Abilene Network
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Abilene Network is the U.S. high-performance backbone network created by the Internet2 community.
Over 220 member institutions participate in Abilene, mostly universities with some corporate and affiliate institutions, in all of the US states as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.
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[edit] Overview
When established in 1999, the Abilene network backbone had a capacity of 2.5 Gigabits per second. In 2003 an upgrade to 10 gigabits per second commenced and the completion of this was announced on February 4, 2004.
The name Abilene was chosen because of the network's resemblance, in ambition and scope, to the Abilene railhead in Abilene, Kansas, which in the 1860s represented the frontier of the United States in the context of the nation's railroad infrastructure. One of the project's aims is to achieve 100 megabit connectivity between every node by the end of 2006. In keeping with the railroading analogy, the term National LambdaRail (NLR) is applied to regional optical networks providing OC-192 connectivity in Hybrid Optical and Packet Infrastructure (HOPI) testbeds.
[edit] The Abilene Network's relationship to Internet2
In light of a recent series of lawsuits filed by the Recording Industry Association of America against university students attending several of the major participants in Abilene, there has been a recent trend in the media to report on a network called "Internet2." Some sources go so far as to suggest Internet2 is a network wholly separate from the Internet. This is misleading since Internet2 is in fact a consortium and not a computer network. It is possible that many news sources have adopted the term Internet2 because it seems like a logical name for a next-generation Internet backbone. Articles that reference Internet2 as a network are in fact referring to the previously mentioned network backbone known as the Abilene Network. This forms a high-speed backbone by deploying many of the technologies developed by Internet2. Abilene, although a private network used for education and research, is not entirely an isolated network, since its members usually provide alternative access to many of their resources through the public Internet. Abilene is not technically part of the Internet since it does not peer with the public Internet networks.
The official website of Qwest, one of many major contributors to the Abilene Network, has a good FAQ section that clarifies the distinction between Internet2 and Abilene.[1]
[edit] 2006/2007 Network Upgrade
The Abilene project is supported greatly by Qwest Communications through the use of Qwest's optical fiber networks. Internet2's Abilene transport agreement with Qwest is due to expire in October of 2007.[2]. In March of 2006, Internet2 announced its future upgrade plans and migration to Level 3 Communications. In a departure from the current architecture, Level3 will manage and operate an Infinera Networks based DWDM system that is devoted to Internet2. Internet2 will have control over provisioning and will use the 40 lambda capacity to provide IP backbone connectivity as well as transport for a new SONET-based dynamic provisioning network based on the Ciena Networks CoreDirector platform. The IP network will continue to be based on the Juniper Networks T640 routing platform.
At the completion of the transition from the legacy Abilene network to the new Level3-based infrastructure, the Abilene name will cease to be used in favor of The Internet2 Network.
