WASHINGTON, Jan. 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Internet2 today
announced the completed transition of its research and education
(R&E) network traffic to the fifth-generation backbone that
interconnects with 37 state and regional networks and serves every
state in the U.S. The network serves a critical niche in the
national broadband infrastructure, underpinning high-capacity and
advanced services for the demanding needs of research, education,
and global collaboration.
Known as the Next Generation Infrastructure, or NGI, the
new network's optical layer now supports up to 32 terabits per
segment with a new generation of transponders in increments of
400-800 gigabits per second. NGI's new packet layer provides 8-16
petabits per second of port capacity per location. NGI delivers new
software-driven advanced capabilities while also creating a greener
footprint, with an expected 70 percent reduction in power
consumption achieved through the latest hardware advancements.
"The technological advancements being enabled on the Internet2
network – together with software, tools, and security resources
that have been developed in collaboration with community members –
are providing next-generation capabilities that propel academic and
research collaborations," said Howard
Pfeffer, Internet2 president and CEO. "A comprehensive
upgrade of this scale allows us to support our community's R&E
infrastructure needs now and into the future – from K-12 students
with connected devices, to faculty teaching classes and lab
components, to scientists collaborating with colleagues all over
the country and the world."
Behind those upgraded speeds and feeds – all delivered with a
reduced carbon footprint – is Internet2's next-generation hardware.
That includes 12,000 miles of new single-mode ultra optical fiber
across the U.S., along with power- and space-saving optical and
routing equipment that is the equivalent of going from two (or
more) college dorm refrigerators to a handful of medium pizza boxes
at each site.
Increased Capacity, Simplified Workflows
Research and
education network traffic – which connects K-12 schools, higher
education campuses, government affiliates, and international
partners – has seen exponential growth over the last decade. In
2021, Internet2 moved over two and three-quarters exabytes of data.
For reference, that is equivalent to a video call that is 594,557
years long, or 27.5 million high-definition films.
With Internet2 NGI, the network's increased capacity supports
moving data quickly across the U.S. and globally, and removing
obstacles within R&E networks that slow the progress of
science.
Another driver for the network upgrade is the need to simplify
operations that support scientific research. Today's scientific
collaborations include data movement between campuses, data
repositories, on-premise computing sites, the commercial cloud, and
large scientific instruments distributed around the world.
With Internet2 NGI's software layer, these complexities in
researchers' workflows will be increasingly simplified with
an agile, flexible, and secure networking ecosystem. That
ecosystem empowers researchers and campus administrators to build,
monitor, and change their own extended networks from their local
compute clusters to the cloud and their global collaborators and
providers.
"This fifth-generation Internet2 network delivers new services
with greatly improved efficiencies that are enabled for both IT
administrators and researchers," said Rob
Vietzke, Internet2 vice president for network services. "As
a community, we wanted to ensure that the new network
infrastructure delivered accelerated and better experiences for our
advanced users. The improvements in speeds, capabilities,
security, and resiliency all contribute to realizing faster and
more capable results for scientists and educators.
Delivering NGI During Unprecedented Times
Bringing
Internet2 NGI to life took more than four years of member and
community discussions, technical planning, procurement, and
implementation. During the last 20 months, continuing pandemic
risks added unique challenges to an already complex project as
collaborators moved from the planning phase to active
deployment.
"Community and industry partners, along with Internet2
and GlobalNOC staff displayed extraordinary patience, resilience,
flexibility, and dedication to the R&E mission throughout every
phase of this project, but especially these past 20 months as we
adapted to the challenges of the pandemic," added Vietzke. "For
years to come, we can share stories about how the R&E
community's member-centric services, active coalitions, and
abundant capacity put us in a unique position to fulfill changing
needs during this extraordinary time. Together, we continued
delivering on program objectives at a time when we could not gather
in traditional ways."
These efforts involved dozens of community contributors,
Internet2 staff, GlobalNOC at Indiana
University staff, as well as in collaboration with the teams
at Cisco, Ciena, Lumen, and General Datatech (GDT).
"Ciena and Internet2 have a long history of success in building
network architectures that fuel the next generation of scientific
discovery," said Steve Alexander,
senior vice president and chief technology officer at Ciena. "Years
ago, we teamed up with Internet2 to create America's first 100G
national research and education network and we look forward to
supporting this next phase of their network evolution."
"This initiative is a clear example of Cisco's commitment to
education and our focus on driving industry innovation," added
Renee Patton, Cisco's global
director of education and healthcare. "Our work with Internet2 is a
model for the future of research and education globally. With
innovative approaches such as this, we are working together to
power inclusive exploration and learning for all."
"Lumen has been a key partner to Internet2 for years and
provides the fiber backbone that powers their recent upgrade to
Next Generation Infrastructure," commented Sonia Ramsey, regional vice president of the
Lumen state and local government and education market. "Internet2's
super high speed network is built on the Lumen optical fiber and
colocation infrastructure that quickly and securely connects
important research and development groups and academic institutions
in more than 40 cities. These ultra-fast connections are designed
to increase scientific collaboration among diverse organizations
across the U.S."
About Internet2
Internet2® is a non-profit,
member-driven advanced technology community founded by the nation's
leading higher education institutions in 1996. Internet2 serves 323
U.S. universities, 59 government agencies, 46 regional and state
education networks and through them supports more than 80,000
community anchor institutions, over 1,000 InCommon participants,
and 54 leading corporations working with our community, and 70
national research and education network partners that represent
more than 100 countries.
Internet2 delivers a diverse portfolio of technology solutions
that leverages, integrates, and amplifies the strengths of its
members and helps support their educational, research and community
service missions. Internet2's core infrastructure components
include the nation's largest and fastest research and education
network that was built to deliver advanced, customized services
that are accessed and secured by the community-developed trust and
identity framework.
Internet2 offices are located in Ann
Arbor, Mich.; Denver,
Colo.; Washington, D.C.;
and West Hartford, Conn. For more
information, visit www.internet2.edu or follow @Internet2 on
Twitter.
About GlobalNOC at Indiana
University
The GlobalNOC launched in 1998, at the
dawn of the commercial Internet, with a singular goal: to provide
operations support enabling Internet2 to create a new kind of
network, built by the R&E community to serve the R&E
community. Over time, we grew to support the needs of many network
partners, but remain a nonprofit focused exclusively on research,
education, public-interest networking projects and development of
advanced network services.
About Ciena
Ciena (NYSE: CIEN) is a networking
systems, services and software company. We provide solutions that
help our customers create the Adaptive Network™ in response to the
constantly changing demands of their end-users. By delivering
best-in-class networking technology through high-touch consultative
relationships, we build the world's most agile networks with
automation, openness and scale. For updates on Ciena, follow us on
Twitter @Ciena, LinkedIn, the Ciena Insights blog, or visit
www.ciena.com.
About Cisco
Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide
leader in technology that powers the Internet. Cisco inspires new
possibilities by reimagining your applications, securing your data,
transforming your infrastructure, and empowering your teams for a
global and inclusive future. Discover more on The Network and
follow us on Twitter.
Cisco and the Cisco logo are trademarks or registered trademarks
of Cisco and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. A
listing of Cisco's trademarks can be found at
www.cisco.com/go/trademarks. Third-party trademarks mentioned are
the property of their respective owners. The use of the word
partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and
any other company.
About Lumen
Lumen is guided by our belief that
humanity is at its best when technology advances the way we live
and work. With approximately 450,000 route fiber miles and serving
customers in more than 60 countries, we deliver the fastest, most
secure platform for applications and data to help businesses,
government and communities deliver amazing experiences.
Learn more about the Lumen network, edge cloud, security,
communication and collaboration solutions and our purpose to
further human progress through technology at news.lumen.com/home,
LinkedIn: /lumentechnologies, Twitter: @lumentechco, Facebook:
/lumentechnologies, Instagram: @lumentechnologies and YouTube:
/lumentechnologies. Learn more about Lumen public sector
capabilities on Twitter at @lumengovand on LinkedIn at
@lumenpublicsector.
About GDT
Since 1996, award-winning technology
integration partner GDT has leveraged state-of-the-art facilities,
industry-leading OEM relationships, and a team of IT professionals
unparalleled in the industry to digitally transform the world's
most noted enterprises. From managed services to GovCloud to
collaboration technology and beyond, GDT has the resources and
skill to design and build custom technology solutions to suit
public and private sector organizations of all sizes, as well as
provide the expert services to support them.
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SOURCE Internet2