RNP Press Release: RNP Launches the First Brazilian Optical Network This November
Press Release
BRAZIL, 14 November 2005 - Ipê network, RNP's most recent project, is part of a broader plan made by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MCT): the Knowledge Network, which aims at creating a new and strong national infrastructure, formed by a high capacity optical network, high performance computing systems and digital libraries.
Ipê network was projected to meet the technical requisites of advanced applications. Its infrastructure ensures the necessary bandwidth for Internet production traffic, for the use of advanced applications and services, and for experimentation. Its characteristics, both in terms of band capacity and employment of technology, are equivalent to those of the main academic networks in operation nowadays, and they put the country in a privileged position in the international scene.
In October 2005, the gigabit links were installed in ten points of presence of the network. Higher federal institutions, federal research units and agencies from the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Education - besides other public and private education and research institutions in the Northeast, the South, the Southeast and the Midwest of Brazil - will directly benefit from it. In Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Paraná, Bahia, Pernambuco and Ceará, the interstate capacity is of 2.5 Gbps. São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais and Distrito Federal are interconnected by 10 Gbps links. The network will be officially launched on November 16th by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Thus, the aggregated traffic capacity of all the backbone (the sum of the capacities of all the links) reaches around 60.5 Gbps. Ipê network has two international connections of its own, each one having 155 Mbps. One of them is used for Internet production traffic. The other is connected to the Clara Network (Latin American Cooperation on Advanced Networks). Furthermore, Ipê network has more than 1 Gbps of traffic exchange capacity with other public and private commercial networks.
The aim is to expand the multigigabit capacity to all the points of presence by 2007.
Why Ipê?
RNP decided to use a national symbol to represent the new network: the flower of the Ipê. The logo of the network suggests a picture of the flower with three petals, representing a tripod of fundamental ideas for the progress of the country: innovation, research and education. The Ipê is a tree known for the beauty of its flowers and for the strength of its trunk. Similarly, it is expected that the infrastructure of the Brazilian network (the trunk) will be strong enough to ensure to the institutions using RNP's backbone (the branches) whatever is necessary for the development of science and education (the fruits), in an innovating way.
About RNP(R) www.rnp.br
The National Education and Research Network (Rede Nacional de Ensino e Pesquisa – RNP) is the Brazilian infrastructure of advanced network for collaboration and communication in the fields of teaching and research. Besides connecting all federal institutions of higher education and research, this infrastructure provides a testbed for the experimental development of new applications and network services for the benefit of its users.
CONTACT:
Marcus Vinicius Mannarino
Eduardo Viana
Rede Nacional de Ensino e Pesquisa
55 21 2102-9660
<imprensa@rnp.br>
