Internet2 connects east and west US at 100Gbps

 

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By Simon Aughton

Posted on 14 Jun 2007 at 11:20

Internet2 has connected the east and west coasts of the US via its 100 Gigabit IP network.

In April of this year, Internet2 announced that the first major phase of the deployment was complete, which included nodes in the Northeast and Midwest regions. With today's announcement, Internet2 and its partner Level 3 Communications have now completed deployment of nodes across the northern span of the network including those in Washington DC, Chicago, Kansas City, Salt Lake City and Seattle.

'Today's announcement marks another key milestone in bringing more advanced network technology to the research and education community,' said Steve Cotter, Internet2 director of network services. 'Through collaboration with Level 3, the GRNOC [Global Research Network Operations Center at Indiana University], and the regional network connectors, we have been able to continue to deliver on our aggressive roll out schedule and make the transition to this new backbone seamless for our members.'

The new Internet2 Network will initially provide research and education bodies with 100Gbps of capacity as well as increased bandwidth flexibility. Switching and sub-wavelength services allows customisation of connections from 10Gbps down to 51Mbps to meet institutional networking needs.

Internet2 anticipates several areas that will immediately benefit. Medical researchers will be able to develop and fine tune virtual surgery techniques; musicians can hold multiple high definition videoconferences for international master music classes; and researchers can utilise dedicated circuits for direct short- or long-term connections to supercomputing facilities.

Network researchers will also have dedicated national facilities that will serve as a testing ground for brand new networking architectures.

Users of the network, however, have found a less legitimate use for all that bandwidth - swapping video files. In April 2005 the US movie industry targeted users of i2hub, a p2p application running on an early Internet2 backbone. The recording industry subsequently threatened legal action and i2hub was withdrawn in November 2005.