The Future: Internet
2
The
Internet2
("I2") is a very high speed section of the
Internet, designed for researching new possibilities for the Internet
of tomorrow.
Access to I2 is restricted
to participants in the project, which currently includes over 200 U.S.
universities. Thus, in several respects, the Internet2 project marks a
return to the original purpose of the Internet as a high-speed, private
research network (ARPANET and NSFNet).
At
the heart of the Internet2 project are very high-speed backbones, one
of which is the Abilene backbone, which supports transfer
rates that are approximately 100 times the speed of the standard Internet.
I2 backbones are measured in billions of bits—gigabits—per
second, and the access points to these backbones are called gigapops.
(Click on the map image to see a large view of the I2 backbone system.)
The
I2 project is exploring such high-bandwidth projects as high-quality streaming
video and audio, including telephony and HDTV. For example, through the
Internet2 network, astronomers from around the world are actually able
to control and peek through the Keck Telescopes on Mauna Kea summit on
the island of Hawaii.
Just how fast is
the I2? Here's how long it would take for various levels of bandwidth
to download the entire DVD of the motion picture "The Matrix":
56
K modem |
- |
171
hours |
Broadband
(DSL or Cable modem) |
- |
25 hours |
T-1
connection |
- |
6.4
hours |
Internet2 |
- |
30 seconds |
|