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Where are We and How Do We Reach Our Customers?

MAX is a regional optical network (RON) that was founded in 1999.  MAX is administratively organized as a center at the University of Maryland College Park (UMD) within the Division of Information Technology’s Advanced Cyberinfrastructure and Internet Global Services unit (ACIGS).  MAX was created to support a wide range of discipline-specific advanced research applications requiring persistent high-performance and high-bandwidth networking. Currently, MAX is organized around two initiatives: research, where prototypes and development efforts are funded, and production, where a range of network services are provided to participating organizations.

Our proximity to Washington, DC provides us the opportunity to collaborate with many organizations in the Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia. The MAX network is purpose-built for research-focused customers of all sizes from the public sector, private/commercial sector, not-for profits, and state and federal agencies to labs, universities, libraries, and technology and information service providers that require access to leading edge telecommunications technologies. Additionally, MAX is a member of and provides its participants with connectivity to Internet2 as well as various commodity Internet providers. 

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Shortall and Algoo looking at gear in lab
Charlery and Sinha working on whiteboard
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MAX’s Contribution to Research

MAX is also involved in a number of research activities through federally-funded projects. We conduct research in some core areas around dynamic optical networks, control plane architectures, network management, optical performance, and network virtualization.

ACIGS unit encompasses the center MAX, HPC services, D-root services and QLab.

ACIGS/MAX manages the University of Maryland’s enterprise High Performance Computing (HPC) resource – Zaratan, MAX’s HPC cluster – Juggernaut, and an advanced and innovative intelligent edge resource – MAXedge. MAX operates UMD’s DNS root service – D-root, one of the 13 root DNS servers of the Internet. Moreover, ACIGS oversees Q-Lab, the National Quantum Lab at Maryland, a facility which provides research and teaching opportunities in the field of quantum computing to serve the UMD community and others.

Facts about MAX

  • Connected to the Internet2 backbone for 25+ years.
  • Supports multiple federal, state, and local agencies enabling direct collaboration.
  • In support of R1 universities, MAX not only provides network service connection, but also High Performance Computing to researchers, conducts Quantum research, and manages D Root: The university’s root server.
  • Ability to offer connection to all major cloud service providers.

 

 

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MAX has an innovative high performance networking architecture that is constantly evolving and expanding to meet current and future requirements of high performance networking.

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