* Internet2 will use Force10 Networks’ equipment
Internet2 has decided to use Gigabit Ethernet and 10 Gigabit Ethernet switches from Force10 Networks to build its Hybrid Optical and Packet Infrastructure, which is intended as a model for high-performance networks.
HOPI, as the name implies, is supposed to blend packet and optical networks and draw out the best of both technologies. It will support researchers whose goal is to learn from the experience and apply it to next-generation networks.
Internet2 currently uses a high-performance packet-based net, the Abilene Network, as a proving ground for high-bandwidth technologies. That network has a 10G bit/sec backbone that was completed a year ago.
Internet2 describes the plans for HOPI like this:
“The eventual hybrid will require a rich set of wide-area lambdas with IP routers and lambda switches capable of very high capacity and dynamic provisioning, all at the national backbone level. Similarly, we are working now to encourage the creation of RONs (for regional optical networks) by the same consortia that currently operate the gigaPoPs that connect our campuses to Abilene. Finally, the planned hybrid infrastructure will require new forms of campus LANs.”
Force10 says that over the next three months, its equipment will be deployed in HOPI nodes in Seattle, Chicago, New York City, Los Angeles and in Washington D.C. The company’s E-Series switches will provide Gigabit Ethernet connections in those locations, with 10 Gig uplinks to the Abilene Network and the National LambdaRail.
Researchers will be able to use the equipment to experiment with dynamic provisioning of bandwidth, and of course the gear will also support the high speeds that the test network requires.
