Internet2: Blazing trails
11,000 times faster than dial-up

--Oct. 23, 2003--

By Tuesday Frase

You may perceive the Internet as a sluggish source of static information, or as a lightning-fast collection of dynamic, multimedia content. Either can be true, depending on what type of Internet connection you have at home. Dial-up modems, cable or DSL connections, or even satellite and dedicated T-1 connections can be used to access the wealth of information stored on the Internet, but they all have varying speeds and reliability levels.

Currently, a "second Internet" is in development at higher education institutions across the nation. Coined the Internet2 project, the goal is to develop a bigger, better, faster, more secure network on which to develop and test advanced networking technology.

As part of Internet2, the University of Texas has just upgraded its connection from OC-3 (about 155 Megabits per second, or Mbps) to OC-12 (about 622Mbps). The upgrade nearly quadruples the connection that originally was established in 2000 to connect the school to the GigaPoP in Houston. That, in no small terms, is more than 11,000 times faster than dial-up. (For reference, consider the relative speeds of different connection types shown in the graph. All speeds are approximate, and relations have been graphically modified to fit into this page.)

The final installation tasks were completed in September. Wayne Wedemeyer, Director of the U.T. System Office of Telecommunication Servies (OTS), was heavily involved in the upgrade and considers the project to be a big boost for Texas universities and the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) on campus.

"The move to OC-12 was a non-trivial task. It took over five months to purchase the equipment, set up the services, install the hardware, and reconfigure the connections," said Wedemeyer. "Now that the upgrade is complete, we've improved the research capabilities of UT Austin and can offer the use of Internet 2 for collaborative research. Because of this added capacity, Texas will now be able to offer numerous resources to other universities."

Another notable step accompanying the upgrade is UT Austin's new status as a sponsored educational group participant (SEGP) for the Internet2 project. Now that the University of Texas is a SEGP member, other universities can take advantage of UT Austin's connection, and many are doing so. The chart to the right shows Texas-based activity for October 10, 2003, and was created through Indiana University's SNAPP program.

"SEGP allows the University of Texas components, Austin school district, K-12 Texas schools and libraries to connect through Austin to get to Internet2," said Wedemeyer. "Now that we have the bandwidth to support their access, they can join via leased circuits, or through the Texas Higher Education network [THEnet]."

Currently, Texas has Internet2 members in six cities statewide, connected either through a dedicated connection or one provided by THEnet.

• Austin (The University of Texas)
• Dallas (The University of Texas Southwest Medical Center, The University of North Texas, Southern Methodist University, Texas Christian University, The University of Texas at Arlington, The University of Texas at Dallas)
• El Paso (The University of Texas at El Paso)
• Houston ( Baylor College of Medicine, Rice University, University of Houston, Stephen F. Austin State University)
• Lubbock (Texas Tech University)
• San Antonio (Southwest Research Institute)

The journey of the Internet

The Internet wasn't always an all-purpose vehicle for anyone with a computer. It was originally conceived as a way to transmit critical military information in the event of widespread disaster. Pioneering military computer scientists at the U.S. Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) designed a way to send data over multiple routes, breaking it up into "packets" that could easily be sequenced and reassembled by the receiving computer. The speed of this original network, called ARPANET, was slower than the speed of most modems today.

Soon after, the technology was adopted by academic researchers at universities across the nation. They quickly discovered the value of sharing data and sending e-mail, and many computer scientists at the university level began researching ways to use host-to-host connection technology to improve research communication. New technologies and concepts were developed, but the Internet network was still limited to private university and research use.

Finally, the general public gained access, and the wave we know as the Internet was born. Back then, no one anticipated that the Internet would launch the world into the Information Age and re-engineer communications, commerce, and just about every aspect of daily life. With Internet2, the technology has come full circle and will once again drive innovative change.

Why Internet2?

Many unforeseen consequences followed the Internet's popularity. The basic architecture relies on a backbone, a skeleton structure of high-speed connections (nodes) to which Internet Service Providers connect. However, these lines can only carry a certain amount of data in a given amount of time (bandwidth). So, demand usually outweighs the supply of bandwidth at any given time

The Internet has slowed down by the sheer fact that millions of people are now online, and more information is being transmitted. Streaming audio and video file quality is marginal because the current architecture cannot support high-quality streaming. Downloading large files can take several minutes, or even hours over a dial-up connection. By today's standards, the Internet is no longer a high-speed network.

Another issue of concern is the security of the Internet. The original protocols developed under the ARPANET project and by universities implement weak security controls. Although some security tools are available, today's Internet relies in large part on antiquated data transport methods and identification and security processes. Finally, today's Internet applications must be built on top of aging technology.

Concerned about these issues, university researchers began to explore the possibly of launching a "new Internet" on which advanced technologies could be developed and tested on a non-public network. The result was the conceptualization of the Internet2 project, a consortium of educational, governmental and corporate entities working together to develop and test advanced networking technologies. The overall goal is to shape and accelerate the growth of Internet technology.

What is Abilene, and how is it related to Internet2?

Architecturally, Internet2 comprises a number of network nodes, all connected by high-speed fiber optic media (OC-3 and OC-12, for example). The backbone consists of GigaPoPS (gigabit points-of-presence), each acting as an "on ramp" to the backbone. The backbone operates at a base speed of 10Gbps. As of today, 205 universities are currently connected to these nodes either directly or indirectly through fiber optic connections from their physical locations.

Collectively, the GigaPoP Internet2 nodes form the Abilene network. The maps below show the GigaPoP locations (left) and a live traffic map for Abilene, hosted by Indiana University (right). This dynamically generated image shows network usage data for the current point in time. Other Abilene maps are also available on the Abilene Web site.

What's new in Internet2?

Abilene is home to exciting new technologies now in the proof-of-concept and testing phases. IPv6, the next iteration of the Internet Protocol, controls traffic on Abilene and provides standards and rules to govern the transmission of data.

The Abilene network supports incredible speeds of up to 10Gbps, which is 10 to 100 times faster than most business and campus networks. At that speed, great strides in content delivery are possible. IP telephony, remote control observatory telescope equipment, virtual surgery, virtual museums and libraries, and rich multimedia delivery projects are just a few applications currently operating on Abilene.

Internet2 technology will also allow real-time video conferencing between remote locations, as well as "tele-immersion" sessions in which remote users or students can simultaneously view virtual 3-D computer models and and virtual reality environments. For instance, a lecturer at Princeton could offer a live webcast that takes students from many different universities through a high-resolution, 3-D modeling system for the human body.

Wedemeyer foresees GRID computing as another major applications for Internet2 on campus. Processing time on supercomputers is a valuable commodity. In a computing grid, many powerful computer arrays scattered in various locations can share workloads and processing power, farming out tasks to computers on the grid but not currently in use. By using GRID techniques, supercomputers in Austin can contribute idle processing time to supercomputers in other locations to help perform mathematical simulations, intensive data manipulation, encryption testing, and other projects that require high-powered processing.

In late September, the Texas Advanced Computer Center won a $3.2 million dollar grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). This award enables TACC to join TeraGrid, a widespread grid designed for scientific research. The money will go toward laying out a dedicated 10Gbps connection from Austin to Atlanta, one of the project's main computing hubs.

"UT Austin can perform a categorically
different type of research now."

- Wayne Wedemeyer, Director
U.T. System Office of Telecommunication Services

Research may be a large part of Internet2's purpose, but other benefits will emerge as advanced technologies are tested and deployed. Most of all, Wedermeyer notes, local Internet2 efforts are establishing the University as a "good citizen of Texas." By sharing solutions like the Knowledge Gateway and access to Internet2, UT Austin is helping to ready the stage for the next-generation Internet.

For more information

To learn more, visit the Web sites listed below:

Internet2 Project
http://www.internet2.edu/

Abilene Network Operations Center
http://www.abilene.iu.edu/noc.html

Indiana University Abilene Weathermaps
http://loadrunner.uits.iu.edu/weathermaps/abilene/

SNAPP Traffic Charts
http://winger.uits.iu.edu/snapp/

© 2003 Internet2. The Internet2 logo and GigaPoP map appear courtesy of the Internet2 Project and are governed by Internet2 terms of use.

© 2000, 2002. the Trustees of Indiana University. The Abilene Network Operations Center (NOC) weather map and SNAPP chart appear courtesy of Indiana University and are used by permission. The SNAPP traffic chart for Texas chart was produced using the SNMP Network Analysis and Presentation Package, a program written at Indiana University by Luke Fowler for the TransPAC project.

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