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 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.
