Network Connectivity and Internet2

A Purpose-Built Network Dedicated to Meeting the Needs of Edge Members

NODES

Major Nodes

Rutgers University 1

Rutgers University 2

Princeton University 1

Princeton University 2

Rowan University

Montclair University

Pomona

ROUTES

400G

– – – Planned

Don’t Be Fooled by the Promise of 10G from Public, Commercial Internet Service Providers (ISPs).

You know the old adage ‘If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is’? 10G promises from from traditional ISPs are all the rage, but institutions of higher education, K-12, healthcare, and local governments demand exceptional connectivity experiences to make their campuses and facilities thrive. Enter Edge – a nonprofit, member-based, nationally-recognized Research and Education Network.

Edge’s optical fiber network, EdgeNet, has been thriving for over 20 years:

Supporting 100 percent of member demand 24/7/365
Providing concierge-level support
Never oversubscribing the network where one member’s traffic competes for bandwidth with another member (unlike commercial ISPs)
80 percent of Edge member’s external traffic is exchanged to be private peering relationships as opposed to traversing the unsecure and best effort public internet

Don’t take our word for it. Our customer testimonials speak for themselves.

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“Edge has been our trusted partner for over two decades. As part of our Rutgers traffic optimization strategy, it was an easy decision to move one of our commodity internet 100Gb links to Edge. The cutover was seamless, and the move resulted in annual savings.”
Adrienne Esposito, Director of Network Operations and Architecture, Rutgers University

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“The growth in research at Rowan University has been exceptional, and our transition from a state teachers college to a Carnegie-designated R2 institution was made easier by our partnerships with organizations like Edge. As research at the University continues to expand, we will also be looking to expand our services to ensure high-speed connectivity to regional research networks, Internet2, and the major cloud service providers. I fully expect to lean on Edge to help us in those areas, as Edge has the qualities that we’re looking for in a research support partner.”
Dr. Mira Lalovic-Hand, Senior Vice President of the Division of Information Resources & Technology (IRT) and Chief Information Officer of Rowan University.

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“Making the jump from 2x 10 Gbps to 2x 100 Gbps will help us meet our bandwidth requirements over the next several years and with Edge as an existing partner, it was a very easy transition to upgrade our existing connections, while still allowing a highly available networking experience. Edge was able to provide bandwidth to us at a better cost and value than installing technologies that would shape the use of Internet traffic.”
Michael Reekie, Director of Networking, Fairleigh Dickinson University

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“Partnering with Edge allows Hackensack Meridian Health to reach for new big data opportunities. I’m excited to bring Internet2 to our integrated health care network, which provides us with new possibilities for collaborative research. Being on Internet2 demonstrates that Hackensack Meridian Health and research innovation go hand-in-hand.”
David Reis, Ph.D., Executive Vice President, Chief Information Officer of Hackensack Meridian Health

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“We’ve deployed our direct connects through EdgeNet, which has increased our speed substantially. This is used for our workspaces, AppStream, and we’re currently working towards using this for S3 and other Amazon public services. Once we’ve established these routes, we’ll be able to access many Amazon services over the direct connect and can move even further with systems like Amazon FSx, which allow you to run high-performance file systems in the cloud and support a wide range of capabilities. Edge provides our internet connection, Dark Fiber, and direct connects. My networking team has been very happy with the internet service and support provided by Edge. Our questions are answered quickly and correctly, and the partnership has helped make our cloud transition very successful.”
Brandon Wagner, Cloud Operations Manager, The College of New Jersey

Discover the rich history of EdgeNet’s origin, commitment to ZERO downtime, and how the nonprofit, member-based, nationally-recognized Research and Education Network now spans New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, and New York.

Edge’s commitment to ZERO downtime and 24/7/365 support is outlined in the Service Level Agreement »

EdgeNet Services Include:

Internet Services

The EdgeNet network supports 100% of member demand with no member’s traffic ever impacted by another member’s network activity. EdgeNet is designed with redundant nodes and Internet transit providers distributed throughout the state of New Jersey, delivering a highly survivable, highly available networking experience to connected members.

DDoS Mitigation Support Service

An automatic DDoS defense mechanism is in place to protect the EdgeNet core and all connected members. All traffic entering the Edge network is actively monitored to minimize service disruptions.

Connection to Internet2

EdgeNet’s peering connection to Internet2 enables Edge members to connect directly to the nation’s premier coast-to-coast research and education network. As part of that connection, members have access to:

Advanced Layer 2 Services (AL2S)

AL2S delivers a strategic advantage for our members by providing effective and efficient wide area 100G Ethernet technology. AL2S enables users to create their own VLANs on the Internet2 AL2S backbone. Static or Dynamic, point-to-point or multipoint, intra-domain or inter-domain, AL2S puts control of the backbone VLANs into the users’ hands for the creation of purpose-built private circuits using infrastructure already in place.

Advanced Layer 3 Services (AL3S)

Edge extends Internet2’s IP Network to its member institutions. We participate in a community-based operations system with constant collaborative evaluation and optimization. The Advanced Layer 3 Service offers leading edge network characteristics to meet the constantly evolving needs of high-speed research and collaboration.

Peering

Peering connections take the majority of EdgeNet member traffic off the commodity internet, improving reliability, availability, and optimizing network performance. Edge peering provides high performance, low latency, and efficient access to some of the top content destinations in the world including Google, AWS, Microsoft, Facebook, Netflix, Twitch, and more. The service supports IPv4, and IPv6, and allows members to leverage their existing Edge connection investment to improve business process flows with providers of SaaS, PaaS, IaaS and Web App solutions.

EdgeNet Cloud Connect Service Portfolio

EdgeNet’s Cloud Connect Service offers Layer 2 or direct-connect services to all major cloud service providers. Our cloud infrastructure provides several benefits to our members, including faster cloud migrations, secure transit of data connections, efficient research data flows, and reduced costs associated with extending enterprise networks to their preferred cloud provider.

As a premier partner of AWS, NJEdge offers local access options in New Jersey and a data egress waiver that eliminates the cost of removing data from AWS for EdgeNet members. Additionally, our Cloud Connect Platform extends EdgeNet to Ashburn, Virginia, the hub of internet inter-connectivity on the East Coast of the United States, allowing connections to almost every other provider of cloud and cloud-hosted services.

LISP

EdgeNet is at the forefront of utilizing SDN-based LISP protocols to deliver a consolidated, robust architecture that enables members to reduce capital expenditures and operating expenses, simplify network design, reduce system load, and improve network scalability.

Hands-on EdgeNet Service

Unlike traditional ISPs, EdgeNet is highly invested in the success of our connected members. Our engineers work with you to optimize your on-network experience, providing responsive service, a wealth of advanced features, in-depth network performance reporting, and consultation to help you take advantage of the latest and greatest developments in networking technology.