Princeton Gets New Fiber Courtesy of DoE

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The US Department of Energy’s Energy Sciences Network [ESnet] just improved the internet connectivity to several institutions housed on the Princeton University Forrestal Campus.  Well shucks, that sure was nice of them.  The affected list includes the Princeton Plasma Physics Lab [PPPL], the High Energy Physics [HEP] Group and NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Lab [GFDL].

This is a great achievement,” says Steve Cotter, head of ESnet. “With the availability of cutting-edge instruments and supercomputers, scientists around the world are collaborating to carry out large experiments that produce tremendous amounts of data. This upgrade links Princeton’s physics researchers to that data through our robust and reliable network, ESnet4, via point-to-point dedicated circuits and IP services at multiple gigabit per second speeds.”

The network upgrade involved trenching a line from the Princeton Forrestal Campus, down Route-1 to South Brunswick.  The new drop was then pulled into Philadelphia where packets are transported across ESnet infrastructure to the main point of presence in McLean, Virginia.  If anyone has driven Route-1 during rush hour, you’ll understand how hard this was.

The new connection will provide 10-Gbps to PPPL, a significant boost from the previous 155-Mbps.  My friends at GFDL received an early Christmas present in the form of a new 1-Gbps link.  The HEP Group also received a 1gig drop, enabling them to access data from the LHC.

For more info on the upgrade, read the full release here.