CESNET Raising Interest in Seattle with Unique Photonic Multicast

Experts from the CESNET association demonstrated a unique photonic multicast application at the 8th Annual Global LambdaGrid Workshop, taking place at the beginning of October in Seattle, USA. This demonstration, presented to about one hundred experts from the entire world, received an exceptional response.

Within this demonstration, CESNET sent uncompressed HD (High Definition) video with a bitrate exceeding 1 Gbps from the CESNET2 national research and education network to the StarLight research networks interconnecting node in Chicago, USA. The signal was split in Chicago using a CLM (CzechLight Multicast Switch) device, developed by CESNET researchers, then distributed to Seattle, San Diego and back to the CESNET2 network. This was a unique application of photonic multicast technology in the environment of extensive heterogeneous optical networks (WAN).

The CzechLight Multicast Switch (CLM) 4&strong;4 can be used for the re-configurable multicast of optical signals. With application options including multimedia and monitoring, CLM allows splitting high-speed data flows using purely optical technologies with no delays introduced. This represents a significant advantage in comparison with classic network equipment (switches and routers), usually offering data flow splitting features with limited numbers of splits, ports, and bandwidth and/or introducing non-deterministic delays in the data flows, caused by the inevitable use of opto-electric conversions. CLM is a patent-pending technology.

GLIF (Global Lambda Integrated Facility) is creating a global laboratory for researching optical networks and new applications for them. GLIF is a virtual organization providing a research environment comprising optical connections (lambdas) and nodes called GOLE (GLIF Open Lightpath Exchange). Lambdas are transfer channels using various laser beam wavelengths for parallel signal transfers via optical fibres. Interconnecting lambdas in pass-through nodes create lightpaths between two end users of a network, which is usually used to transfer signals with gigabit or 10-gigabit speeds.

GLIF was founded in 2003. It now interconnects the most important networking workplaces in North America, Europe and Asia. Users include institutions, organizations and consortia running applications with extreme requirements for transfer capacity and other transmission parameters. A typical example would be remote communication with a unique experimental device producing a steady data flow with a volume of several gigabits per second. These devices are now applied in fields such as high-energy physics, astronomy and other natural science domains.

CESNET is a founding member of GLIF, belonging among the top in Europe in this segment. Last September CESNET organized the 7th annual LambdaGrid Workshop in Prague.

More on GLIF: www.glif.is

The CESNET association was founded by universities and the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. The association is currently financed mainly from the resources of the governmental Committee for Research and Education and the resources of the members of the association. The association deals with the research and development of information and communication technologies, building and developing the national gigabit optical network, CESNET2, designed for research and educational purposes. With its research activities and accomplishments, the CESNET association can represent the Czech Republic in the pan-European GÉANT2 network construction project, participating actively in the project implementation.