Estimated reading time: 9 minutes
As the research and education (R&E) community heads into the fall semester, Internet2 is advancing several efforts through the Trusted Infrastructure Program to evolve the national network and meet emerging requirements. That includes increasing capacity and resilience through the Internet2 Packet Platform refresh, preparing for precision timing and quantum networking, and supporting global research collaboration through our participation in the Global Network Advancement Group (GNA-G).
Every one of these efforts moves forward because both Internet2 and the R&E community work to solve challenges together instead of each going it alone. That’s the thread connecting all of it, and it’s the part of this work we find most exciting.
Here are four updates on what’s taking shape and what these infrastructure initiatives mean for the community.
Summary
Community Panel Reviewing Vendor Proposals
In June, we released a request for proposals for the next-generation Internet2 Packet Platform, centered on three core capabilities: 800 Gbps Ethernet for high-density capacity, Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) for line-rate encryption, and a highly scalable control plane to support traffic engineering and Ethernet VPN (EVPN).
Internet2 has run its Packet Platform acquisitions as a community process for the last few cycles. The Community Packet Refresh Panel, with representatives from Florida LambdaRail (FLR), KanREN, Link Oregon, Mid-Atlantic Crossroads (MAX), OneNet, OSHEAN, and the University of Nebraska, has been instrumental in shaping the RFP itself. Several panel members have gone through their own RFPs recently, and that experience gave us a jumpstart.
The panel is on track to provide final feedback and a recommendation this month. Internet2 is targeting a Packet Platform equipment decision by the end of the third quarter and deployment beginning in the fourth quarter, supply chain permitting.
Timeline at a Glance
All dates are 2026 unless noted
- June: RFP released to select vendors
- July: Vendor Q&A Complete, RFP Responses Received
- August: Release of Panel Report *
- September: Best-and-Final Process, Internal Review *
- October: Contracting and PO Issuance *
- December: First Native 800 Gbps Node Installed **
- 2027: Node Deployment Complete **
- 2028: 800 Gbps Backbone Deployment Complete **
* Target dates, approximate
** Highly dependent on hardware availability
Sizing the Platform for the Next Five to Seven Years
To provide the capacity the Internet2 community needs for the next five to seven years, the refresh will enable native 800 Gbps backbone circuits. It’s a substantial increase over the 400 Gbps technology underpinning the current platform. The upgrade is driven by what we’re seeing on the network: several segments, including the backbones connecting Kansas City <> Chicago <> Ashburn, are already running at roughly half of their 400 Gbps capacity.
We’re also designing for how community needs are evolving, even as this process has moved forward. Precision timing has emerged as a major point of interest, while latency-sensitive research and video applications are driving demand for dynamic bandwidth allocation and software-defined provisioning. These capabilities are factoring into the final decision.
Community Value Beyond the Internet2 Network
One thing worth calling out: agreements like the one underway for the Packet Platform refresh have historically delivered value well beyond the Internet2 network. Our current platform agreement has helped regional and state R&E networks and university members adopt the same hardware and software we run, with the vendor estimating tens of millions of dollars in community savings. We intend to carry that same community-wide purchasing leverage into the next vendor selection.
Update #2: Precision Timing Initiative Takes Shape
Why Precision Timing Matters More Than You Might Expect
Precision timing touches more of the network than people might expect. Distributed scientific instruments, quantum networking, 5G-adjacent applications, financial-grade timestamping, power grid monitoring, and high-performance computing all depend on synchronization that goes beyond what the typical GPS-disciplined Network Time Protocol (NTP) service can reliably provide.
Today, timing distribution across the R&E community is fragmented and largely dependent on GPS and commodity internet paths, both of which carry real accuracy and resilience limitations. GPS and other global navigation satellite system signals are also vulnerable to jamming and interference, which is part of why federal policy has started paying closer attention to how critical infrastructure sources its timing. All of this underscores the need for more resilient approaches to inter-domain precision time synchronization across R&E network infrastructure.
New Time and Frequency Working Group
That’s the gap the new Internet2 Time and Frequency Working Group is forming to address. Participation is open to anyone across the R&E timing ecosystem, including Internet2 members, regional and state R&E networks, research institutions, and federal collaborators. Over its first year, the group plans to focus on four areas:
- Community NTP: Develop a disciplined, traceable framework for a community NTP service.
- Precision Time Protocol (PTP): Develop a framework covering Grandmaster and boundary clock strategies.
- White Rabbit: Develop a framework informed by community proof-of-concept work, including at SCinet and MCNC.
- Future High-Precision Timing: Develop a longer-range roadmap for the very high-precision timing that quantum networking and other advanced science will eventually require.
Internet2 Grandmaster Clock Project
Internet2 is also pursuing its own piece of this directly. We’re sponsoring a project to establish White Rabbit-linked Grandmaster clocks at two geographically dispersed Internet2 network locations, each with a direct fiber connection to primary frequency standards, independent of GPS entirely. Once in place, these clocks will distribute precision time to Internet2’s network infrastructure and ultimately to member institutions, providing each institution access to GPS-independent time sources to augment its own timing infrastructure.
Our engineering team also has a proof-of-concept underway on the current Internet2 backbone routers, testing synchronous Ethernet and PTP synchronization across a multi-hop path. The goal is to build the configuration templates we’ll need for a wider rollout once the new platform is in place.
Update #3: Quantum Networking Shifts From Demo to Deployment
Building on the Experience with Quantum Technologies
In April, Internet2 collaborated with Ciena and Purism to demonstrate PQC for data in transit. The team achieved a FIPS 203-compliant, quantum-safe encryption and key exchange test across 1,390 miles of the Internet2 backbone between Las Vegas and Albuquerque, run at 10 Gbps line rate with an architecture designed to scale to 100 to 400 Gbps.
The urgency behind that work has continued to build with the release of a June 2026 executive order. Internet2 is now moving from demonstration to developing a solution for PQC data-in-transit, informed by ongoing conversations with community and quantum industry leaders.
Early QKD Testbed Work Begins
That urgency is also pushing us to look past PQC on its own. Encrypted traffic captured today could still be decrypted years from now once a sufficiently capable quantum computer exists, so protecting the network’s most sensitive, longest-lived research data means layering more than one kind of defense. We’re exploring what it would take to add Quantum Key Distribution (QKD). This complementary approach relies on the physical behavior of light rather than computational difficulty and could be used to protect our highest-value paths alongside the PQC work already underway.
It’s early. We’re exploring the concept and have early testbed design activity underway with a small group of collaborators to validate how this could work in practice.
Update #4: Global R&E Network Coordination Gains Momentum
A Look Back at One Year on the GNA-G Leadership Team
It’s been just over a year since the new GNA-G Leadership Team began our four-year terms, with Internet2 represented alongside colleagues from ESnet, KAUST, NII, PSNC, RNP, and SANReN. GNA-G brings together the people and networks responsible for the shared infrastructure that data-intensive international collaboration depends on.
A key takeaway from the leadership team’s in-person meeting at TNC in June was that trusted relationships are at the center of GNA-G’s value. When a problem spans multiple networks with many stakeholders, or a new use case shows up that no single network has solved before, those relationships make it possible to connect directly with the right people across continents and solve it together.
Most of what we’re solving for on the Internet2 network — capacity, security, and automation, for example — are things our international collaborators are solving for, too. GNA-G is where we get to do that work together with the global community, helping ensure Internet2 members benefit from what R&E networks are learning and building around the world.
More Takeaways from the GNA-G Meeting at TNC
Quantum networking, time and frequency distribution, IPv6-only deployment, and AI in network operations also came up as areas where national R&E networks are experimenting in parallel without shared visibility. These are good examples of the gap GNA-G’s dozen-plus working groups exist to close. Domestically, that same instinct is what drives our participation in the North America – Research and Education Exchange (NA-REX) and the NSF-funded NEA3R; it’s the throughline connecting our North American and broader international work.
The GNA-G Leadership Team also recognizes there’s still work to do. The ambitious vision for global R&E networking laid out in a 2017 architecture document remains a work in progress. GNA-G representation remains concentrated in some regions, and the community’s talent pipeline needs attention. Recognizing those gaps and continuing to build the relationships needed to address them is a start.
A Foundation for the R&E Ecosystem
The Internet2 national backbone remains a foundational community resource; it’s one layer of a much larger R&E ecosystem spanning campuses, research facilities, regional and state R&E networks, international collaborations, and industry. Together, we’re moving data of every kind seamlessly, from a campus to a collaborator across the country or across an ocean. We’re doing so with the transparency, resilience, and trusted performance that define R&E networks. That’s why Internet2 continues to work directly with the community to maximize the value of these investments and guide the future of our services.
Continue the Conversation at TechEX26