Missouri University of Science and Technology’s Internet2 network connectivity will soon double. The Great Plains Network (GPN), the Internet2 national research and education network, recently announced it would add a second Gigabit connection.

The connectivity will provide additional capacity for Missouri S&T scientists and researchers to collaborate with colleagues around the world on large-scale scientific projects.

“The GPN community continues to push the envelope as innovators in major scientific research projects like the Large Hadron Collider, the Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory, advanced climate modeling and interactive educational experiences – among many others,” says Bill Mitchell, GPN executive director.”Through our newly enhanced connectivity to the Internet2 Network, we can assure our scientists the bandwidth they need to conduct transformative research.”

The additional connectivity will also allow Missouri S&T to participate in the Internet2 Commercial Peering Service, which provides peering to commodity Internet traffic, and will allow the university to leverage its investment to obtain more cost-effective commodity Internet services.

In February 2010, Internet2 introduced new network connection fee options allowing its network connectors to cost effectively choose a 2x5G or 2x10G connection to the Internet2 Network. This will allow members to more easily take advantage of any combination of network services including IP, Internet2’s dynamic network service called ION or Internet2 CPS.

GPN was the first to sign an agreement with Internet2 to benefit from the new 2010 network fee options, designed to significantly enhance the research and education national infrastructure. GPN was also the very first regional connector to connect to the original Internet2 network, called Abilene, in 1998.

Missouri S&T’s Internet2 connectivity will increase in March.

About the Great Plains Network
The Great Plains Network develops and maintains a high-performance network that meets the needs of the membership’s research community; is a resource for cyberinfrastructure to the membership; and supports multi-institutional, multi-disciplinary research and education initiatives that require advanced cyberinfrastructure. GPN members includes 24 research institutions in nine states and also connects most other higher education institutions, school districts and public libraries in those states to Internet2.

About Internet2
Internet2 is an advanced networking consortium led by the research and education community. An exceptional partnership spanning U.S. and international institutions who are leaders in the worlds of research, academia, industry and government, Internet2 is developing breakthrough cyberinfrastructure technologies that support the most exacting applications of today and spark the most essential innovations of tomorrow. Led by its members and focused on their current and future networking needs since 1996, Internet2 blends its human, IP and optical networks to develop and deploy revolutionary Internet technologies. Activating the same partnerships that produced today’s Internet, our community is forging the Internet of the future. For more information, see http://www.internet2.edu

Contacts
Missouri S&T: Dan Uetrecht, Director of Networks & Computing, uetrecht@mst.edu
Great Plains Network: Bill Mitchell, Executive Director, bill@greatplains.net
Internet2: Lauren Rotman, Lauren@internet2.edu, 202 331 5345