N-Wave & ESnet Strengthen Partnership with New 100G Peering Points

N-Wave is excited to announce an upgrade in our network capabilities, thanks to a successful collaboration with the Department of Energy’s Energy Science Network (ESnet). ESnet is a high-performance network, stewarded by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, that serves as the "data circulatory system" for the nation's 17 DOE national laboratories, connecting them to supercomputers, scientific instruments, and global research partners. In recent months, two new 100G peering points were established between our networks, significantly boosting our capacity and resilience.

Key Highlights:

• Two High-Speed Connections: We have established 100G connections in both McLean, VA, and Denver, CO.
• Primary and Redundant Paths: McLean is serving as the primary data path, with Denver providing a crucial redundant route, ensuring our operations remain smooth and uninterrupted.
• Reduced Commodity Traffic: This additional bandwidth has already led to a significant reduction in traffic relying on N-Wave’s commercial providers, as more of our Research and Education (R&E) community traffic now flows through the new, dedicated ESnet path.
• Congestion Relief: The new peering has successfully mitigated intermittent upstream capacity congestion issues that were being experienced in the D.C. area.
• Heavy Utilization: The primary peering point at McLean has seen robust use, with observed total operational bandwidth ranging from 40-85 Gbps from the R&E community and 60-100 Gbps to the R&E community.

Looking Ahead: The Move to Ashburn

As part of N-Wave’s ongoing migration to the next-generation Trusted Internet Connection (TIC), our D.C. area border routers have recently been relocated from McLean to Ashburn, VA. The next phase of this network evolution will be migrating the N-Wave-ESnet peering point to Ashburn as well, continuing to enhance our network infrastructure for the future.