14 DAY TRIAL // The Internet2 Group just announced that they have fully developed a 100Gb ring that connects New York with Washington DC. They've also stated that NYSERNet, the research and education network consortium of New York State has become the first regional network to connect to the new network infrastructure. Tim Lance, president and CEO of NYSERNet, held the presentation via an uncompressed high-definition broadcast in order to give it a first try.
"The Internet2 community today celebrates both its 10-year history and an important moment in our future. The advanced network our community is creating through collaboration and partnership will serve as a new and even greater platform for discovery, learning and understanding," said Douglas Van Houweling, Internet2 president and CEO.
June 2006 was the date announced for the first hardware deployment regarding Infinera-built Digital Optical Networking equipment and Core Director Multiservice Switches from Ciena. Along with Juniper's T640 routers, all the above systems form the base of the 100Gb network.
About the new network, Steve Cotter from Internet2 said: "With the latest advances in semiconductor devices like field-programmable gate arrays, we might see supercomputers connected at 100 GbE using 10 parallel 10 Gb/s circuits in the not-so-distant future. The community control, reliability and flexibility of the new Internet2 network makes it ideal for testing and developing these kinds of new networking technologies."
The Internet2 Group was formed in October 1996 and now includes more than 200 universities throughout USA, along with more than 70 corporations, 45 government agencies and some 50 international partners. The name "Internet2", although it can be translated into a next-generation Internet technology, actually means that Internet2 is an academia-exclusive technology that will remain a closed system, not available for the masses.