I-Light’s backbone transport, as well as most of its members’ local loops, is based on dark fiber, enabling I-Light the agility to respond to changes in capacity needs through the provisioning of new or additional hardware (e.g., lighting additional wavelengths, upgrading switches, etc.). Typically I-Light members are connected at 1Gb/s to the I-Light backbone.

Through its governance committees, I-Light annually reviews its backbone infrastructure and member services needs and capabilities, assesses the financial and operational impact of upgrades, and develops its next technology plan.

Through this proposal, I-Light anticipates as many as four institutions will accelerate their requirement for 10Gb connectivity, and additional institutions will increase their use of existing 1Gs connectivity. Fortunately, I-Light has the resources in-place to meet these new requirements in a timely fashion (i.e., in most cases upgrade can be implemented in a few days), and without service or other disruption.