December 2020 NGI Update: Optical and Packet Migration Progress

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

By Chris Wilkinson, Internet2 Director of Network Planning and Architecture, and Scott Taylor, Packet Platform Implementation Director

Internet2 Optical Update:

As 2020 comes to an end, the NGI optical upgrade is completing its flex grid line system from the east to the west coasts through the Great Plains. When complete, the community will have a leading 800G+ capable flex grid system that has transitioned onto new fibers in much of the country. The program has been gathering speed as the joint Ciena, Internet2, and Lumen project team gains experience making the complex transition of live traffic from the legacy platform to the new system. Work has completed successfully in the midwest, northeast, and Great Plains; the northwest is our current focus through the end of the year. Additionally, time is being taken to optimize for delivery of the capacity that will support the new 400G packet platform and other community demands. With accelerating and solid progress as 2020 comes to an end, we expect to complete the key optical flex-grid deployment through the southwest, Texas, and southeast by the end of February.

For more information contact Chris Wilkinson at networkdevelopment@internet2.edu

Internet2 Packet Update:

Building on the progress made on the NGI optical upgrade, we are also pivoting from planning activities to active deployment of the NGI packet platform. The deployment includes massive 100G and 400G capabilities in 48 locations throughout the country with over 80 new Cisco 8200 routers being deployed. While there are still plenty of the fine details to work through, the high-level planning is significantly complete. Our installation partner, GDT, has begun to stage equipment and is preparing for deployment. The current plan is to have four cohort teams working across the country beginning in January 2021, with installation, cabling and “ready for testing” completed at the end of March. That schedule allows testing and interconnection with the current backbone and network connectors in April and migrations in May through July.

For more information contact Scott Taylor at networkdevelopment@internet2.edu