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":

This chapter was written by Jeff Nyhoff and Joel Adams. Copy editing by Nancy Zylstra
©2002 Calvin University (formerly Calvin College), All Rights Reserved

If you encounter technical errors, contact computing@calvin.edu.