Internet2 and Pacific Wave (a project of Pacific Northwest Gigapop and CENIC) are pleased to announce a pilot collaboration that aims to support global science research and scholarship through coordinated infrastructure, service integration, and collaborative outreach. The new Atlantic Pacific Research and Education Exchange (AP-REX) collaboration pilot will include a 100 gigabits per second (Gbps) interconnection between US East and West Coast exchange points to enable a more seamless service integration. Support teams from Internet2 and Pacific Wave will coordinate the operations and collaborative planning of the exchanges.
Pacific Wave operates international exchange points in Los Angeles, California; Sunnyvale, California; and Seattle, Washington. Internet2 operates the MANLAN international exchange point in New York City and the Washington Internet Exchange (WIX) in McClean, Virginia. These five locations are key interconnection points where global research networks from Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, the Pacific Islands, and South America connect to North American networks such as CANARIE in Canada, CUDI in Mexico, ESnet and Internet2 in the US, as well as to each other.
The AP-REX collaboration pilot will include an express 100 Gbps interconnect of Pacific Wave, WIX, and MANLAN on a dedicated optical path from California to Virginia, with backup paths via the Southern and Northern US, creating robust high-capacity interconnection between these five exchange point locations. The new path will interconnect the existing 100+ Gbps connectivity within Pacific Wave and MANLAN/WIX to enable trans-national and trans-continental research traffic bursts. Both the Asia Pacific Ring (APR) and the Advanced North Atlantic (ANA) collaborations, as well as other transit across the US, will be able to take advantage of this new interconnect. The AP-REX collaboration pilot aims to enable global science projects such as the National and Global Research Platforms (NRP and GRP) and the Large Hadron Collider Open Network Environment (LHCONE).
As the AP-REX collaboration pilot evolves, users of the exchange points should expect the Pacific Wave and Internet2 teams to maintain a coordinated view of capabilities and service delivery across this dedicated network fabric. The teams will also seek additional opportunities for automation and simplification of service provisioning. Based upon a review of the AP-REX collaboration pilot’s progress and success, Internet2 and Pacific Wave will seek to engage additional US international networking exchanges.
For more information about the AP-REX collaboration pilot, email AP-REX@internet2.edu or AP-REX@pacificwave.net, and visit Pacific Wave.
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