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Campus Network

WiscREN

The Wisconsin Research and Education Network, or WiscREN, is the delivery mechanism for Internet2 services at UW-Madison. WiscREN is a cooperative networking effort of UW-Madison, UW-Milwaukee, and WiscNet, who share the costs of providing high-speed research network access to their users. The WiscREN partnership involves hardware, circuits, and participation in regional and national research networks. It makes available a high-speed, high-bandwidth resource to Wisconsin researchers and educators.

News and Updates

Internet2 Detective

Internet2 Detective offers computer users easy access to the status and capabilities of their current network connection by providing information about advanced network capabilities, including connectivity to an Internet2 backbone network, an estimate of available bandwidth and multicast capabilities.

New WiscNet links boost WiscREN

WiscNet has upgraded network hardware at its Madison and Milwaukee Point of Presence (POPs). It has also established its first POP in Chicago to facilitate better connectivity to other networks in the area. OC-12 circuits (622 megabits per second) have been provisioned between Madison-Milwaukee and Madison-Chicago to connect the POPs in those cities. These circuits provide WiscREN with high-speed access to the network resources in those cities.

In Chicago, WiscNet’s connection to the AADS NAP (network access point) has been upgraded to an OC-12. The AADS NAP is an exchange point where many research, education, and commercial networks interconnect. An exchange point allows the connected networks to exchange traffic directly rather than having to transit the networks of other ISPs. The AADS NAP also provides access to the MREN (Metropolitan Research and Education Network) and the StarLight exchanges. MREN interconnects educational and research networks in the Midwest, while StarLight interconnects international research networks.

WiscREN upgrades link to Abilene

WiscREN has become an Abilene connector/GigaPOP. Abilene is one of the two nationwide Internet2 networks that interconnect education and research institutions in the United States. WiscREN installed an OC-12 circuit from the Milwaukee WiscNet POP to Abilene’s Chicago router. Milwaukee was selected, since it is the closest city where Abilene access can be provided.

The UW campuses and most WiscNet members now have direct Internet2 access. WiscREN also maintains a backup connection to Abilene via MREN in Chicago. WiscREN is close to completing a partnership with I-WIRE (Illinois Research/Education fiber project) to establish a one-gigabit-per-second connection from WiscNet’s Chicago POP to the MREN/StarLight exchanges. WiscREN is also pursuing several additional upgrade paths for the future. Most of these efforts revolve around moving away from leased circuits to the use of dark fiber or lambda services.

Future dark fiber links to boost WiscREN backbone capacity

Several options are being investigated that will provide fiber across Wisconsin and to Chicago. These future dark-fiber networks will allow WiscREN to rapidly increase backbone capacity and to provide DWDM (Dense Wave Division Multiplexing) connections to the proposed nationwide DWDM networks.