Communications of the ACM
Internet2 Turns 15. Has It Delivered on Its Promise?
The Internet2, a second version of the Internet reserved for research and education, recently received $100 million in new funding that will upgrade its backbone capacity to 8.8 terabytes per second and expand its services to thousands of libraries, schools, and medical centers.
Internet2's original mission was to provide reliable, dedicated bandwidth to support the demands of research and educational institutions, and in the process develop technologies that would benefit the commodity Internet. Internet2 currently delivers hybrid optical and routed IP-based network services to more than 300 member organizations and delivers up to 400 gigabytes per second of wavelength capacity. The system works by connecting 20 regional optical networks, which then deliver broadband connectivity to more than 66,000 sites, including museums, schools, and hospitals.
Internet2, which recently celebrated its 15th birthday, has many notable successes, says Ciena's Rodney Wilson. "Internet2 creates temporary networking test beds, facilitates research on next-generation networking concerns, and has contributed to a number of breakthroughs and world firsts, such as the first 100 Gigabit Ethernet research network and the first uncompressed high-definition videoconference using dynamic circuit networks," Wilson says.
From Network World
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Abstracts Copyright © 2011 Information Inc., Bethesda, Maryland, USA
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