Internet2, in collaboration with Edge (opens in a new window), recently commissioned a new network site in Newark, New Jersey. This expansion strengthens research and education (R&E) connectivity in the region, which also includes the nearby site at 32 Avenue of the Americas in New York, operated in partnership with NYSERNet (opens in a new window). It also enhances access to multiple cloud environments and commercial content providers.
“By working together to launch the Newark site, Edge and Internet2 are enhancing regional access to shared commercial cyberinfrastructure and cloud resources,” said Jim Stankiewicz, associate vice president and principal network architect at Edge. “In addition to providing access to a dense exchange fabric that benefits the entire Internet2 community, Newark’s 165 Halsey location is a rapidly growing hub for artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies, creating new opportunities for research and innovation.”
32 Avenue of the Americas Remains a Strategic Location
The new Newark site supersedes a legacy Internet2 peering location at 111 8th Avenue in New York. That site is being decommissioned following the building’s acquisition by a cloud service provider and an associated forced departure for many tenants from the facility. As a result, Internet2 will be removing all optical transport and peering infrastructure from the 111 8th Avenue site over the next six months.
Internet2 will continue to operate substantial community infrastructure at 32 Avenue of the Americas in New York in collaboration with NYSERNet. This location includes a pair of redundant core network nodes as well as the 400 Gbps-capable Manhattan Landing (MAN LAN) global exchange point. The location is connected by 4 Tbps of combined capacity on five network paths, remaining a critical hub for the R&E community’s regional and international connectivity.
“By working together to launch the Newark site, Edge and Internet2 are enhancing regional access to shared commercial cyberinfrastructure and cloud resources.In addition to providing access to a dense exchange fabric that benefits the entire Internet2 community, Newark’s 165 Halsey location is a rapidly growing hub for artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies, creating new opportunities for research and innovation.”
— Jim Stankiewicz
Associate Vice President and Principal Network Architect, Edge
Peering Evolution and Routing Optimization
Collectively, these efforts align with one of the five key objectives of Internet2’s new Trusted Infrastructure Platform initiative. That objective is to drive the community evolution of peering and routing optimization.
“Internet2’s collaboration with Edge to establish a new peering site underscores our commitment to provide high-performance, resilient infrastructure that supports the R&E community’s evolving connectivity needs,” said James Deaton, vice president for network services at Internet2. “As we continue our transition toward a software-enabled future, investments like this enhance peering capabilities and align with our broader efforts to improve routing efficiency and network performance.”
The Trusted Infrastructure Platform initiative builds on the foundation established by the launch of the Internet2 Next Generation Infrastructure (NGI) in 2021. NGI included major upgrades to optical and packet hardware. It also introduced new levels of network automation and orchestration.
In the coming months, Internet2 will share more about the Trusted Infrastructure Platform initiative, including its five key objectives and how the Network Services team is working toward them in 2025 and beyond.
“Internet2’s collaboration with Edge to establish a new peering site underscores our commitment to provide high-performance, resilient infrastructure that supports the R&E community’s evolving connectivity needs. As we continue our transition toward a software-enabled future, investments like this enhance peering capabilities and align with our broader efforts to improve routing efficiency and network performance.”
— James Deaton
Vice President for Network Services, Internet2
About Edge
Edge serves as a member-owned, nonprofit provider of high performance optical fiber networking and internetworking, Internet2, and a vast array of best-in-class technology solutions for cybersecurity, educational technologies, cloud computing, and professional managed services. Edge provides these solutions to colleges and universities, K-12 school districts, government entities, hospital networks and nonprofit business entities as part of a membership-based consortium. Edge’s membership spans the northeast, along with a growing list of EdgeMarket participants nationwide. Edge’s common good mission ensures success by empowering members for digital transformation with affordable, reliable and thought-leading purpose-built, advanced connectivity, technologies and services.
