• Flexibility -- the 3300 OSM's ability to support CWDM and DWDM is an attractive option for SEEREN2, as CWDM is deployed in phase one and DWDM is an option for future phases.

• Ease of management -- designing, deploying and operating networks with the 3300 OSM is designed to be straightforward.

• Future-proof investment protection -- to address SEEREN2's ongoing needs, the 3300 OSM provides excellent scalability since it interworks with the Meriton 7200 OSP (Optical Switching Platform), which provides 320 G of switching capacity.

• Cost-effective -- the modular architecture of the 3300 OSM aims to provide a low "first in" cost and can expand in a pay-as-you-grow approach.

"Given the strong track record that Meriton Networks has within the research and education community worldwide, we look to benefit greatly from their experience," said Yannis Mitsos, project manager of SEEREN2. "They have shown strong leadership to help in our quest to bridge the digital divide between south-east Europe and the rest of continental Europe."

"We applaud the efforts of the SEEREN2 organization, and are honored to have been selected for this project," said Bill Gartner, chief operating officer of Meriton Networks. "The SEEREN2 network is a critical ingredient to improving the commercial and scientific opportunities that will coincide with membership in the European Union."

In a separate announcement:

Meriton Networks announced that Internet2 has deployed an important new high-speed network link based on Meriton's advanced wavelength networking systems. To fulfill the continually expanding -- and unpredictable -- bandwidth needs of its more than 300 members in the research and education community and to enable increasingly complex and sophisticated communications services, Internet2 needed to add capacity and additional flexibility to enable the best connectivity to its nationwide infrastructure. The new link to the Internet2 network provides strategic connectivity between Internet2's head office in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Level3 Communications Point of Presence in Chicago and the StarLight international exchange point site in Chicago. The installation of this network was a collaborative initiative between Internet2, Meriton, Merit (the research and education network connecting Michigan's public universities) and CANARIE (Canada's advanced Internet development organization).

The link will enable regional and international network connectivity to Internet2's new nationwide backbone infrastructure that is expected to be fully operational on the Level 3 infrastructure in mid-2007. Now Internet2's members can use this connection for current collaborations and projects that are helping to advance the development of new Internet infrastructure and applications. For instance, it will provide critical access between Internet2's headquarters facility and the Hybrid Optical Packet Infrastructure (HOPI) project, a national scale network testbed used by the Internet2 community to investigate next-generation hybrid network architectures. By extending GMPLS capabilities to provide high-speed circuits, the Meriton equipment can provide network researchers participating in the HOPI project the on-demand bandwidth capabilities needed to understand and analyze this new dynamic infrastructure.
    
Internet2 deployed the Meriton 7200 OSP (Optical Switching Platform) because it meets the organization's technical and business requirements. These requirements included:

• Scalable, cost-effective 10 Gb/s transport -- the 7200 OSP is designed for "high value without high costs," and the use of XFP pluggable optics provides an affordable "pay as you grow" approach.

• Multi-degree switching -- the 7200 OSP offers up to 16 degrees of switching. As a result, the 7200 OSP supports ring interconnection and enables the migration to mesh networking.
  

• Future-proof investment protection -- since the 7200 OSP is bit-rate and protocol independent, Internet2 can add new services in the future. With its transparent interfaces, the 7200 OSP claims to be the strongest platform in the industry for interoperability as a result of its ability to transport existing and future protocols across the network.

• Visibility -- the architecture of the 7200 OSP provides performance monitoring statistics at every node in the network, not just the end points.

• Management simplicity -- the network planning and management systems that complement the 7200 OSP are designed to allow networks to be planned, deployed, operated and maintained.

"The Internet2 community requires advanced networking gear that is both economical and flexible, which the Meriton 7200 OSP provides. Meriton's technical roadmap aligns well with the Internet2 community's near-future networking needs for flexible provisioning and enhanced bandwith capabilities," said Steve Cotter, director of network services for Internet2. "With the excellent cooperation of all the organizations involved, the deployment of the network link promises to be a valuable resource for our community as we continue to lead the discovery of new Internet innovations."

"Internet2 is one of the pre-eminent experts in high-speed networking, and we are thrilled to have been selected and deployed for this mission-critical connection," said Bill Gartner, chief operating officer of Meriton Networks. "We look forward to working with Internet2 to offer our unique capabilities to the rest of its research and education membership, and to enabling the fulfillment of Internet2's goal of accelerating the creation of tomorrow's Internet."