NIU is creating an ultra-fast, fiber-optic communications network that will extend next-generation technology currently available only at elite research facilities in Chicago to the rest of the region.
NIUNet is a roughly 175-mile fiber optic loop that will be a huge boon to research and economic development efforts throughout the western suburbs and greater northern Illinois region. The network will also advance state-of-the art health care technology, benefit area schools and help keep much-sought-after high tech jobs from leaving the region for more “connected” communities on either coast.
NIUNet will create a network stretching from DeKalb to Batavia to Naperville along I-88, connecting into Chicago, the I-WIRE network, Argonne National Laboratory and other national research networks through the connection at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia. NIUNet will then loop back along I-90 to Hoffman Estates and west to Rockford before heading south along I-39 to Rochelle and back to DeKalb. In the end, municipalities, schools, hospitals, research facilities and other potential NIUNet partners will be connected to dozens of other high-speed networks worldwide.
The university expects to invest roughly $1.5 million to complete the NIUNet ring. The completed network will consist of both newly constructed segments and long stretches of leased fiber cable currently lying unused underground. NIU hopes to establish agreements with a number of cities along the route to reduce costs through donated right-of-way or easement rights. The university has also applied for state funds and grant money to help pay for some of the project.
The Illinois Municipal Broadband Communications Association is collaborating on the project. IMBCA is a non-profit association of Illinois towns and others interested in sharing information and resources about broadband services. Members include Naperville, Batavia, Rockford and Rochelle. NIU’s long-standing research partnership with Fermilab helped speed the network plan as well, since Fermilab provides the connection into Chicago and onto the state’s I-WIRE network.
Communities linked by NIUNet will better be able to share resources for planning, emergency management and economic development. Ultimately, the communications network will help towns improve their citizens’ quality of life.
NIUNet also has the potential to benefit education and the health-care industries. Schools linked to the network would have the potential to tap into data-intensive Internet lessons with real-time teleconference instruction led by scientists or educators worldwide. Doctors would have quick access to massive databases and could use the network to quickly transmit MRIs, CAT scans or X-rays from one hospital to another.
While NIUNet is a non-commercial, non-residential research network, some of the easiest ways to explain the incredible speed of fiber optic technology is to compare “download times” of familiar media applications. For example, downloading a feature-length movie at the very fastest broadband cable connection available today would take around six to eight hours. Through a fiber-optic connection, the same download would take no more than 30 seconds. Doctors sending MRIs, CAT scans or any other data-rich medical tests to consulting specialists in the next town would have to wait at least four hours to ensure that their colleagues on the other end had received the images. With a fiber-optic connection, the same image would take a mere 6 – 7 seconds to transmit.