SAN JOSE and SAN DIEGO, Calif. and CHICAGO -- Calient Networks, a leading global provider of intelligent all-optical switching systems and software, will team with the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology [Cal-(IT)2] and the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) on development of the “OptIPuter,” a powerful distributed cyber-infrastructure project designed to support data-intensive scientific research and collaboration. UIC has awarded a major purchase of all-optical switches to Calient Networks, which will install them at facilities in the United States and the Netherlands.The OptIPuter program is funded by the National Science Foundation. OptIPuter is so named for its use of optical networking, Internet Protocol, as well as computer storage, processing and visualization technologies. It is a “virtual machine” that sits atop a LambdaGrid, an experimental network of optical fiber, where each fiber carries data on multiple wavelengths of light (lambdas) to connect distributed computing resources at speeds equivalent to internal PC bus speeds. Each lambda can transmit data at 1 to 10 Gigabits per second (Gbps), and soon will achieve 40 Gbps and greater speeds."We will be intensely exploring applications of lambda-switching, given the growth and functionality we anticipate over the next few years as part of the OptIPuter initiative," said Cal-(IT)2 Director Larry Smarr, principal investigator on the OptIPuter project and the Harry E. Gruber Professor in Computer Science and Engineering at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) Jacobs School of Engineering. "Calient's DiamondWave platform will enable our OptIPuter vision of a highly flexible, cost-effective and future-proof all-optical core network."Calient switches installed at the StarLight site in Chicago and the NetherLight site in Amsterdam will make those facilities the most advanced 1 Gbps and 10 Gbps switch/router exchanges in the world. “Research and government networks are always the first to deploy the next generation of communications products and lead the way to wide scale commercial deployment,” said Charles Corbalis, president and CEO of Calient. “OptIPuter’s terabit switching demands make it an ideal application to leverage the reliability, transparency and scalability of our all-optical DiamondWave product. We look forward to supporting the continued growth and success of the Optical Networking Grid program.”Calient will also enable UIC’s evaluation of the newly standardized signaling protocol suite, Generalized Multiprotocol Lambda Switching (GMPLS), and its applicability to OptIPuter’s network provisioning, reservation and control systems.Calient Networks Inc.