This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
This project is to renovate the backbone networking infrastructure of NYSERNet, the New York State Education and Research Network. NYSERNet operates a state-wide optical and Internet Protocol (IP) network serving more than thirty research and education institutions in New York State, providing connectivity within the state and to regional, national and international networks. NYSERNet provides a critical component for data-intensive, compute-intensive and collaborative research in the state, and an avenue for distance education, conferencing and related activities. NYSERNet's collocation point in New York City is home to the northeast nodes of Internet2, National Lambda Rail, ESnet and the U.S. Large Hadron Collider Network (USLHCnet), and houses the international Manhattan Landing (MAN LAN) peering fabric. Both the optical and IP layers will be enhanced by: increasing connection capacity in those cities that have limited usable connections; updating the network with new control cards; adding redundant processors to backbone routers; and upgrading the existing GigE backbone to 10GigE between the principal nodes.
The upgraded network will provide enhanced capacity for New York State researchers participating in national and international science research projects that use high-bandwidth network connections to transport the data needed in their research activities. Examples include the analysis of data from the Large Hadron Collider and the use of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory to look for gravity wave signatures from astrophysical events such as the merger of black holes or neutron stars.
NYSERNet members include not only universities but K-12 school districts, museums, and libraries. These use the network for distance education, classroom enrichment, and curriculum development. A majority of the state's K-12 Regional Information Centers participate in NYSERNet and the network supports a distributed distance learning project that links K-12 schools in western and central New York with college and university classes.
