Internet2 speeds things up
■The newer, faster Internet
connects 180 universities and
offers many advantages
By Andrew Adams
Oregon Daily Emerald
Most students don’t realize that
when they sign on to the Internet
through the campus server they are
actually signing on to Internet2, a
system completely different than
what the majority of net users surf.
Internet2 is a recently developed
high-speed research network that
connects 180 universities at levels
quicker and more efficient than the
standard Internet system.
The system originated in 1995
with a grant from the National Sci
ence Foundation. Corporations
and universities then came togeth
er to maintain and improve the
system. The University has been
using Internet2 for the past two
years and researchers in the Com
puting Center are continually ex
perimenting and adjusting the
University’s part in the system.
Lucy Lynch, an academic and
user support specialist with the
Computing Center, said most stu
dents are completely unaware
they’re using a different Internet
system when they log on from the
campus.
“To most people this is transpar
ent,” she said. “It’s seamless.”
She said the system originated
to give universities a more direct
and quicker route to transfer large
amounts of research information.
“Traffic travels on a different
path, a more direct path,” she said.
Internet2 also has a larger band
width than the regular Internet,
which Lynch explained allows
users to transfer and view “broad
cast quality” audio and video.
One other key difference be
tween the two Internets, Lynch
said, is that programmers on Inter
net2 have more freedom to experi
ment with new technology. She
explained that on the standard In
ternet programmers fear using un
proven systems because a system
crash could result in lost revenue.
Lynch said an example of Inter
net2 being more advanced than the
regular Internet is that it uses the
sixth version of Net protocol and
the standard Internet still uses the
fourth version.
i
Operational network
High-speed education
The University is part of the Abilene network, which
the Internet system.
® Abilene router node
SOURCE: http://www.internet2.edu
Assistant director of academic
user services at the Computing
Center )oe St. Sauver analyzes the
University’s use of Internet2 and
also helped Eastern, Western and
Southern Oregon universities set
up Internet2 connections.
Most of the schools in the Ore
gon University System are linked
together on Internet2 via a server
operated on the University cam
pus.
St. Sauver explained a big ad
vantage of the system is that while
it may be smaller, it has a larger
rate of connectivity.
Traffic travels on a
different path, a more
direct path.
Lucy Lynch
support specialist
UO Computing Center if
“The number of connected sites
is smaller, but the sites are larger,”
he said. “A typical small liberal
arts college might connect to the
commodity Internet with the
smallest size connection available;
from Internet2 now is a [connec
tion] one hundred times that size.”
St. Sauver said Internet2 will
eventually link K-12 schools and is
even planned to link a growing list
of international locations in South
America and Latin America.
He also said a key element of In
ternet2 is research and experimen
tation. One of the current projects
is multicast systems that are being
developed in the University’s
Video Lab.
Hans Kuhn, an academic and
user support specialist developing
multicast technologies, said only 5
to 10 percent of the regular Inter
net is capable of supporting multi
cast, but 50 percent of Internet2
can support the new technology.
He explained multicast systems
speed up the transfer of large
amounts of information by delay
ing the copying of such informa
tion until the last possible second.
Kuhn said with the standard Inter
net, a server has to copy the infor
mation for every receiver. This
process creates long delays as all
the recipients wait for the server to
copy information for them. Multi
cast cuts that copying process out
of the information loop.
“Rather than send 100 copies
over the Internet you only send
one,” he said. “It’s like if I would
send one copy to the office secre
tary and she’d Xerox copies and
put it in everyone’s box.”
Kuhn said multicast is ideal for
sending and receiving live audio
and video broadcasts through the
Internet.
He will put this to a test when
he transmits a webcast of a meet
ing of university programmers at
the University of Hawaii in Janu
ary.
“It’ll be a real-world application
of what we’re doing,” he said.
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