Louisiana Researchers Connect with 600 Megabit Ethernet Deployment

• By Chris Riedel
• 10/08/08

TW Telecom is helping connect 12 research universities in Louisiana through a 600 megabit Ethernet connection, recently deployed as a part of the Louisiana Optical Network Initiative (LONI).

Through deployments like the latest with TW Telecom, LONI provides infrastructure and bandwidth required by the state's researchers. Additional capacity aids in a variety of data-intensive research applications, such as hurricane modeling, among others.

"The goal of LONI is to support the state's colleges and universities with high quality, secure and reliable Internet connections that support their educational missions," said Lonnie Leger, program director of the LONI network, in a prepared statement. "We needed a network solution that will consistently work in the face of the severe weather we get here in Louisiana. The TW Telecom team worked with us to design a solution that will support our efforts and meet the needs of our member and associate institutions. We are very pleased to be working with TW Telecom."

As an inter-state fiber optic network, connecting research institutions in both Louisiana and Mississippi, LONI has more than 85 teraFLOPS of computing capacity. Universities in Louisiana that are a part of the network include Louisiana State University (LSU), Louisiana Tech University, LSU Health Sciences Centers in New Orleans and Shreveport, Southern University, and Tulane University, among others.