Home » CPE, UK partnership provides link to high-speed Internet2 network

CPE, UK partnership provides link to high-speed Internet2 network

Provides a tenfold increase in bandwidth

FRANKFORT, Ky. (May 10, 2016) — The Council on Postsecondary Education (CPE) and the University of Kentucky completed an upgrade of the Kentucky Regional Optical Network (KyRON), a project that provides all public universities with a tenfold increase in high speed access to Internet2, operator of the nation’s largest and fastest, coast-to-coast research and education infrastructure.

The upgrade allows universities that are part of KyRON to transmit very large databases, conduct complex scientific research, and access remote computing systems.

The new 100G connection to the Internet2 network provides a tenfold increase in bandwidth over the existing research network. UK, a founding member of Internet2, is one of a few higher education institutions directly connected to Internet2 backbone at 100G, making it one of the best-connected institutions globally. Research network connectivity at the 100G scale opens the door for a wide range of collaborative Big Data and other science data flows for our research communities.

The KyRON upgrade will provide a transition to improving healthcare partnerships by providing access to national and international healthcare research organizations that will be the innovation engine for future research funding from the National Institute of Health (NIH), resulting in improved state-of the art patient care.

UK provided management of the research network upgrade, while CPE provided funding and statewide coordination of network access.

In addition, KyRON serves as the connector of the Kentucky P-20 education community to Internet2, a research consortium of hundreds of universities, corporations, government agencies and other resources.

Funded by the institutions and the Council on Postsecondary Education, KyRON is an expansion of the already existing Kentucky Postsecondary Education Network (KPEN), the first network to utilize a statewide broadband infrastructure established by Windstream.