MaineREN is a facilities-based Regional Optical Network (RON) servicing Maine’s Research & Education community.

MaineREN was created by the University of Maine System and The Jackson Laboratory to deliver the Cyberinfrastructure necessary to participate in, and be considered for, high-technology research.  As the National Science Foundation has made the ability to demonstrate appropriate levels of Cyberinfrastructure a requirment for funding, it is crucial in Maine’s ability to attract and retain this high-technology research that our institutions have access to the national and international R&E community though a facilities-based RON.

This effort is similar to other regional networks throughout the United States and aims to address a growing disparity between Maine and its peers in Cyberinfrastructure.

MaineREN currently provides a high-capacity optical backbone which supports IPv4, IPv6, scalable multicast, and other advanced networking protocols connecting institutions from Bar Harbor, ME to Cambridge, MA.  Future plans include the expansion of MaineREN to service all campuses within UMS.

Below is a map of the MaineREN network and primary institutions serviced.  Green indicates active MaineREN service.  The paths shown in gray are actively being built out by Maine Fiber Company as funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.  These paths are estimated to be completed in 2012.

Here is a listing of some of the institutions that are connected through MaineREN.

• Bates College
• Bowdoin College
• Colby College
• College of the Atlantic
• The Jackson Laboratory
• The Maine Public Broadcasting Network
• Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory
• Thomas College
• Unity College
• University of Maine
• University of Maine at Augusta
• University of New Hampshire
• University of Southern Maine

MaineREN is linked to the rest of Internet2® through the Northern Crossroads GigaPOP in Cambridge, MA. with a current operational capacity of 10 Gbps.

Networkmaine maintains a perfSONAR network performance testing server for MaineREN.

This performance testing server includes:

Network Diagnostic Tool
a Java-based bandwidth test that can detect local connection problems

Network Path and Application Diagnosis
a Java-based utility to test the path between you and MaineREN for throughput, latency, MTU, and TCP options for high performance applications. All tests are logged and publicly available here.