Internet2 Setting Description
The following setting description is drawn from printed sources in a variety of
journals as well as Internet2’s own website. The next phase of the project will involve
onsite work at Internet2, surveying records and interviewing staff.
Internet2, a consortium of 206 universities in partnership with organizations in
industry and government, was founded October 1, 1996.
Sometimes described as
“similar to the Internet before it went commercial,”1 Internet2 focuses on enabling
advanced, high-speed network capabilities and on developing the applications that take
advantage of those capabilities.
Their primary mission and goals, as stated on the
Internet2 website are to:

Create a leading edge network capability for the national research community

Enable revolutionary Internet applications
 Ensure the rapid transfer of new network services and applications to the broader
Internet community.2
Origins
For eight years (1987-1995) NSFNET (National Science Foundation Network)
provided backbone network service connecting the nation’s universities, laboratories, and
research centers to each other and to their counterparts around the world. Much of the
subsequent success of NSFNET has been attributed to the cooperation between academia,
industry, and government, achieved largely because overall management of the project
was taken on by a representative of the research and academic community, Merit
Network, Inc., which is based out of Ann Arbor, Michigan.3
NSFNET prohibited commercial activity from its network, but in the early 1990s it
came under increasing pressure to allow the network to be used for non-research
purposes. Since many of the partners involved in the NSFNET backbone project were
1
David Watson, “Year in Review: Wireless Takes Lead Role on Network Stage.” Computer World 10 Feb
2004. http://www.computerworld.co.nz/cw.nsf.
2
Internet2, retrieved on March 30, 2004, from http://www.internet2.edu/about/aboutinternet2.html.
3
The NSFNET Backbone Project, 1987-1995. This article was originally published through Merit
Network, Inc.’s website at http://www.merit.edu/merit/archives/nsfnet/final.report/. Unfortunately the
report is no longer available through this URL. Many thanks to Doug Van Houweling and Nat Bulkley for
providing a copy.
private corporations with no need for a research or education network, they soon devised
a plan for the transfer of responsibility for the nationwide backbone service. As one
person on the project stated, “It had to come…because it was obvious that if it didn’t
come in a coordinated way, it would come in a haphazard way, and the academic
community would remain aloof, on the margin…There had to be commercial activity to
help support networking, to help build volume on the network.”4 According to the NSF,
“commercial use of the network…would further the objectives of NSFNET, by
enhancing connectivity among commercial users and research and education users and by
providing for enhancements to the network as a whole.”5
All this meant, however, that the research community suddenly had to share its
private network with thousands, and later millions, of new users clogging the system,
slowing it down, and making it increasingly difficult for research institutions to use the
network for the kinds of advanced applications they felt they needed.
Enter Internet2
In the fall of 1996, 34 universities met in Chicago to form Internet2, an initiative
started to address the founders’ concerns that the commercial Internet lacked leadership
in providing the advanced networking required of research institutions.6 The project
would be financed through membership fees, and like NSFNET, would be dependant
upon the cooperation and investment of industry and government. The main universities
leading this project at the time were Pennsylvania State, Stanford University, and the
Universities of California, Chicago, Michigan, and North Carolina. According to one
supporter, “The new network would solve the same "chicken-and-egg problem" that the
NSFNET had addressed: Telecommunication companies will not make the next
generation of network technology available unless there is a critical mass of potential
customers, plus some demonstrations of what can be done with the technology.”7
4
Ibid.
Ibid.
6
Eric M. Aupperle., “Merit: Who, What, and Why.” Library Hi Tech, Vol. 16, no 1 (1998): 35.
7
Thomas J. Deloughry, “Computing Officials at 23 Universities Seek to Create a Network for Higher
Education.” The Chronicle of Higher Education 43:7 (1996): A29.
5
In 1997, as more institutions were joining Internet2, it became incorporated as the
University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development (UCAID), and Douglas Van
Houweling, who served on the Board of Directors for Merit Network, Inc. and as ViceProvost of Information Technology at the University of Michigan, became its first CEO
and President.
Internet2 Today
Today, Internet2 is known internationally as a pioneer in advancing next generation
Internet technologies and bringing those capabilities to the higher education and research
community.
Although it began with only 34 university members and corporate
membership that represented primarily telecommunications and computer companies,
Internet2 is now made up of a large and diverse membership that includes 206
universities and corporate and affiliate membership drawn from the fields of
manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, and the arts.
Membership and Partnerships
Internet2 has four main types of membership: Regular, Affiliate, Corporate, and the
newly added Association. Regular membership is limited to higher education institutions
and currently has been granted to 206 universities in the U.S. To become Regular
Members universities must pay membership fees of $27,000 per year as well as commit
to upgrade their campus network connections and use and develop Internet2 support
applications. The estimated cost of upgrade is $500,000 dollars per campus per year.
Affiliate membership is open to non-profit and research institutions across the
country. Affiliates are required to pay $10,800 in membership fees, and to become
“collaboration” sites, which would allow them to connect to Internet2’s high-speed
backbone network, Abilene, they must pay an additional $27,000 per year. Currently
there are 41 affiliate members, which include NASA, NARA (the National Archives and
Records Administration), and the FDA (the Food and Drug Administration).
Corporate membership is subdivided into three categories: Regular, Corporate
Partners, and Corporate Sponsors. All three types pay an amount, between $11,000 and
$27,000, based upon their annual revenue. There are 41 Regular Corporate Members
including Apple, Comcast, General Motors, and Pfizer.
Corporate Partners must pay an additional $1,000,000 in goods and services over
three years. The 15 Partners currently working with Internet2 include AT&T, IBM, MCI,
and Qwest Communications.
Corporate Sponsors agree to contribute an additional $100,000 or more over a threeyear period. BellSouth, Ford Motor Company, and ArborNetworks are some of the 10
Corporate Sponsors currently involved with Internet2.
Internet2’s recently established Association Membership is intended for non-profit
research and education associations with national or international scope.
These
associations must have dues paying members, and the majority of associations’ members
must also be non-profit organizations. Besides these, other non-profit consortia that
focus on advanced technologies for research and education may also be considered on a
case-by-case basis. If associations wish to connect to Abilene, however, they must
become Affiliate Members with Collaboration Site status. Association Members pay
annual dues of $2500, and although there are no members in this category yet, examples
of qualifying associations are the National Association of College and University
Business Officers (NACUBO), EDUCAUSE, the Association for Communications
Technology Professionals in Higher Education (ACUTA), and the Global Grid Forum
(GGF).
In addition to the primary categories of membership discussed above, Internet2 has
also formed partnerships with international and government organizations that have
similar goals as Internet2.
Interested international organizations must complete a
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which is the international organization’s
commitment to work together with Internet2 to develop advanced networking
technologies and applications for education and research communities.
There are
currently 45 such organizations spanning North and South America, the Middle East,
Europe, and Asia and the Pacific Rim.
Internet2’s interest in developing advanced network applications aligns with several
government initiatives and programs.
The federal government plays a key role in
supporting some key technological developments as well as works in cooperation with
universities exploring cutting edge network technologies. The Next Generation Internet
(NGI), announced just 7 days after Internet2 formed, is a federal government initiative
for the development of advanced Internet applications and technologies, and many of the
government agencies that have worked with NGI, including the National Science
Foundation, the Department of Energy, National Institutes of Health, NASA Department
of Defense, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, are also involved
with Internet2.
Additionally, there are a number of projects and organizations that Internet2 is
heavily involved with either as project leader or co-collaborator. These include the 100 x
100 Project, HOPI (The Hybrid Optical and Packet Infrastructure Project), FiberCo
(National Research and Education Fiber Company), TeraGrid, Global Lambda Integrated
Facility (GLIF), National LambdaRail, Inc. (NLR), and PlanetLab.
The 100 x 100 Project is an NSF funded collaboration between researchers at
Carnegie Mellon University, Fraser Research, Rice University, the University of
California at Berkeley, Stanford University, Internet2, the Pittsburgh Supercomputing
Center, and AT&T Research. Together, they are working to rebuild the nation’s Internet
architecture so that it can support higher network speeds for homes and small businesses.8
HOPI is led by Internet2 and is part of their effort to develop a hybrid optical and
packet infrastructure for the Internet. This project is central to Internet2’s mission to
“provide scalable, sustainable, high-performance networking in support of the research
universities of the United States.”9
Internet2 started FiberCo to ensure that the research and education community
maintains access to a “strategic fiber acquisition capability on a national scale.” The
access to dark (unlit) fiber will help Internet2 continue to develop and maintain advanced
network capabilities and applications.10
TeraGrid, another NSF project, is working to develop and deploy “the world's largest,
fastest, distributed infrastructure for open scientific research.” Five sites will be part of
this network, and Internet2 is working with other organizations to build some of the
8
Retrieved on April 16, 2004, from http://www.internet2.edu/about/related-projects.html#nlr.
Ibid.
10
Ibid.
9
middleware architecture for the TeraGrid. Internet2 also plans to allow members to tap
into the TeraGrid’s resources through their high-speed backbone network, Abilene.11
The Global Lambda Integrated Facility (GLIF) is a “world-scale Lambda-based
Laboratory for application and middleware development on emerging LambdaGrid.”
Lambda Grids depend on optical networking, which sends information as light waves
instead of as electricity or radio waves. Internet2 is contributing to this project by
participating in lightwave experiments at the Manhattan Landing.12
Internet2 plans to donate over $10million in the next five years to National
LambdaRail, Inc. (NLR), an initiative of research universities as well as private sector
technology companies to create the world’s largest higher-education owned optical
network and research facility. Internet2 also serves on NLR’s governance board and has
permission to use one of NLR’s 10gbps wavelengths when it begins operations.13
Conducted in the Abilene Observatory, PlanetLab is a collocated research project that
connects researchers and allows them to run software on many computers at once,
creating, in effect, “a large, widely distributed computer.”14
Nature, Scale, and Scope of Production
Bandwidth is considered the key ingredient in the advancement of new network
technologies capable of serving education and research. Examples of applications that
depend on high-bandwidth capability are video conferencing, multicasting, and the
transfer of large amounts of data characteristic of scientific research.
Internet2 is
committed to creating and maintaining a high-bandwidth, low-latency network and
developing the applications that take advantage of the high capacity network. The main
categories of development work at Internet2 are divided into five main categories:
Initiatives, Applications, Engineering, Middleware, and Networks.
Although Internet2 employs approximately 80 persons on its staff, much of the
development work of the organization is carried out by Working Groups, Advisory
11
Ibid.
Ibid.
13
Ibid.
14
Ibid.
12
Groups, and Special Interest Groups. Working Groups are the main mechanism for
architecture, design, and implementation of Internet2 innovations. Initiated primarily
through Area Directors, individuals, or groups of individuals, these groups form around a
particular area of development and then disband when work is completed. Currently
there are 21 Working Groups, covering such areas of development as digital video, voiceover IP, IP optical, and various middleware projects.
An example of a specific
innovation developed by a Middleware Working Group is Shibboleth, a piece of software
that facilitates the sharing of web-based, password protected resources between
organizations. If a user is authenticated at one institution, s/he is granted access based
upon registration with that site, rather than having to login again.
A Shibboleth
deployment at Penn State in January, 2004, allowed thousands of authenticated students
to register for Napster’s music sharing service.
Governance Structure
While we must still collect more detailed information about Interent2’s governance
structure and decision-making processes, we were able to cull a basic outline from the
Internet2 website.
Internet2 is governed by a Board of Trustees, which is made up primarily of
university presidents from member institutions. The Board always numbers between 3
and 13 and currently has 12 members. The Board is responsible for making the decisions
of Internet2 and does so by majority vote. Four Advisory Councils, created by Board of
Trustees resolutions, advise the Board on issues related to advanced networking in higher
education.
The President and CEO of Internet2, Doug Van Houweling, serves as the main point
of contact between the Board and all outside organizations.
He is responsible for
recruiting and discharging employees and must also carry out the plans, programs, and
budgets decided upon by the Board.
The Working Groups are committees ruled by rough consensus. They are relatively
independent from Internet2 in terms of how they are governed, but must still each have
an Area Director (a member of Internet2 staff), who oversees the groups. Each Working
Group has one or more Chairs who are responsible for group management, planning
group sessions, as well as ensuring that the mission they outline in their charter is
completed.