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Internet2, in collaboration with Edge, recently commissioned a new network site in Newark, New Jersey. This expansion strengthens research and education (R&E) connectivity in the region, which also includes the nearby site at 32 Avenue of the Americas in New York, operated in partnership with NYSERNet. It also enhances access to multiple cloud environments and commercial content providers.
“By working together to launch the Newark site, Edge and Internet2 are enhancing regional access to shared commercial cyberinfrastructure and cloud resources,” said Jim Stankiewicz, associate vice president and principal network architect at Edge. “In addition to providing access to a dense exchange fabric that benefits the entire Internet2 community, Newark’s 165 Halsey location is a rapidly growing hub for artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies, creating new opportunities for research and innovation.”
Faster, Expanded Cloud Connectivity
The new site advances Internet2’s strategy to expand and standardize its cloud connectivity solutions across all seven of its interconnect sites. At the end of the effort, Internet2 Peer Exchange (I2PX), Rapid Private Interconnect (I2RPI), and Cloud Connect (I2CC) services will be ubiquitously available at all interconnect sites. In addition, these sites will support the full range of interconnect speeds, including 10, 100, and 400 Gbps.
These changes support the R&E community in connecting to the cloud faster with shared and dedicated secure, resilient, and abundant capacity.
With the addition of Newark, I2PX, I2RPI, and I2CC are now available at five interconnect locations, also including Ashburn (Virginia), Chicago (Illinois), Dallas (Texas), and San Jose (California). Later this year, Internet2 will perform additional upgrades in the Dallas (Texas), Los Angeles (California), and Seattle (Washington) peering sites to deliver the same standard of connectivity at all seven interconnect sites — including 400G peer-facing connectivity. This supports increasing demands for cloud and AI applications.
Internet2 members continue to use the Internet2 Insight Console to visualize, manage, and troubleshoot their network services, including I2PX, I2RPI, and I2CC.
32 Avenue of the Americas Remains a Strategic Location
The new Newark site supersedes a legacy Internet2 peering location at 111 8th Avenue in New York. That site is being decommissioned following the building’s acquisition by a cloud service provider and an associated forced departure for many tenants from the facility. As a result, Internet2 will be removing all optical transport and peering infrastructure from the 111 8th Avenue site over the next six months.
Internet2 will continue to operate substantial community infrastructure at 32 Avenue of the Americas in New York in collaboration with NYSERNet. This location includes a pair of redundant core network nodes as well as the 400 Gbps-capable Manhattan Landing (MAN LAN) global exchange point. The location is connected by 4 Tbps of combined capacity on five network paths, remaining a critical hub for the R&E community’s regional and international connectivity.
Peering Evolution and Routing Optimization
Collectively, these efforts align with one of the five key objectives of Internet2’s new Trusted Infrastructure Platform initiative. That objective is to drive the community evolution of peering and routing optimization.
“Internet2’s collaboration with Edge to establish a new peering site underscores our commitment to provide high-performance, resilient infrastructure that supports the R&E community’s evolving connectivity needs,” said James Deaton, vice president for network services at Internet2. “As we continue our transition toward a software-enabled future, investments like this enhance peering capabilities and align with our broader efforts to improve routing efficiency and network performance.”
The Trusted Infrastructure Platform initiative builds on the foundation established by the launch of the Internet2 Next Generation Infrastructure (NGI) in 2021. NGI included major upgrades to optical and packet hardware. It also introduced new levels of network automation and orchestration.
In the coming months, Internet2 will share more about the Trusted Infrastructure Platform initiative, including its five key objectives and how the Network Services team is working toward them in 2025 and beyond.