April 23, 2002--Internet2 today announced that it will deploy Juniper Networks' new T640 Internet Routing Nodes for the next generation of the Abilene backbone network. The nationwide upgrade will quadruple Abilene's capacity to 10 Gbits/sec and natively deploy the next-generation Internet protocol, IPv6, using Qwest Communications' nationwide network infrastructure.
Scientists, teachers, and students at more than 200 Internet2 member universities and research centers currently use Abilene to create and test advanced network applications that do not work well or at all using the commercial Internet. Abilene enables applications such as uncompressed HDTV-quality video, remote control of scientific instruments such as mountaintop telescopes and electron microscopes, collaboration using immersive virtual reality, and grid computing.
Abilene will deploy eleven T640 Internet Routing Nodes. The routing platform upgrade to Abilene is scheduled to be complete by late fall 2002.
Led by over 190 U.S. universities, working with industry and government, Internet2 is developing and deploying advanced network applications and technologies for research and higher education, accelerating the creation of tomorrow's Internet. For more information about Internet2, go to http://www.internet2.edu/.
Abilene, developed in partnership with Qwest Communications, Cisco Systems, Juniper Networks, Nortel Networks, and Indiana University, is an Internet2 backbone network providing nationwide high-performance networking capabilities for over 200 universities and research facilities in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. For more information on Abilene, go to http://www.internet2.edu/abilene/.