PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 1 — The nation's first 100G open, national-scale, software-defined network – built to support advanced services and cloud applications – is now available to spur new waves of innovation in education, research and industry.

Internet2, operator of the nation's fastest, coast-to-coast research and education network, announced today at the Fall 2012 Internet2 Member Meeting in Philadelphia that their new 100G-enabled and 8.8 Terabit per second optical network is operational for member institutions.

"We are excited about officially launching the new capabilities of the nation's first 100G open, national-scale, software-defined network through massive collaboration with our partners in government and business that will be used by Internet2 members to help solve practical, far-reaching problems that benefit society," said Internet2 CEO and President H. David Lambert. "We look forward to seeing the collaboration of our community using this dynamic network to advance education, transform university business models, and accelerate global Big Data collaborative research outcomes. When we equip the research and education community with great technology and no barriers to innovation, that's when they start creating the future."

The new capabilities now available on the Internet2 Network include:

• An upgraded Advanced Layer 3 Service, that will provide extraordinary broadband capabilities for science, medicine and education not only to the higher education community, but also to hundreds of thousands of community anchor institutions through partnerships with regional networks and Internet2's United States Unified Community Anchor Network (U.S. UCAN) project.
• A nationwide 100Gbps Software Defined Network offering both production services like the Layer-2 Open Science, Scholarship and Service Exchange built in partnership with Indiana University and support of new network innovations through software defined networking support.
• Over 8.8 Tbps of optical network capacity through 88, 100 Gbps-waves that are delivered in a unique partnership, between Internet2 and the Department of Energy's Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) that will share this capacity and operations of the infrastructure to advance national programs.

Internet2's members also can leverage the new Internet2 Network to deliver Internet2 NET+ Services and keep pace with the exponential growth in Big Data science being driven by the nation's collaborative researchers in labs and universities. Internet2 NET+ Services currently offers 29 cloud services to college campuses nationwide that are cost-effective, easy to access, simple to administer, and tailored to the unique needs of the research and education community. The new network and cloud services enable transformational new solutions for education delivery and provide better-yielding solutions for university business functions – helping higher education institutions remain competitive nationally and globally.

Working with its regional network partners, Internet2's U.S. UCAN project will utilize the newly upgraded 100G-enabled Internet2 Network to allow advanced networking features for more than 200,000 of the country's community anchor institutions, including libraries, hospitals, K-12 schools, community colleges, and public safety organizations. The network infrastructure will support advanced applications, such as HD and multi-cast video distance learning and telemedicine. The upgraded network was predominately funded through the U.S. Department of Commerce's Broadband Technology Opportunities Program.

About Internet2

Internet2 is a member-owned advanced technology community founded by the nation's leading higher education institutions in 1996. Internet2 provides a collaborative environment for U.S. research and education organizations to solve common technology challenges, and to develop innovative solutions in support of their educational, research, and community service missions. For more information, visit www.internet2.edu.

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Source: Internet2