10 Gigabit Ethernet. National LambdaRail was founded in 2003, completed its first phase in 2004, and reached fully-operational status on its national, advanced fiber optic network in 2006. In addition to being the first transcontinental, production 10 Gigabit Ethernet network, National LambdaRail was also the first intelligently managed, nationwide peering and transit program focused on research applications. In 2008, a company named Darkstrand purchased capacity on NLR for commercial use. By the end of the year the

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

-based company was having trouble raising funding due to the

Great Recession The Great Recession was a period of market decline in economies around the world that occurred from late 2007 to mid-2009.

. On May 24, 2012 the NLR

network operations center A network operations center (NOC, pronounced like the word ''knock''), also known as a "network management center", is one or more locations from which network monitoring and control, or network management, is exercised over a computer, teleco ...

services were transferred to the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California. In October 2009

Glenn Ricart Glenn Ricart (born August 1, 1949) is a computer scientist. He was influential in the development of the Internet (ARPANET) going back to 1969 and early implementation of the TCP/IP protocol. Since then he has been active in technology and bus ...

was named president and CEO. On September 7, 2010 Ricart announced his resignation. In November 2011 the control of NLR was purchased from its university membership by a billionaire

Patrick Soon-Shiong Patrick Soon-Shiong (born July 29, 1952) is a South African and American businessman, investor, medical researcher, and transplant surgeon. He is the inventor of the drug Abraxane, which is used for lung, breast, and pancreatic cancer. Soon-S ...

for $100M, who indicated his intention to upgrade NLR infrastructure and repurpose portions of it to support an ambitious healthcare project through NantHealth. The upgrade never took place. NLR ceased operations in March 2014.

Member organizations

Members of National LambdaRail are state or regional optical networks, which provide connectivity to the individual universities and laboratories using NLR. NLR has 13 members which enable more than 280 research universities and government laboratories to connect to NLR. The following is a list, from the official National LambdaRail web site , of LambdaRail member organizations. * The Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California *Florida LambdaRail *Front Range GigaPop /

University Corporation for Atmospheric Research The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) is a US nonprofit consortium of more than 100 colleges and universities providing research and training in the atmospheric and related sciences. UCAR manages the National Center for Atmosph ...

*Lonestar Education and Research Network (LEARN) *North Carolina Light Rail *

(ORNL) *

Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education The Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education is the agency of the government of Oklahoma that serves as the governing body of the Oklahoma State System of Higher Education, which is the largest provider of higher education in the state of Ok ...

*Pacific Northwest Gigapop *

Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center The Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC) is a high performance computing and networking center founded in 1986 and one of the original five NSF Supercomputing Centers.

(

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The university is composed of seventeen undergraduate and graduate schools and colle ...

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The institution was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools. In 1912, it became the Carnegie Institu ...

) *

Southeastern Universities Research Association The Southeastern Universities Research Association, Inc. (SURA) is a non-profit association with member universities from the United States and Canada. SURA is focused on advancing science, research, and educational discovery. SURA is the parent ...

*Southern Light Rail *The

Virginia Tech Foundation The Virginia Tech Foundation (VTF) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit nonstock corporation established in 1948 to receive, manage, and disburse private gifts in support of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University programs. The purpose of the fou ...

/Mid Atlantic Terascale Partnership *

University of New Mexico The University of New Mexico (UNM; ) is a public research university in Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States. Founded in 1889 by the New Mexico Territorial Legislature, it is the state's second oldest university, a flagship university in th ...

(on behalf of the State of New Mexico)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:National Lambdarail Academic computer network organizations Internet in the United States Science and technology in the United States