100 Gig

The Research & Education community’s networks have always been the platform upon which new innovations have launched. From the creation of the basic routing protocols that underpin the Internet, to the invention of search, social networking and online media, research and education delivered the platform upon which new applications were built and where whole new classes of sophisticated users developed.

It was just a year ago that OARnet officially lit its 100 Gigabit-per-second network backbone service. At the time OARnet's implementation was the first statewide lighting of a 100G service and was one of the first in the United States. The pace and acceleration of technology advancement is relentless, and in just one year 100G services are now commercially available. To put it in perspective, at the time OARnet lit the 100G service, it was still highly experimental.

This month, in addition to celebrating the holiday season, the OARnet staff will be marking a signal event in the history of the organization. A year ago, Gov. John Kasich visited our offices to recognize the lighting of Ohio’s statewide 100 Gigabit per second network. The announcement sealed his January State-of-the-State promise to deploy the ultra-fast network by the end of the year.