In 1988 the RCC was testing Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) equipment with the intention of deploying it in its network.

The University recognized the need for interoperability testing of networking equipment and also the opportunity to provide students with hands-on experience in emerging technologies.

With the idea of providing testing services to companies in a vendor-neutral environment the first UNH-IOL consortium (10BASE-T Ethernet) was founded in 1990.

The lab has hosted plugfests for the Broadband Forum,[9] NVM Express,[10] SCSI Trade Association,[11] Ethernet Alliance,[12] and the Open Compute Project,[13] among others.

[14] In January 2016 the lab moved to a new 28,000 square foot location adjacent to the main UNH campus in Durham, NH.