RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C., Sept. 13 -- Spirent Communications, a wholly-owned business group of Spirent plc., was joined by industry, government and higher education officials at North Carolina State University's Centennial Campus for the opening of the Centaur Lab, an advanced networking laboratory. The lab will provide an opportunity for multiple private companies to work on projects and conduct research at the same time. It will also give the students and researchers at NC State immediate access to both the vendors and the lab's powerful equipment.
The new 2,300 square foot facility is a collaborative effort of Spirent Communications, NC State, the North Carolina Networking Initiative and Internet2. Spirent provided the space and much of the equipment for the lab. At least 10 other major networking companies also contributed to the $4.5 million project. The lab will serve as the new home of the North Carolina Internet2 Technology Evaluation Center (NC-ITEC), a project under the NCNI umbrella, which provides testing and evaluation in support of the Internet2 Abilene backbone.