[ CENIC News ] Pepperdine University Joins CalREN High-Performance Network

Mon Sep 10 10:10:00 PDT 2007

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contacts:
Janis Cortese
CENIC
(714) 220-3454
jcortese at cenic.org

Timothy M. Chester
Pepperdine University
(310) 506-8069
tchester at pepperdine.edu

PEPPERDINE UNIVERSITY JOINS CalREN HIGH-PERFORMANCE NETWORK FOR RESEARCH & 
EDUCATION

Cypress, CA -- September 10, 2007 -- The Corporation for Education Network 
Initiatives in California (CENIC) and Pepperdine University today announced 
the connection of
Pepperdine University to the high-performance, fiber-optic based California 
Research & Education Network (CalREN), run by CENIC and one of the most 
advanced such networks
in the world.

With a 50 Mb/s metro Ethernet connection between the university's West LA 
Graduate Campus to CalREN's LA hub site, Pepperdine students, faculty, and 
staff now have the
ability to collaborate with colleagues throughout California and the world 
on cutting-edge research and education projects.  The addition of this 
circuit increases Pepperdine's
overall bandwidth capacity from 45 Mb/s to 95 Mb/s and also provides a 
critical redundant link to the Internet.

"Pepperdine University is well-known for its international programs as well 
as for its undergraduate and graduate programs offered in Malibu and at 
graduate campuses throughout
southern California.  The installation of this circuit at our West LA 
Graduate Campus marks the completion of the first phase of our 
wide-area-network upgrade.  In subsequent
phases, circuits to our graduate campuses will be upgraded, providing in 
some cases a 10x increase in bandwidth.  Our London, UK center is also 
undergoing a network upgrade
through a partnership with Imperial College that will provide access to the 
UK's advanced, high speed network known as JA.NET," said Dr. Timothy M. 
Chester, Chief Information
Officer at Pepperdine.

"We couldn't be happier to see Pepperdine University come on board the 
CalREN network.  The university has a well-deserved reputation for 
excellence, and we're certain that
their students and faculty researchers will benefit tremendously from the 
new connectivity," said CENIC President and CEO Jim Dolgonas.  "With it, 
they can look forward not
only to advances in worldwide collaborative research but also to enhancing 
their students' experience through distance education and rich 
media.  After all, broadband networking
is a basic requirement for education in the 21st century at all levels."

"We will leverage our CalREN and JA.NET connections to implement 
cutting-edge voice and video collaborative technologies between these local 
and international campuses,
including connections to our high-definition distance education classrooms 
that will be completed in Malibu by 2009.  Our partnership with CalREN and 
Imperial College will have
a very significant impact on our faculty's ability to teach and conduct 
research, resulting in enhanced learning experiences for our students," 
noted Dr. Chester.

CalREN  which has been in operation since 1998 and is owned and operated by 
the nonprofit corporation CENIC  consists of 2,500 miles of optical fiber 
spanning the length and
breadth of the state of California, and to which all of California's K-20 
public education connects.  This high-performance network is dedicated to 
research and education only; and
its bandwidth is such that research collaborations previously unthinkable 
are now possible for the California research and education 
community.  Major achievements in the fields
of big science, distance education, and digital media occur every day via 
the CalREN network, thanks to the researchers and educators throughout 
California and the world.

Among the institutions connected to CalREN are:
    * California's Community Colleges
    * California's K-12 System
    * The California Institute of Technology
    * The California State University
    * The Naval Postgraduate School
    * Stanford University
    * The University of California
    * The University of San Diego
    * The University of San Francisco
    * The University of Southern California
Thanks to CalREN, these sites have the capability to engage in research 
that was previously impossible due to the sheer amount of data that would 
have to be exchanged very
rapidly.  Disciplines such as astronomy, oceanography, meteorology, 
physics, and seismic studies, for example, often involve enormously 
expensive and remotely located
observatories that must be operated by collaborative teams distributed all 
over the globe.  These observatories also generally collect vast amounts of 
data that would tax the best
commercial network, creating a bottleneck that hamstrings the science that 
can be done using them.  Via CalREN, such mountaintop and deep-ocean 
observatories can be
reached and reach back to researchers worldwide, allowing for the 
orchestration of complex experiments that can address revolutionary 
research questions in whole new ways.

Education itself in California has also undergone radical changes thanks to 
CalREN, with the creation of international virtual classrooms by faculty 
members throughout the state.
CalREN has enabled students of all ages to experience telepresence and the 
educational and social benefits of working closely together with distant 
experts and students from
varying cultures.  This new educational paradigm delivers increased value 
particularly to remote or rural areas the isolation of which makes such 
possibilities difficult to implement
in person.

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About Pepperdine University
Pepperdine University is an independent, medium-sized university enrolling 
approximately 8,300 students in five colleges and schools. Seaver College, 
the School of Law, the
Graduate School of Education and Psychology, the Graziadio School of 
Business and Management, and the School of Public Policy are located on the 
University's 830-acre
campus overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Malibu.

About CENIC
California's education and research communities leverage their networking 
resources under CENIC, the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in 
California, in order to obtain
cost-effective, high-bandwidth networking to support their missions and 
answer the needs of their faculty, staff, and students. CENIC designs, 
implements, and operates CalREN,
the California Research and Education Network, a high-bandwidth, 
high-capacity Internet network specially designed to meet the unique 
requirements of these communities, and
to which the vast majority of the state's K-20 educational institutions are 
connected. In order to facilitate collaboration in education and research, 
CENIC also provides connectivity
to non-California institutions and industry research organizations with 
which CENIC's Associate researchers and educators are engaged.

CENIC is governed by its member institutions. Representatives from these 
institutions also donate expertise through their participation in various 
councils designed to ensure that
CENIC meets the needs of its constituencies and that the network evolves as 
technology advances.

For more information, please visit http://www.cenic.org/.
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