eComTechnology Wordpress

Internet 2

16 Nov 2009 @ 3:33 PM

With the explosive commercial success of the Internet, the founding builders and users of the Internet are using an alternative network for bandwidth when it requires mission critical applications to operate for research and development projects. The network has been so successful in its use and available bandwidth capacity that more and more education and private sponsored support groups that partially fund many of the projects are using the Internet 2 network rather than the Internet. And just who is this group?

Universities and government agencies heavily involved in research are the primary sponsors of the network. Called Internet 2 in the U.S. with just under 250 colleges and universities signed on, CANARIE in Canada (with every provincial university connected), there are over 50 international partners and similar networks connected to it. It’s a very exclusive club with networks operating at bandwidth speeds that most simply drool about. Oh, you as an individual can’t use this network – unless you’re on campus of one of the universities or colleges connected. Yet, Internet 2 is offering connectivity to K-12 institutions and private education providers in addition to its core members. When the U.S. Military pulled ARPANET off the growing Internet network in 1983 (and created MILNET), it didn’t create a significant impact because computer power and multi-media services were limited in scale and performance. Things have changed over the past 26 years.

Clearly there’s a need to have a high performance network for bandwidth-intensive applications and services in the education sector. But this has weakened the existing Internet infrastructure and you’re paying for it.