Ed.—This post is the first in a series on ultra-fast network topics in recognition of the first anniversary of OARnet's 100 Gbps network backbone deployment. For others in this series, follow the 100 Gig tag.
This month, in addition to celebrating the holiday season, the OARnet staff will be marking a signal event in the history of the organization. A year ago, Gov. John Kasich visited our offices to recognize the lighting of Ohio’s statewide 100 Gigabit per second network. The announcement sealed his January State-of-the-State promise to deploy the ultra-fast network by the end of the year.
Initially, recognizing the bleeding-edge nature of 100 Gig networking, we cautioned everyone about expecting quick impact from the upgrade. Now, looking back, we’re pleased to share that we accomplished quite a bit, in spite of the risks.
Since last December, network usage has grown exponentially, both in numbers of clients and bandwidth requested from our clients (click on chart, below). Also, with the huge increase in bandwidth, OARnet and our partners at the Ohio Office of Technology have begun the process of transitioning Ohio state agencies to our backbone, providing taxpayers with significant cost efficiencies.
Several Ohio universities – Ohio State, Case Western and Dayton – have leveraged the higher network speeds to land $2 million in National Science Foundation grant funding that will create specialized science research networks. These networks provide researchers with a safe and resilient network architecture known as the “Science DMZ” – a play on the term “demilitarized zone.” In this scenario, the DMZ will be a sub-network over which researchers at institutions normally protected by firewalls will be able to freely and safely share information with each other.
The ultra-fast network allowed OARnet to establish connections through Michigan’s Merit Network network to finally close the last major ring on the network, allowing us to provide redundant service to Lima and other locations throughout Northwest Ohio. The Michigan connections also helped provide OARnet with redundant peering to OmniPop in Chicago, a fiber-optic network collaboration connecting several Big Ten universities and the University of Chicago (a consortium known as the Committee on Institutional Cooperation or CIC), which connects member institutions to each other and to research “hubs” worldwide with very high-speed connectivity. The Michigan link also helped reduce Internet transit costs by approximately $200,000 each year.
With the 100 Gig backbone in place, we saw renewed interest from NASA and Defense officials in linking OARnet with their respective federal networks, providing academic researchers with a powerful connection to their counterparts at Glenn Research Center and Wright Patterson Air Force Base.
Ohio’s 100 Gbps network also was a significant component of the proposal to the Federal Aviation Administration to establish the Ohio/Indiana Unmanned Aircraft Systems Center & Test Complex as one of six such test sites to be created by the agency some time next year.
OARnet’s 100 Gig backbone played an important role in the $3 million award from Ohio’s Third Frontier Commission’s Innovation Platform Program to support AweSim, the public/private partnership led by the Ohio Supercomputer Center to boost the use of simulation-driven design among small and mid-sized businesses.
In addition to all these key developments, deploying more than 1,500 miles of 100 Gig network backbone dramatically raised Ohio’s profile across the country and around the world. Over the last year, I spoke about this achievement at the invitation of organizations from Washington D.C. to California to Florida. Beyond that, Kent State University colleagues and OARnet engineers have been advising a small Asian country on the architecture and deployment of their first national fiber-optic network, and the lessons we’ve learned during the 100 Gig deployment have figured prominently in those discussions.
The 100 Gig network deployment, which occurred only a short year ago, has reaped numerous benefits for Ohio and OARnet. This upgrade will surely be remembered as a historic event in the national R&E community, leading to many innovations and accomplishments over next few years.
