Changes
→Network Topology
In Blacksburg, CNS has redundant fiber uplinks to Ashburn, Virginia, McLean, Virginia, and Atlanta, Georgia. The [[Mid-Atlantic Broadband Communities Corporation]] provides the OC-192 (10 Gigabit) connections to Ashburn and McLean from the [[Andrews Information Services Building]], and the OC-192 (10 Gigabit) connection to Atlanta from [[Hillcrest Hall]]. In summer 2015, the OC-192 connection to Ashburn will be upgraded to OC-768 (100 Gigabit).<ref>[https://www.vtnews.vt.edu/articles/2015/04/042115-it-gigabits.html]</ref>
For cost-savings reasons, the university's connectivity is primarily provided through an aggregation network shared by several other universities in Virginia, the [[Mid-Atlantic Research and Education Exchange]] (MREX). MREX, also known as the [[Mid-Atlantic Terascale Partnership]] (MATP)<ref>[https://beta.peeringdb.com/net/4326PeeringDB: Mid-Atlantic Terascale Partnership - MATP]</ref>, is operated by Virginia Tech and provides connectivity for the [[Mid-Atlantic Research Infrastructure Alliance]] (MA1RIAMARIA), an alliance of the universities that receive connectivity through MREX.<ref>[http://www.marialliance.net/about-usAbout Maria - Mid-Atlantic Research Infrastructure Alliance]</ref>
MREX operates two regional hubs: MREX-ATL, at Telx Atlanta, and MREX-DC, at Equinix Ashburn. At each hub, MREX operates a Cisco ASR9006 aggregation router. There is another MREX facility at Level3 McLean, connected as part of a fiber ring that also includes the [[Arlington Research Center]] and the [[Northern Virginia Center]].
