Nortel Networks Donates Optical Network to WNCG

WNCG's Network Engineering Laboratory (NEL) received a $4 Million donation of a complete state-of-the-art OPtera optical network from Nortel Networks during the 2004 fall semester. The donation spans the entire spectrum of SONET networking devices from DS-1 and DS-3 tributary access devices aggregated via OC-3 to OC-12 and OC-48 transport systems, through OC-192 high capacity multiplexors. The donation also includes the Preside Network Management system and essential diagnostic, test, and maintenance equipment.

WNCG professor Bill Bard plans to integrate Nortel's optical network with existing NEL infrastructure, for both classroom instruction and research projects. From an instructional perspective, the optical network is particularly attractive as it illustrates the engineering principles behind today's wide area networking technology, permits students to actually design and implement operational end-to-end systems. Similarly, network researchers are able to avail themselves of a fully operational wide area optical network that can be configured as needed for quality of service or network performance experiments.