A new fiber-optic network will allow Ball State University students and faculty to send large files and access materials more than 600 percent faster than before.
Ball State will join Indiana University and Purdue University on a network called I-Light in the next few months.
The network will eventually be connected to all universities in Indiana as part of the I-Light Expansion Project.
Two Ball State administrators attended a forum Tuesday to discuss the plans for the network expansion.
The network will significantly increase Ball State's connectivity to other universities and open up research and communication capabilities, Fred Nay, director of University Computing Services, said.
O'Neil Smitherman, vice president for information technology, said the connection to I-Light would be a good addition to Ball State's existing technology.
"We can do things that other states and universities can't do," he said. "To have that access is a very big plus for Ball State and the students at Ball State."
Nay said fiber-optic systems can pass huge amounts of information quickly.
Ball State's Internet connection will increase from 135 megabits to one gigabit. A file that takes several minutes to download now will take seconds with I-Light, Nay said.
At the I-Light forum, Nay and Smitherman spoke with representatives from IU and Purdue, universities already on the I-Light network.
The state legislature and Gov. Mitch Daniels approved funding for laying down the fiber-optic wire that is required for the connection, and Ball State is required to pay for the maintenance of the system, Smitherman said.
The money from Ball State's current Internet connection will be redirected to maintaining I-Light, he said.
Ball State will have higher speed network access at the same cost as the university's current network, Smitherman said.
"They've got some experience already, and we're just going to learn and leverage from what they've learned," Nay said. "We don't have to re-invent the wheel."
Smitherman and Nay are working to get Ball State connected to the I-Light network as soon as possible, which might be sometime in June.
"We're hopeful that within the next few months we'll be able to light the Ball State portion of the network," Smitherman said.
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