10-fold Connectivity Increase to Enhance Research and Business

MELBOURNE, FLA.—The Florida Institute of Technology campus network was recently upgraded from 1Gb/s, or 1 gigabyte per second, to 10Gb/s, allowing for the network to move data 10 times faster. The upgrade is intended to improve bandwidth capabilities for both research and business activities.

“The 10-fold increase will provide for the growing needs of sharing and accessing the large volumes of data needed for video, computational graphics, high performance computing and cloud resources,” said Eric Kledzik, Chief Information Officer and director of Information Technology (IT). “Researchers applying for grants will be able to report on the availability of superior network resources.”

Florida Tech’s primary wide area network is connected to the Florida Lambda Rail (FLR), which also supplies high speed connectivity to Internet2, the National Lambda Rail (NLR) initiative, a high-speed research network for research universities and technology companies, and other Florida-based universities that are part of the consortium. According to a written statement, the initiative “provides opportunities for Florida university faculty members, researchers, and students to collaborate with colleagues around the world on leading edge research projects.”

Florida Tech is a founding member of FLR and NLR in providing high capacity connectivity to state, regional, national and international institutions. This phase of the project has been under development since early spring, but the overall planning for equipment, optics and infrastructure specifications has spanned three years. Leading the effort to advance Florida Tech’s global connectivity is Richard Newman, director, School of Computing, and senior adviser to IT for external activities.

“This has been a major effort involving a great many people. The improvement will make a huge difference in how we meet our computing and connectivity needs here,” said Newman.