OARnet among Internet2's "First to 400G"

The Ohio Academic Resources Network (OARnet) is one of the first five Research and Education Networks in the nation to initiate a 400 Gigabit per second (Gbps) connection to the Internet2 Network by the end of 2021, with work due for completion this year.

“Over the last few decades, OARnet has become a national leader in advanced networking,” said Pankaj Shah, executive director of OARnet. “We were on the vanguard of implementing 100 Gbps connectivity and are now an early adopter of 400 Gbps. In addition, we were one of the first states to offer Internet2 connections to the K-12 education community.”

The Internet2 connection offers colleges and universities the ability to easily collaborate with hundreds of other higher education institutions across the country. These collaborations have helped advance the endeavors of Ohio’s research-intensive institutions, which include five R1 and eight R2 universities, as well as entities such as the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

Internet2 recently discussed these upgrades with Shah in a blog post on their website. From Internet2:

Internet2 recently unveiled its fifth-generation backbone, known as the Next Generation Infrastructure (NGI). NGI interconnects with 37 state and regional networks and serves every state in the U.S. Among these 37 are the first five to upgrade to 400 gigabits per second connectivity: Florida LambdaRail, Indiana GigaPOP, Mid-Atlantic Crossroads, Ohio Academic Resources Network, and Utah Education and Telehealth Network. In this “First to 400G” blog series, we spotlight each of these networks and how NGI’s new capabilities and capacity meet the needs of the broader research and education communities.

Read the full piece using the link below.

Read: Q&A with Pankaj Shah: OARnet Among the ‘First to 400G’ on Internet2’s Network