Internet2 has announced that it has inaugurated traffic on its Next Generation Infrastructure (NGI) optical backbone. NGI is designed to support up to 32 terabits per segment with a new generation of transponders in increments of 400 to 800 Gbps in its optical layer and 8-16 Pbps of port capacity per location via it packet layer. These performance improvement gains are paired with an expected 70% percent power consumption reduction. The NGI also benefits from 12,000 miles of new fiber.
The milestone marks the conclusion of the four-year effort to complete the NGI (see “Internet2 deploys first single-carrier 800G link as network upgrade phase completes”). Partners in the initiative included Cisco, Ciena, Lumen, and technology integrator General Datatech (GDT).
In addition to increased capacity and smaller power requirements, the NGI also offers improved security and more agile network control for the research and education (R&E) community that will leverage it. Researchers and campus administrators are able to build, monitor, and reconfigure their own extended networks from their local compute clusters to the cloud and their global collaborators and providers, says Internet2.
“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.”
“This fifth-generation Internet2 network delivers new services with greatly improved efficiencies that are enabled for both IT administrators and researchers,” added 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.
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