Loyola University Chicago

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Loyola and Internet2

 

Loyola is now an Internet2 university member, having joined the Internet2 consortium, led by over 200 universities working in partnership with industry and government to develop and deploy advanced network applications and technologies, accelerating the creation of tomorrow's Internet.

To help the university community access Internet2 advanced networking resources, Loyola received a two-year grant of $150,000 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to install a high performance network connection of the university network backbone to Internet2. The University has made a commitment to provide matching funds.

 

The goals of the NSF grant-funded project include:

  • obtain connection of University network backbone to Internet2
  • install network infrastructure in Damen Hall, Lake Shore Campus to support four faculty research projects: one in biology, two in computer science and one in neuroscience.
  • upgrade existing videoconference facilities to support multi-cast videoconferencing.

Information Services is working with the Metropolitan Research and Education Network (MREN) to connect to the Abilene network through the MREN/StarLight GigaPoP facility to get advanced networking resources. Connection to this national Internet2 network will enable Loyola to have data transmission speeds of 1,000 megabits per second.

Information Services will start the project by bringing the MREN GigaPoP connection to Water Tower Campus from its co-location facility which is located nearby on North Michigan Avenue. This will involve installing networking equipment at Water Tower campus and obtaining telecommunications services.

Through an existing advanced networking connection between Water Tower campus and the Lake Shore campus, the University will be able to deliver the Internet2 services to the Lake Shore campus.

At the Lake Shore campus, Information Services will install networking infrastructure to certain areas within Damen Hall, to enable four faculty research projects to access directly the Internet2 Abilene network. These research projects require advanced networking services to conduct real-time collaboration with other research centers and transfers of very large research data files. Future research project may require other advanced networking services, e.g., remote instrumentation.

 

The Abilene is an advanced backbone network that supports the development and deployment of new applications being developed within the Internet2 community. Abilene connects regional network aggregation points, called gigaPoPs, to support the work of Internet2 universities as they develop advanced Internet applications. The MREN/StarLight co-location facility is one of these gigaPoPs.

Loyola will be joining three Jesuit institutions who are Internet2 university members and are now connected to the Internet2 Abilene network: Boston College, Georgetown University and Saint Louis University. Other Jesuit insitutions have connections through participation as Abilene Sponsored Education Group Participants (SEGPs), e.g., Xavier University.

 

Information Services plans to have the connection of the university network backbone to the Internet2 Abilene network in place by March 15, 2003. Both campuses will have access to the Internet2 network. Unless one is planning to use applications that require high performance networking services, e.g., digital video streaming, generally one will not notice any impact on network performance. However, traffic going from Loyola to other Internet2 institutions, e.g., e-mail, will go through the Internet2 network rather than commodity Internet.

The plan calls for connecting one faculty research project to Internet2 by the beginning of the 2003 summer session. The three remaining faculty research projects will be brought online by the end of 2003. The video conference facilities (Science Library, LSC and 25 East Pearson, WTC) will be upgrade during the 2003-2004 academic year to allow for high quality multicast videoconferencing.

 

Faculty are encouraged to consider expanding the scope of their research projects to include advanced networking tools to increased levels of collaboration with other Internet2 institutions and research centers, and to encourage their students to access and use Internet2 technology for their academic research.

The Internet2 Work Group is led by Jack Corliss. You can contact them by e-mail at internet2@luc.edu.