The Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education says they’ve completed installation of a project that will provide all public universities with a tenfold increase in high speed internet access.
CPE partnered with the University of Kentucky on the upgrade that will allow schools on the Kentucky Regional Optical Network a 100-gigabit connection to Internet2, the nation’s largest research and education exchange infrastructure.
“We are very pleased to partner with the University of Kentucky on this cutting-edge initiative. The addition of a 100 gigabit connection to Internet2 will provide a much needed boost to advance research at our universities,” said Council President Bob King.
King says this will allow universities to transmit very large databases, conduct scientific research and access remote computer systems at advanced speeds.
"When Internet2 community leaders like KyRON invest in additional network capacity, it benefits an entire ecosystem of partners; locally, regionally, and nationally. It also enhances the capability to exchange massive data sets associated with advanced education and research,” said Rob Vietzke, vice president of network services, Internet2.
The new 100G connection to the Internet2 network provides a tenfold increase in bandwidth over the existing research network. UK, a founding member of Internet2, is one of a few higher education institutions directly connected to Internet2 backbone at 100G, making it one of the best-connected institutions globally. Research network connectivity at the 100G scale opens the door for a wide range of collaborative Big Data and other science data flows for our research communities.
UK provided management of the upgrade while the CPE provided funding and statewide coordination of network access.
Funded by the institutions and the Council on Postsecondary Education, KyRON is an expansion of the already existing Kentucky Postsecondary Education Network (KPEN), the first network to utilize a statewide broadband infrastructure established by Windstream.
