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Tech Industry Embraces Internet2
by Bara Vaida
Five years since the National Science Foundation officially relinquished control of the Internet to the commercial world, the agency has been investing in a second, private computer network called Internet2.
The high-speed network was created in 1996 at the request of universities and researchers who wanted their own advanced network unclogged by the huge number of users on the Internet. Currently, 187 universities and 70 companies financially support and maintain Internet2, which enables researchers and companies to easily share video, three-dimensional, virtual-reality research programs and other huge files within seconds.
"We are looking at the next leap forward, where we can do things that we can't do on the current Internet," said Gary Bachula, the vice president for external relations at Internet2.
Roughly more than $500 million has been spent on the project, which has become a testing ground for numerous products that IBM, Cisco Systems, Sun Microsystems, Microsoft and other firms are developing. And as the tech sector's decline has drained corporate budgets, the Internet2 university community also is filling the widening R&D gap in the private sector.
"A couple years ago, there was so much R&D going on in the private sector that that some argued the private sector would come up with the next big application to drive broadband demand," Bachula said. "Now the private sector is so focused on next quarter's earnings ... that we are the ones filling that role. We are the only game in town."
The Network Of The Future
Internet2 runs on a backbone known as Abilene, which was built by Qwest Communications, Nortel Networks and Cisco and donated for five years to Internet2. There are no plans to make the Internet2 the next mainstream Internet; rather, the products and lessons learned by researchers and students using it are expected to take their knowledge and apply it to the existing Internet.
IBM, for example, is using Internet2 to test its next generation of server technology and its newest wireless and voice-demand products. Mike Nelson, the director of Internet technology and strategy for IBM, said the company envisions the Internet eventually becoming like electricity -- essential and always there.
"It will be like it is part of the woodwork," Nelson said. "You might use it without even knowing it."
Sun Microsystems is using Internet2 to develop new technical standards for applications that can run on a high-speed network and to create new server and security products. The firm also is developing a giant server directory for students in the universities that connect to Internet2 to access information at other universities more easily, said Marc Hamilton, the director of Sun's global technology office in the global education division.
"As we develop new technologies, we can put them in the [Internet2] and the researchers will work with us. It's a good place to test them because researchers can come up with good ideas and help us augment our" R&D efforts, Mike Turzanski, Cisco's manager of Advanced Internet Initiatives, added of his company's efforts to test next-generation routers on Internet2.
'The In-Between Stage'
But with high-speed Internet access currently available to only 9 percent of users currently the demand for many of the products being developed through the Internet2 remains in doubt.
Though numerous telecommunications companies have spent millions to upgrade Internet networks, getting fiber to homes and many businesses has proved elusive, and many builders of products for broadband networks have folded. In addition, the demand for high-speed data services has not caught on as quickly as analysts had expected.
"We are at the in-between stage, where we've gone from nothing -- no Internet -- to something," said Donald Mitchell, who handles strategic collaborations at the National Computational Science Alliance, a partnership of 50 college research institutions. "But to get from something ... to something really good is going to take a lot of money, and no one has developed the application that is going to really drive the demand to make it worth spending the money."
Vint Cerf, one of the fathers of the Internet and now a senior vice president at WorldCom, sees demand for high-quality video conferencing and video streaming as potential drivers for upgrading the Internet. If entertainment companies are able to address piracy concerns and agree to distribute their products on the Web, that development also could create more broadband demand.
Mitchell said compelling educational material also could spark demand. For example, the Los Angeles-based Shoah Foundation, founded by movie director Steven Spielberg, this summer began cataloguing and indexing 52,000 video testimonies of Holocaust survivors, and the foundation eventually plans to make them available online. The graphics-heavy videos will require the use of high-speed machines and Internet connections.
"We need applications that just cannot be done unless you have a high-speed network," said Mitchell. "That will drive demand."
Building Momentum ... And The R&D Budget
But just like the Internet itself, momentum is more likely to build as even more institutions, companies and individuals gain access to a high-speed network.
Internet2, which is formally run by the University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development (UCAID), is continually adding new companies and universities to its network and is linking to networks across the world. Right now there are 3 million potential users, and that number will continue to grow, Bachula said. And more and more traditional corporations like Caterpillar and Ford have become members of the network.
"We are moving toward an era with virtual corporations, with suppliers and facilities worldwide, and a high-performance Internet can connect them in a way that the current Internet can't," Bachula said.
UCAID also recently opened Internet2 to state education departments and museums. Eleven states have applied to link to the network, which could give elementary and secondary school districts access to the high-speed network.
To help the state education departments afford the connection fee, Internet2 plans to charge $30,000 a year. The departments also would have to pay $2,000 each for the number of House members the states have. For example, Nebraska only has three members in the House, and would pay $6,000 on top of the $30,000 in fees.
Universities, on the other hand, pay about $90,000 to connect to the network, while companies pay between $25,000 and $1 million, depending on size. The NSF does not directly provide money to Internet2, but annual research and advanced technology grants to universities often are used toward supporting connection fees and maintaining their connections to the network.
Bachula said the Internet2 could use more government financial support, and he has been encouraged by Congress' efforts to double R&D funding. Those efforts failed to win final approval in the past, but Bachula hopes House Science Committee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., will renew the bid for doubling R&D funding again this fall.
"Private-sector investment in R&D has dried up, so the activities by our universities to focus on what is next is even more important," Bachula said.
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