Washington, DC--Abilene, an Internet2 backbone network, recently established a 10 gigabit per second (Gbps) optical connection to StarLight, a Chicago-based advanced optical infrastructure and proving ground for international network services. This link will enable Abilene participating institutions to leverage high-performance research and education networks around the world that also connect to StarLight. The new connection is part of the nationwide upgrade that will quadruple Abilene's capacity to 10 gigabits per second and advance Abilene's capacity to support the next generation Internet protocol, IPv6. I-WIRE, an Illinois-based dark fiber infrastructure effort that supports optical network research, engineering studies, and high-performance distributed systems and applications research and development, provides the optical transport between Abilene's Chicago point of presence and StarLight. Abilene, developed by the University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development in partnership with Qwest Communications, Cisco Systems, Juniper Networks, Nortel Networks and Indiana University, is an Internet2 backbone network providing nationwide high-performance networking capabilities for over 215 US universities and affiliated research laboratories in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Abilene interconnects with more than twenty other high-performance research and education backbone networks in the United States and around the world.