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Abilene Network was the U.S.
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 high-performance backbone network
Backbone network

A backbone network or network backbone is a part of computer network infrastructure that interconnects various pieces of network, providing a path for the exchange of information between different LANs or subnetworks....
 created by the Internet2
Internet2

Internet2 is a non-profit consortiumthat develops and deploys advanced high-performance Computer network applications and technologies for education, research, and the next-generation public Internet....
 community. It is now called Internet2 Network.

One of the project's aims was to achieve 10Gb connectivity between every node
Node (networking)

In communication networks, a node is an active electronic device that is attached to a network, and is capable of sending, receiving, or forwarding information over a communications channel....
 by the end of 2006. Over 220 member institutions participate in Abilene, mostly universities
University

A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education....
 and some corporate and affiliate institutions, in all of the US states as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is a Autonomy Territories of the United States of the United States located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of the Virgin Islands....
.

When it was established in 1999, the network backbone had a capacity of 2.5 Gigabits per second.






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Abilene Network was the U.S.
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 high-performance backbone network
Backbone network

A backbone network or network backbone is a part of computer network infrastructure that interconnects various pieces of network, providing a path for the exchange of information between different LANs or subnetworks....
 created by the Internet2
Internet2

Internet2 is a non-profit consortiumthat develops and deploys advanced high-performance Computer network applications and technologies for education, research, and the next-generation public Internet....
 community. It is now called Internet2 Network.

One of the project's aims was to achieve 10Gb connectivity between every node
Node (networking)

In communication networks, a node is an active electronic device that is attached to a network, and is capable of sending, receiving, or forwarding information over a communications channel....
 by the end of 2006. Over 220 member institutions participate in Abilene, mostly universities
University

A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education....
 and some corporate and affiliate institutions, in all of the US states as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is a Autonomy Territories of the United States of the United States located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of the Virgin Islands....
.

When it was established in 1999, the network backbone had a capacity of 2.5 Gigabits per second. An upgrade to 10 gigabits per second began in 2003 and was completed on February 4, 2004.

The name Abilene was chosen because of the project's resemblance, in ambition and scope, to the Abilene railhead in Abilene
Abilene, Kansas

Abilene is a city in Dickinson County, Kansas, Kansas, United States, 163 miles west of Kansas City, Kansas. In 1900, 3,507 people lived here....
, Kansas
Kansas

The State of Kansas is a Midwestern U.S. state in the Central United States of the United States of America, an area often referred to as the United States "Heartland"....
, which in the 1860s represented the frontier
Frontier

A frontier is a political and geographical term referring to areas near or beyond a Border....
 of the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 for the nation's railroad infrastructure
Infrastructure

Infrastructure can be defined as the basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise , or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function....
. In keeping with this analogy, the term National LambdaRail
National LambdaRail

National LambdaRail is a high-speed national computer network infrastructure in the United States that runs over fiber optics lines, and is the first transcontinental Ethernet network....
 (NLR) is applied to regional optical networks providing OC-192 connectivity in testbed
Testbed

A testbed is a platform for experimentation for large New product development projects. Testbeds allow for rigorous, transparent and replicable testing of scientific theories, computational tools, and other new technologies....
s.

Abilene and Internet2 and the Internet2 Network

The media often incorrectly report about a network called "Internet2
Internet2

Internet2 is a non-profit consortiumthat develops and deploys advanced high-performance Computer network applications and technologies for education, research, and the next-generation public Internet....
", for example about a recent series of lawsuits filed by the Recording Industry Association of America
Recording Industry Association of America

The Recording Industry Association of America is the trade group that represents the recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of a large number of private corporate entities such as record labels and distributors, which the RIAA claims "create, manufacture and/or distribute approximately 90% of all legitimate sound recor...
 against university students attending several of the major participants in Abilene. Some sources even suggest that Internet2 is a network wholly separate from the Internet
Internet

The Internet is a global network of interconnected computers, enabling users to share information along multiple channels. Typically, a computer that connects to the Internet can access information from a vast array of available server and other computers by moving information from them to the computer's local memory....
. This is misleading, since Internet2 is a consortium and not a computer network. It is possible that many news sources adopted the term Internet2 because it seems like a logical name for a next-generation Internet backbone
Internet backbone

The Internet backbone refers to the main Trunking connections of the Internet. It is made up of a large collection of interconnected commercial, government, academic and other high-capacity data routes and core routers that carry data across the countries, continents and oceans of the world....
. Articles that reference Internet2 as a network were in fact referring to the Abilene Network. Internet2 has now adopted the name Internet2 Network
Internet2

Internet2 is a non-profit consortiumthat develops and deploys advanced high-performance Computer network applications and technologies for education, research, and the next-generation public Internet....
 for the upgraded Abilene Network.

Abilene forms a high-speed backbone by deploying many of the technologies developed by Internet2. Abilene is a private network used for education and research, but is not entirely isolated, 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.

The official website of Qwest
Qwest

Qwest Communications is a large telecommunications carrier. Qwest provides local service in 14 western United States states: Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming....
, one of many major contributors to the Abilene Network, has a good .

Operations Center (NOC)

Abilene's NOC
Network Operations Center

A network operations center is one or more locations from which control is exercised over a computer network, television broadcast, or telecommunications network....
 has been hosted at Indiana University
Indiana University

Indiana University, founded in 1820, is a nine-campus university system in the state of Indiana. The IU system includes the following campuses:...
 since its inception. See - "The cross-country backbone is 10 gigabits per second, with the goal of offering 100 megabits per second of connectivity between every Abilene connected desktop."

2006/2007 Upgrade

The Abilene project had been utilizing optical fiber
Optical fiber

An optical fiber is a glass or plastic fiber that carries light along its length. Fiber optics is the overlap of applied science and engineering concerned with the design and application of optical fibers....
 networks donated by Qwest Communications
Qwest

Qwest Communications is a large telecommunications carrier. Qwest provides local service in 14 western United States states: Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming....
. Internet2's Abilene in October 2007. In March 2006, Internet2 announced its upgrade plans and migration to Level 3 Communications
Level 3 Communications

Level 3 Communications is a communications and information services company headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado, USA. It has operating locations throughout the US and Europe....
. Unlike the previous architecture, Level3 manages and operates an Infinera Networks based DWDM system devoted to Internet2. Internet2 has control over provisioning and uses the 40 lambda capacity to provide IP backbone connectivity as well as transport for a new SONET-based dynamic provisioning network based on the Ciena Networks
Ciena Corporation

Ciena Corporation Ciena Corporation is a supplier of communications networking equipment, software and services that support the delivery and transport of voice, video and data services....
 CoreDirector platform. The IP network continues to be based on the Juniper Networks
Juniper Networks

Juniper Networks, Inc. is an information technology and computer networking products multinational company, founded in 1996....
 T640 routing platform.

When the transition to the new Level3-based infrastructure was complete, the name Abilene ceased to be used in favor of The Internet2 Network.

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