Alcatel Press Release: Alcatel Selected by DANTE to Build GÉANT2, Pan-European Leading Research Network
Press Release
14 June 2005 - Alcatel (Paris: CGEP.PA and NYSE: ALA) today announced that it has been selected by DANTE (Delivery of Advanced Network Technology to Europe Ltd) – a data infrastructure operator – to deploy a multiservice network to connect major European research centers in the framework of the GÉANT2 (European Research and Education Internet) project.
The project GÉANT2 will be launched on June 14th and 15th at the Abbaye de Neumünster in the city of Luxembourg in presence of senior representatives of the European and global research community, politicians, users of research and education networking as well as infrastructure and equipment suppliers.
GÉANT is the leading pan-European communications network for research and education offering high-performance services to scientists. The GÉANT2 project will further facilitate networking services for researchers by enabling new applications which range from physics to biotechnologies. Deploying Alcatel’s advanced data aware optical switching and WDM technologies, the network will connect thirty-four countries worldwide, including major European sites in the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, France, Spain, Denmark, Austria, Italy, Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia, Poland, Ireland, Portugal and Greece.
Alcatel’s intelligent solution will enable the transformation of GÉANT’s current infrastructure to a converged optical and IP network over a single platform. The addition of a new optical Ethernet network layer will provide direct optical connectivity to the existing IP network and will enhance service performances to support the increasing demand for broadband IP applications in the research and education domain. Supporting a distributed optical GMPLS-based control plane, the Alcatel solution will also offer highly reliable network protection and fast re-routing of traffic in failure conditions, essential for sensitive or research-critical data.
"We were impressed by the technical proposal offered by Alcatel, their commitment to meet our advanced requirements and the quality of the team that they had assembled for the GEANT 2 proposal”, said Dai Davies, general manager at DANTE. “They offered us a cost-effective and technically advanced set of products with a strong and well defined development path to ensure that the GEANT 2 network would remain a network with high level of technical and service innovation.”
“The Alcatel solution will help gradually migrate the GÉANT network to new services while leveraging the existing infrastructure, and ensure a high performance network with a long operational lifetime,“ said Romano Valussi, President of Alcatel’s optical networking activities. “Alcatel’s optical technologies will offer substantial benefits including powerful information sharing to maximize researcher inter-exchanges and the flexibility to easily provide bandwidth where and when needed.”
Managed by the Alcatel 1350 management suite, the new research network will deploy the Alcatel 1626 Light Manager (LM) DWDM platform for ultra long-haul applications and the 1678 Metro Core Connect (MCC), which converges optical transport and switching over a single future-proof optical platform.
About DANTE:
DANTE is a non-profit organisation whose primary mission is to plan, build and manage research and education networks on behalf of Europe’s National Research and Education Networks. Established in 1993, DANTE has been fundamental to the success of pan-European research and education networking. DANTE is currently building GÉANT2, which will upgrade the GÉANT network and will continue to provide the data communications infrastructure essential to the success of many research projects in Europe. DANTE is involved in initiatives worldwide to interconnect countries in other regions to one another and to GÉANT2. DANTE is currently managing initiatives focused on the Mediterranean, Latin American and Asia-Pacific regions through the EUMEDCONNECT, ALICE and TEIN2 projects respectively. For more information please visit: www.dante.net
About GEANT2:
GÉANT2 delivers the next generation research and education network for Europe. With over 3 million users in 34 countries across the continent, GÉANT2 offers unrivalled geographical coverage, high bandwidth, innovative hybrid networking technology and a range of user-focused services. Its extensive geographical reach interconnects with other world regions, enabling global research collaboration.GÉANT2’s comprehensive programme of research and service development keeps Europe at the forefront of global research. GÉANT2 is co-funded by the European Commission under the Sixth Research and Development Framework Programme. The project partners are 32 European National Research and Education Networks (NRENs), TERENA and DANTE. It is co-ordinated by DANTE, the research networking organisation that plans, manages and builds research networks all over the world. For more information please visit: www.geant2.net
About Alcatel:
Alcatel provides communications solutions to telecommunication carriers, Internet service providers and enterprises for delivery of voice, data and video applications to their customers or employees. Alcatel brings its leading position in fixed and mobile broadband networks; applications and services, to help its partners and customers build a user-centric broadband world. With sales of EURO 12.3 billion in 2004, Alcatel operates in more than 130 countries.
For more information, visit Alcatel on the Internet: http://www.alcatel.com
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Alcatel Investor Relations
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