WASHINGTON, Oct. 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Internet2 today
announced a strategic alliance with Cisco to deliver
next-generation capabilities and software solutions across the U.S.
research and education (R&E) infrastructure that enables
scientific collaboration at a global scale. The new agreement
between the two organizations focuses on delivering a national
R&E network with increased capacity incrementing at 400
gigabits per second, on-demand cloud-connectivity, and a reduced
carbon footprint that will remove 6681 metric tons a
year of carbon from the environment. The agreement also includes
collaborative opportunities for Internet2 and Cisco to support
research activities and multi-domain service orchestration with
campus and regional partners.
Cisco's selection was the result of a rigorous proposal process
that was reviewed by networking experts from the Internet2
community and organization, and was part of the Internet2 Next
Generation Infrastructure (NGI) program, which focuses on
supporting the data intensive researcher, enabling campuses to
connect to the cloud, delivering edge-to-edge performance, and
creating a software enabled environment.
"Research and education networks have never been more critical
than they are today, and the selection of Cisco is a very exciting
and critical milestone for the R&E community," said
Howard Pfeffer, President and CEO,
Internet2. "Cisco is supporting the delivery of a software-driven
infrastructure that enables rapid deployment of new services and
tight integration with applications and scientific workflows on the
campus and in the cloud, both of which are essential to our
nation's future. Cisco has also made substantial commitments not
only to Internet2, but to the broader R&E community, by
pledging ecosystem-wide support that helps us bridge campus,
regional, national, and international needs."
Internet2 will deploy Cisco's latest 8200 series routing
platform powered by Cisco Silicon One ASICs, running
IOS® XR7 and Network Services Orchestration (NSO)
software as part of the packet infrastructure upgrade to its
national backbone. With some intercity routes topping 1.2 terabits
per second, Internet2's network infrastructure between the East and
West coasts will feature multiple contiguous routes equipped with
800 gigabits per second of bandwidth. This will provide abundant
headroom to support big data research across disciplines, including
the Large Hadron Collider, infectious disease research among
academic medical centers, and access to global genomics
databases.
"Now more than ever, we believe that technology can be used for
good to build a more inclusive future for us all," said Cisco
Senior Vice President of U.S. Public Sector Nick Michaelides. "Innovation is in Cisco's DNA
and we are proud to stand with and support leading researchers by
providing a technological backbone that will help them connect,
share data, collaborate and accelerate all their great work.
Internet2 members are some of the brightest minds in the world,
working to solve the biggest problems on the planet and we're
honored to help them connect and work together to help build that
more inclusive world we envision."
The upgraded Internet2 network, which connects U.S. universities
and government agencies, and supports community anchor
institutions, will feature software interfaces and orchestration
capabilities that enable an edge-to-edge R&E ecosystem,
ultimately providing a seamless user experience for both
researchers and campus administrators. Programmability for
on-demand, dedicated and secure cloud connectivity is one example
of the NGI capabilities being planned with the end-user in
mind.
Benefit Details
- Cisco 8201 and 8202 routers will be deployed in 48 locations
across the country utilizing between 1 and 4 devices per location.
A typical node which connects national backbone resources with
regional networks has between 24 and 96 400G network access
ports.
- Cisco NSO will become the basis for an extensible network-wide
automation platform that will immediately deliver Internet2
services and can eventually support campus to regional to national
to cloud service orchestration.
- The system will be interconnected using native 400G wavelengths
on Internet2's optical network to deliver Nx400G capacity between
cities.
- A move to segment routing with multiprotocol label switching
(SR-MPLS) and Ethernet virtual private network (EVPN) will allow
researcher applications to eventually claim up to an entire 400G
link for a particular application while other network uses are
dynamically moved to other paths.
- As part of the agreement, Cisco is also offering incentive
programs for regional networks and campuses to adopt similar
technologies for their own network upgrades.
- While delivering 4 to 12 times more capacity across the
national footprint, the new Cisco solution is expected to require
668 metric tons less power and cooling.
About Internet2
Internet2® is a non-profit,
member-driven advanced technology community founded by the nation's
leading higher education institutions in 1996. Internet2 serves 323
U.S. universities, 60 government agencies, 43 regional and state
education networks and through them supports more than 100,000
community anchor institutions, over 1,000 InCommon participants,
and 56 leading corporations working with our community, and 70
national research and education network partners that represent
more than 100 countries.
Internet2 delivers a diverse portfolio of technology solutions
that leverages, integrates, and amplifies the strengths of its
members and helps support their educational, research and community
service missions. Internet2's core infrastructure components
include the nation's largest and fastest research and education
network that was built to deliver advanced, customized
services that are accessed and secured by the community-developed
trust and identity framework.
Internet2 offices are located in Ann
Arbor, Mich.; Denver,
Colo.; Washington, D.C.;
and West Hartford, Conn. For more
information, visit www.internet2.edu or
follow @Internet2 on Twitter.
About Cisco
Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide
leader in technology that powers the Internet. Cisco inspires new
possibilities by reimagining your applications, securing your data,
transforming your infrastructure, and empowering your teams for a
global and inclusive future. Discover more at
newsroom.cisco.com and follow us on Twitter at @Cisco.
Cisco and the Cisco logo are trademarks or registered trademarks
of Cisco and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. A
listing of Cisco's trademarks can be found at
www.cisco.com/go/trademarks.
1 Based on engineering models, the Cisco 8200
routing platform is projected to reduce the total operating power
used by Internet2's packet platform by a minimum of 61%
– calculated to drop from 88,100 watts to 34,125 watts. Taken
annually, the proportional savings in kilowatt hours for direct
power results in 334 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions
avoidance. Factoring in an equivalent amount of cooling, the total
rises to 668 metric tons of carbon dioxide reduction. This is
equivalent to taking 144 cars off the road per year, or
approximately 1.6 million driven miles by an average passenger
vehicle per year, according to the Environmental Protection
Agency's Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator.
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SOURCE Internet2