Page Title: National Connectivity Page Address: http://www.merit.edu/network/national/index.php
National Connectivity
A high-performance network is not only technically advanced, it is also robust. For this reason, Merit's
network maintains multiple, geographically-diverse network routes, as well as connections to 3 "commodity"
Internet providers and numerous non-transit peers. Merit also interconnects with other regional, national and
international research and education networks.
Merit's interconnection points include:
Detroit, Michigan
From Detroit, Merit has a 1 Gbps burstable Ethernet attachment to Level 3 for both transit and commodity traffic.
Chicago, Illinois
Merit maintains two Points of Presence (POPs) in Chicago. At the Equinix InterExchange, Merit maintains a 2 Gbps
connection to Cogent and a 135 Mpbs to Qwest. In addition, Merit supports a 1Gbps connection at Equinix to support
non-transit peers and connections to other research and education entities.
Merit also operates a one-gigabit connection to Chicago's StarLight POP for access to worldwide government, research, and
educational networks, including the MREN community of CIC universities, ESNet labs, Internet2 (Chicago), CANARIE
(Canadian Network of the Advancement of Research, Industry and Education) CERN (Switzerland), SURFnet (Netherlands),
and
many others listed here.
Internet2
Merit maintains dual connections to Abilene, Internet2's backbone. In Chicago, Merit has an OC12c (622 Mbps)
attachment at Equinix. Merit is also attached to Abilene at 710 N. Lakeshore Dr. for full redundancy. Merit is the Internet2
GigaPoP in Michigan and provides connectivity to over 40 Internet2 Members and sponsored participants.
For more information on Internet2 participation, please visit the
Internet2 section.
