St. Joseph's College joins statewide higher education I-Light network
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 5, 2009
Saint Joseph's College of Indiana recently joined I-Light, Indiana's high-speed statewide fiber optic network for higher education. I-Light provides Indiana colleges and universities digital communications at least 20 times faster than a typical home Internet connection.
Through the use of I-Light, Indiana colleges and universities can connect classrooms at distant locations with high-quality video-streaming; allow researchers to exchange large digital data files and access supercomputers and scientific data storage facilities at Indiana University and Purdue University; make possible multi-campus collaborative research projects; and enable the use of high-definition videoconferencing.
Since Saint Joseph's College joined I-Light its bandwidth usage of the commodity Internet has increased 300 percent. The college increased its capability from nine to 50 megabits per second for the commodity Internet and to one gigabit (GB) per second for research and education. The 1GB research and education connection allows St. Joseph's and other Indiana colleges and universities to use computing resources in ways previously not possible, including live and virtual instruction.
I-Light consists of more than 1,000 miles of fiber-optic cable that reaches every corner of the state, and is larger, per capita, than similar networks in neighboring states. The I-Light network currently transmits traffic among 32 universities and colleges across Indiana, and between those campuses and the Internet, as well as to national research networks such as Internet2 and National LambdaRail.
"The new fiber connection dramatically expands our capacity to manipulate data and increases our capacity for learning and teaching," said Dr. Ernest Mills, president of Saint Joseph's College. "Indiana has long been a leader in American higher education, and the I-light network extends and deepens our rich tradition."
IU and Purdue University jointly manage and operate I-Light via the IU Global Research Network Operations Center and are responsible for providing networking engineering support. Each university also provides technical and educational resources to other institutions through the high-speed network.
"The I-Light network allows Indiana's colleges and universities public and private, large and small, to connect at data rates 10s of times faster than before." said IU President Michael McRobbie. "It greatly strengthens the ability of all these campuses to provide an excellent education to their students by providing rapid access to the most advanced sources of information worldwide and to the most advanced collaborative tools."
Indiana Sen. Brandt Hershman (R-Wheatfield) said that the State of Indiana continues to make progress toward connecting all higher education institutions in Indiana to the network.
"This expansion helps position Indiana as a national leader in high-speed networking in support of teaching, learning, and inter-institutional collaboration — activities that will help fuel Indiana's economy," Sen. Hershman said.
I-Light was launched in 1999 with a $5.3 million state appropriation by the Indiana General Assembly. The initial network, which connected IU Bloomington, Purdue University in West Lafayette, and IUPUI, launched in December 2001. In November 2005, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels announced funding to expand I-Light to the state's colleges and universities to support research and education. The statewide expansion was completed in June 2008.
For more information about I-Light, visit: http://www.ilight.net/.
