Networking

I-Light Speeds Up Indiana Research with 100Gbps Upgrade

The bandwidth upgrade is expected to have a significant impact for colleges and universities using I-Light.

• By Sri Ravipati
• 05/26/16

Institutions across Indiana will soon experience faster bandwidth, thanks to a new upgrade to the state’s high-speed fiber optic network.

I-Light, Indiana’s research and education telecommunications network, will be increased from 10 Gbps to 100 Gpbs. Nearly every college and university in Indiana connects to I-Light.

"This upgrade is a direct response to the needs of our member institutions, whose researchers must be able to quickly and nimbly share huge data sets over the network,” said Marianne Chitwood, I-Light director, in a prepared statement. “With more bandwidth on the I-Light backbone, there will be faster collaboration between higher education institutions in the state, the nation and the world, enabling more breakthroughs to benefit us all.”

Dave Jent, associate vice president for networks at Indiana University, said that the I-Light upgrade will transform research in Indiana. Data transfers at institutions like Earlham and Argonne National Laboratory previously took about a week to complete. With the new upgrade, they can transfer data in a few hours.

“It’s a similar situation at Wabash. On their current 1G connection, it’s faster for researchers to put the data on tapes and drive it to collaborators at Michigan State University. With the upgrade, the data transfer will get there in a few hours — no driving,” said Jent.