To the uninitiated, dark fiber sounds a bit mysterious, maybe even daunting.
But to network researchers dark fiber means an environment removed from the demands of a production network; a place in cyberspace where they can conduct experiments and explore the future of networking removed from the demands of a commercial network and partitioned off so [...]

The NC State node of BEN, consisting of Infinera digital optical networking hardware, connects campus researchers to the experimental network through RENCI at NC State.
RALEIGH, NC, March 11, 2009—RENCI’s NC State engagement center recently completed upgrades to support the installation of the Breakable Experimental Network (BEN).

Chapel Hill, NC—A research team involving the Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI), Duke University and Infinera (Nasdaq: INFN) is one of 29 teams across the nation that will participate in the first phase of the National Science Foundation’s Global Environments for Network Innovation (GENI) project.

Sunnyvale, CA, July 21, 2008 – The Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI) has selected Infinera (Nasdaq: INFN) to support its research on the experimental network testbed dubbed BEN (Breakable Experimental Network), which links RENCI to sites at three universities in North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park.