Internet2 announced Tuesday at its Fall Member Meeting in Chicago that the first segment of its next generation network is live.

Earlier this year, Internet2, a consortium of research and higher education bodies working on advanced networking technologies and applications, announced it would be replacing its 7-year-old Abilene network.

The group’s new network is designed to support 10 10Gbps Lambdas. And even though Internet2 just announced its backbone provider in Jun , the first segment is up and running.

Level 3 Communications is the prime network provider for Internet2’s latest backbone, which will be called simply the “Internet2 Network.” Level3 displaces Qwest Communications, which was the primary network supplier to the Abilene network.

As the network is brought up, Abilene traffic will be migrated to the new backbone.

Internet2 also announced that NYSERNet is the first group to use the new network. NYSERNet is a research and education network consortium serving New York State. NYSERNet demonstrated uncompressed high-definition videoconferencing technology at Interent2’s meeting today. This was the first application used over the new network.

Level 3 is deploying Infinera’s Digital Optical Networking gear to support the next generation network. Internet2 is also deploying Ciena CoreDirector Multiservice Switches to support sub-wavelength grooming services. The group also plans to deploy Juniper T640 routers to support IP capabilities.

According to Internet2, the new infrastructure is expected to allow members to “reliably exchange terabyte-scale data in seconds.” At the meeting, Internet2 members are expected to demonstrate a 100Gbps Ethernet transmission.

Internet2’s network is expected to be fully functioning by mid-2007 at which time Abilene will be retired.