Infrastructure Design
The Maryland Education and Research Network (MDREN) provides internet, library, and interactive video services to University System of Maryland (USM) institutions, community colleges, other public and private Universities, and K-12 school systems. The MDREN backbone consists of a DWDM fiber interconnection between College Park, University of Maryland Baltimore County, University of Maryland at Baltimore, and the William Donald Schaffer Building. From these sites, sonet (OC-3) and TDM (DS-3 and T1) circuits fan out to various other sites. The DWDM ring provides high bandwidth for institutions in the Baltimore-DC corridor and redundant access for all institutions to the internet links contracted by MDREN. The DWDM ring also supports the developing Internet 2 service as well as a variety of research and production services for MDREN's partners and clients.
The State of Maryland and the Maryland Department of Transportation have provided the fiber between Baltimore and College Park that makes this robust service possible. MDREN, through regional hubs, is also able to share at cost-effective prices access to telecommunication services for education partnerships with the state's environmental and medical facilities, and other state, national, and international educational partners.