How does Chesconet work?

Chesconet exists to provide the infrastructure for electronic access to local, state, national, and global information by establishing and maintain a private virtual wide area network and offering services for the educational, cultural, governmental, and economic advancement of its members.

Chesconet provides for a wide range of connections, from Gigabit Ethernet on dedicated fiber, to T1 and Frame Relay. Chesconet maintains multiple fiber connections to tier 1 providers located at 401 North Broad Street.

Chesconet's model permits the existing staffs of the end-users to concentrate on their local-area networks (LANs) and services while wide-area connectivity, including NOC, are provided through business relationships. Chesconet members share voice, video and data services among members without the need to go through the Internet.

Through the use of the community network model, each member pays only for a portion of connectivity by taking advantage of existing infrastructures. All participating networks are compliant with the Internet protocol (IP) suite. This compliance enables interconnectivity among these networks, including the Internet, and permits the transfer of digital information among all members. Compliance with the Internet RFCs, standards, protocols, and codes assures interoperability.