CC* Regional Networking: Connecting Colorado's Western Slope Small Institutions of Higher Education to the Front Range GigaPoP Regional R&E Infrastructure

High-speed, reliable, networking infrastructure is vital to an organization’s ability to thrive and flourish in today’s rapidly evolving scientific and technical environments. Such network connectivity is essential for success in business, scientific investigation, communication, global collaboration, education, and outreach. Western Colorado is geographically challenged for network connectivity, with expansive rural areas, low population density, and natural impediments of mountains and rocky terrain. Colorado’s “Front Range” benefits from larger, denser populations where high-speed network connectivity is prevalent and relatively affordable. A “continental” digital divide separates the level of Research and Education (R&E) network access available to the Front Range compared to the communities west of the Continental Divide, the “Western Slope.” The project extends the Front Range GigaPoP’s (FRGP's) R&E network connectivity to two universities (Colorado Mesa University and Western Colorado University) and to the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory on the Colorado’s Western Slopes. This project partners with an established regional non-profit middle mile network provider to create a Virtual Routing and Forwarding network overlay to deliver R&E services. This creates a regional aggregation point with its partners and connects the institutions using 10 Gbps leased fiber circuits. The aggregation point replaces commercial, low-bandwidth internet services. This project provides R&E organizations on the Western Slope the infrastructure to aggregate their network traffic and fully participate in the FRGP. This model can be replicated to connect additional communities to the R&E infrastructure, which optimizes the value of partnerships and existing network infrastructure investments. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.