Abilene Network

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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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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 gigabit connectivity between every node by the end of 2006. In keeping with the railroading analogy, the term LambdaRail is applied to Regional Optical Networks providing OC-192 connectivity in Hybrid Optical and Packet Infrastructure (HOPI) Testbeds.

The Abilene Network's relationship to Internet2

In light of a recent series of lawsuits filed by the RIAA 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.

Future of Abilene

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 somewhere around October of 2007.[1]

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.[2]

Ultimately, Internet2 and National LambdaRail are planning to merge, allowing Internet2's invaluable experience with Abilene to complement more directly NLR's nation-wide optical fiber footprint.[3]

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