State of the net

Internet2 is a brand new high speed network

It is being created by a consortium whose members come from the university community, government and industry partners

They are seeking to "accelerate the next stage of Internet development in academia"

The purpose of this effort is to support teaching, research, and learning with a set of advanced networking applications

It will

Create and sustaining a leading edge network capability for the national research community
The commercialization and privatization of the internet has had a negative impact on research and education

Lead to the development of a new generation of applications allowing broadband networks media integration, interactivity, andreal time collaboration

Integrate with ongoing efforts to improve production Internet services for the academic community
A major goal of the project is to rapidly transfer new network services and applications to all levels of educational use and to the broader Internet community, both nationally and internationally.

3Com Corporation	Advanced Network & Services	Newbridge Networks	Cabletron Systems
FORE Systems	IBM Corporation	Lucent Technologies	MCI WorldCom
Nortel/Bay Networks	Qwest Communications	StarBurst Communications	Cisco Systems
AT&T

Currently, 132 universities are involved in the project.
There is high level support for this project

Soon after the announcement in October, 1996, the project's central goals were adopted as part of the White House's Next Generation Internet (NGI) initiative.

There is also heavy corporate involvement:

3Com Corporation Advanced Network & Services Newbridge Networks Cabletron Systems
FORE Systems IBM Corporation Lucent Technologies MCI WorldCom
Nortel/Bay Networks Qwest Communications StarBurst Communications Cisco Systems
AT&T

The mission of the Inet2 project is to:

Facilitate and coordinate the development, deployment, operation and technology transfer of advanced,network-based applications and network services to further U.S. leadership in research and higher education and accelerate the availability of new services and applications on the Internet.

Its goals include:

Demonstrate new applications that can dramatically enhance researchers' ability to collaborate and conductexperiments
Demonstrate enhanced delivery of education and other services by taking advantage of "virtual proximity" created by an advanced communications infrastructure,
Support development and adoption of advanced applications by providing middleware and development tools,
Facilitate development, deployment, and operation of an affordable communications infrastructure, capable of supporting differentiated Quality of Service (QoS) based on applications requirements of the research and education community,
Promote experimentation with the next generation of communications technologies
Coordinate adoption of agreed working standards and common practices among participating institutions to ensure end-to-end quality of service and interoperability,
Catalyze partnerships with governmental and private sector organizations,
Encourage transfer of technology from Internet2 to the rest of the Internet,
Study impact of new infrastructure, services and applications on higher education and the Internet community in general

This page prepared by Howard Rosenbaum	Last update: 11.12.98
You are here: http://memex.lib.indiana.edu/hrosenba/www/Pres/iolug/inet2.html
Onwards!