The goals of the National LambdaRail project were:[1] NLR used fiber-optic lines, and was the first transcontinental 10 Gigabit Ethernet network.

[4][5][6][7] In 2009 National LambdaRail was selected to provide wide-area networking for U.S. laboratories participating in research related to the Large Hadron Collider project, based near Geneva, Switzerland.

[9] Links in the network used dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM), which allows up to 64 individual optical wavelengths to be used (depending on hardware configuration at each end) separated by 100 GHz spacing.

[11][12] In addition to being the first transcontinental, production 10 Gigabit Ethernet network, National LambdaRail was also the first intelligently managed, nationwide peering and transit program focused on research applications.

[19][20][21][22] Members of National LambdaRail are state or regional optical networks, which provide connectivity to the individual universities and laboratories using NLR.