National LambdaRail : About NLR

National LambdaRail (NLR) provides the testbed for advanced research at over 280 universities and private and U.S. government laboratories and advanced programs across the country. Examples include:

NASA uses NLR for high-speed links between its facilities in California, Houston and Maryland and others.
TeraGrid, the world's largest, distributed cyberinfrastructure for scientific research funded by a major grant from the National Science Foundation, uses NLR for major portions of its backbone network.
The U.S. Large Hadron Collider network, funded by the Department of Energy, leverages the NLR platform to connect U.S. institutions to the Collider in Geneva, Switzerland.
NLR enabled the supercomputer Ranger, located at the Texas Advanced Computing Center in Austin, to retrieve and analyze comprehensive U.S. and global data in order to study mutations of the H1N1 virus that could lead to drug resistance.
Schools in Barrow County, Georgia are using NLR to bring top scientists in to the classroom via real-time, high-definition video.
The Iowa Health System peers with NLR at the Starlight facility on Northwestern University's Chicago campus so that its hospitals and clinics in over 70 communities in Iowa, Illinois and Nebraska can securely and reliably connect with data and specialists elsewhere in the U.S. and in other countries.

NLR is the innovation network for research and education. NLR's 12,000 mile, nationwide, advanced optical network infrastructure supports many of the world's most demanding scientific and network research projects.

With no restrictions on usage or bandwidth, NLR is the platform of choice enabling cutting-edge exploration and discovery in the biomedical, engineering, network research, physics and many other disciplines at over 280 leading research institutions and federal agencies. And NLR offers users the choice of Ethernet-, IP- or Lambda-based connectivity and transport services, as well as a complete, global Internet transit solution and highly customized technical support.

With virtually unlimited capacity, speeds of up to 100 Gbps, an existing footprint throughout the U.S. and new links to international organizations, NLR opens up unprecedented opportunities for collaboration, innovation and commercialization among the global research community and between private and public partners.

Valuable asset for researchers and educators across the country

Universities and other institutions may participate in NLR through their association with an NLR member regional optical network. All participants enjoy full access to the NLR network and have total control over how they choose to use the network, whether for advanced, academic research or to support public-private commercialization to help promote job growth and economic revival in their respective geographies.

NLR First's: Innovation Leadership for Research and Education

First high-performance national infrastructure founded by the research and education community
First transcontinental production 10Gbps Ethernet network
First intelligently managed nationwide peering and transit program focused on research applications to improve network performance and reduce costs of Internet services
First national TelePresence network for the research and education community
First Cisco TelePresence Exchange dedicated to research and education.
First international, multi-point TelePresence session over a research and education network
First University-Corporate TelePresence connection over a research and education network

More examples of advanced research and innovation over NLR: NLR Innovation Examples (PDF - 944 KB)

Services: Capable of Meeting the Most Demanding Network, Scientific Research

NLR WaveNet: Lambda-Based Services
Dedicated, point-to-point, high-capacity 10GE or 40GE LAN-PHY or OC-192 network connections, enabling users to control their own end-to-end pathways
NLR FrameNet: Ethernet-Based Services
Shared or dedicated point-to-point or multi-point transport at multi-megabit, 1- and 10GE data rates for high-volume data flows
NLR PacketNet: IP-Based Services
Shared routed service, connects educational institutions with one another, as well as with other networks, such as regional, national and international, IP-based research and education networks
TelePresence: Video-Based Collaboration
Cisco TelePresence over NLR creates a just-like-being-there, in-person meeting experience among geographically dispersed users over the network.
NLR IPTransitNet: A Complete, Global Internet Transit Solution
A quick, efficient and cost-effective Internet access from one of the most advanced networks in the U.S., National LambdaRail (NLR), and NLR's international carrier partner TeliaSonera, Europe's largest IP network with a total, global peering capacity across Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas of nearly 2 terabytes.
Other Services: Co-Location; Cross Connections; Interconnections; Fiber Indefeasible Right to Use; Remote Hands