MAX is involved in a number of funded research activities. MAX’s strategy is to focus its research in some core areas around Dynamic Optical Networks in the areas of Management and Control Plane Architectures and some closely related areas such as Optical Performance, Network Virtualization, and next-generation Terabit Interfaces. These areas are those we think will directly have an impact on running an efficient and cost-effective production network and facilitate the deployment of new services with adequate protection which in turn will lead to savings for our participants. In addition, MAX will make every effort to participate in nationally-recognized projects to support our academic institutions.
Today, MAX has been an active participant of the NSF GENI project since its Spiral 1. We continue not only to contribute directly to its software development (MAX GENI Aggregate Manager and Stitching Architecture), but also bring this technology closer to our participants by deploying it on our research network, testing it, and providing training when needed. MAX runs an OpenFlow network of six switches that is available to our participants.
MAX is also enhancing its Research and Education (R&E) metro network facilities with emerging 100 Gigabits per second (100 Gb/s) capability to support data intensive science exploration, modeling, and discovery. The MAX R&E network will upgrade its 10 Gb/s peering connections to 100 Gb/s with Internet2, the Energy Sciences network (ESnet), National Lambda Rail (NLR) (all of whom have plans for upgrading to 100 Gb/s), and the Next Generation Internet Exchange-East (NGIX-E) exchange point operated by MAX for the federal research networks.
