KEARNEY – The University of Nebraska at Kearney has upgraded its Internet core backbone to 10 gigabytes per second – more than 1,000 times faster than the average U.S. connection speed.
The upgraded connection between UNK and Lincoln will help assure critical connections that are data-intensive run smoothly over the Internet, and pave the way for expanded online learning opportunities, live-streaming events and cloud-based services, said Deborah Schroeder, assistant vice chancellor for information technology.
Ten Gbps is Kearney’s fastest, and far faster than Google Fiber, which at 1,000 megabits per second has been featured in the national news.
Schroeder said average U.S. connection speeds are 7.2 Mbps and is the recommended minimum speed to stream super-HD movies. The 10 Gbps connection would enable thousands of super-HD movies to be streamed at the same time.
The faster, more-reliable connection isn’t all about movies and games, Schroeder said. It supports research computing, enhanced and future software, and cloud-based services. The connection to Lincoln connects UNK to the other NU campuses, the state network and the Internet 2 100-Gbps research network.
“This core backbone is leading-edge networking technology supporting teaching and learning resources and research for our faculty and students, and will enhance our partnerships with other universities, including our partnership with UNMC for our new Health Science Education Complex,” Schroeder said. “We may be a rural area, but we have not been left behind in the race to build out critical broadband infrastructure.”
The switch to the new connection occurred Feb. 10 and went smoothly, Schroeder said.
An additional 10 Gbps wave will be available soon to support off-site backups of critical services.
Google on Feb. 14 announced plans to deliver data transfer speeds of 10 Gbps by 2022.
Source: Deb Schroeder, 308.865.8950, schroederd@unk.edu
Writer: Kelly Bartling, 308.865.8455, bartlingkh@unk.edu
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