Most of you know that MDREN is deep into a major upgrade project that will increase throughput for most member campuses to 100GB. MDREN selected ARISTA routers for the edge routers at member campuses. They were selected through a competitive RFP process in 2023. The equipment was received in May 2024, and deployment was largely completed in the summer of 2024. About half of the member campuses have been cutover and it is expected that all will be cutover, with 100GB enabled by January 2025. MDREN engineers are scheduling cutover dates now. The older gear will be removed and returned to MDREN during the first quarter of 2025.

We will replace the DWDM Core of the network over the next two years. This will increase the backbone throughput to 400GB. We are currently in the research and design phase, which includes many vendor meetings to firm up the design. We expect to proceed with an RFP in the spring of 2025.