SURA IT Initiatives & Strategy: Infrastructure Initiatives: MATP

SURA Joins Mid-Atlantic Terascale Partnership (MATP)

In early January, 2005 SURA executed an agreement to join the Mid-Atlantic Terascale Partnership (MATP). MATP is a consortium of research entities cooperating in the development of high performance network infrastructure and in sharing access rights to the National LambdaRail node in McLean, Virginia . As a member of MATP SURA has full access rights to the northern Virginia NLR Backbone node and is now positioned to provide cutting edge network connectivity in support of Jefferson Lab and the SURA Coastal Ocean Observing and Prediction program (SCOOP). Leveraging the AT&T dark fiber assets between Norfolk and McLean, SURA was able to work with a consortium of Virginia institutions in the Norfolk area (Jefferson Lab, NASA Langley, ODU, W&M, Hampton University) to assist in negotiating a 10Gbps managed service from Verizon that will extend connectivity from the NLR node in McLean to the Norfolk area.