Department of Energy Picks Qwest to Expand Network Connectivity

Qwest Communications International Inc. (www.qwest.com) today announced a new contract to significantly expand network connectivity for several U. S. Department of Energy (DOE) sites in support of the Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) run by the DOE's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Under the contract, Qwest will create a cost-effective, fully managed metropolitan area network that will be large enough to support the vast amount of data generated by DOE researchers.

The network will be 20 gigabits per second (Gbps) (20,000 megabits/sec) Ethernet connections with the capability to expand to over 100 Gbps - roughly equivalent to having each lab exchanging 25 full CDs per second.
ESnet, supported by Qwest, connects scientists at some of the world's most prestigious research facilities located in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The sites include the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center at Stanford University in Menlo Park; the Joint Genome Institute in Walnut Creek; the Lawrence Livermore and Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore; the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley; the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center in Oakland; and two hubs in Sunnyvale.

"As scientists rely increasingly on ESnet for gathering, transferring and analyzing massive amounts of scientific data, this metro area network will provide both higher bandwidth and greater reliability to ensure that researchers have access to the necessary resources," said William Johnston, ESnet program manager at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Qwest already provides access and backbone services for the DOE ESnet, also managed by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. ESnet operates a multi-gigabit backbone network connecting more than 40 DOE research sites around the country.

The ESnet project mission is to help accelerate the pace of progress for the broad scientific research activities within the DOE by providing advanced communications and networking support to the research community. The project focus is to provide high performance and leading-edge capabilities on a cost effective and reliable basis.