Internet Connectivity - Internet2

INTERNET2

The future of Internet connectivity may be revealed in Internet2, an experimental high-speed network launched in the mid-1990s. The speed with which data, audio, and video can be transmitted over Internet2 boggles the imagination. A comparison of how long it would take to download a DVD version of a typical 2-hour movie showed that it would take approximately 171 hours over a 56K modem, 74 hours over an ISDN line, 25 hours with a DSL or cable modem connection, 6.4 hours with a T1 line, and only 30 seconds over Internet2.

Internet2 has been in development since 1996 and is supported by a nonprofit consortium of 185 universities and research institutions. By 2001 the initial phase of the ultra-fast, high-bandwidth network was in place. Although still only in the demonstration phase, Internet2 transmission speeds are expressed in gigabits, or billions of bits per second (Gbps). The backbone of the system was provided by Qwest Communications, which offered access to 10,000 miles of its advanced fiber-optic network. Nortel Networks and Cisco Systems provided computer and networking equipment, and each of the consortium members committed to installing fiber-optic hookups to the system.

With the backbone in place, the Internet2 consortium planned next to test its reliability, develop middleware to provide interoperability between the network and specific applications, and to expand access to thousands of educational institutions and to other parts of the world, including Central and South America and the Caribbean. One of the applications already demonstrated on Internet2 was interactive medicine, in which a physician in Washington, D.C., directed surgery taking place in Columbus, Ohio. In another application, symphony musicians in Atlanta and Miami were able to practice together in real time over Internet2. Within five years, consortium leaders predicted that Internet2 would impact Internet access from the home.