The Future of the Internet

The Future of the Internet

Predicting the future can be tricky but we can gain incite into the Internet's future by the development work on Internet 2. The National Science Foundation (NSF) created the Internet to be a tool for connecting researchers together and for network research. When the Internet was opened up to commercial organizations, the Internet lost the ability to fulfill its original mission. The NSF created the Internet 2 to be the research platform for new technologies before introduction into the Internet. Internet 2's membership is limited to

The only commercial organizations allowed access to Internet 2 will be networking technology firms. Limited membership allows tighter control of the data transfer resources and opens up the possibilities of network resource sharing and allotments of dedicated resources for high bandwidth research.

The NSF ran the backbone of the Internet until 1995. To maintain the ability to conduct network research, the NSF formed a joint venture with MCI creating the very high performance Backbone Network Service (vBNS.) The vBNS backbone will utilize the latest fiber optic data technology with data transfer capability of 640 megabits per second to over 1.2 gigabits per second. The network backbone is the main stay of the Internet 2 with network nodes connecting the network backbone segments together.

A network node can be thought of as the "on Ramp" to Internet 2's backbone network . The node connects the local Wide Area Networks (WAN) to Internet 2. Arizona State University's (ASU) network is an example of a WAN that will connect to Internet 2 using a network node in San Diego, CA or Boulder, CO. The network nodes were named GigaPoPs because the nodes are designed to transfer over 1 billion bits per second (Giga bits per second) and the network will connect people together as if virtually in the same room. The networking terminology for creating a network capable simulating the participants being in the same room is called Points of Presents (PoP). A PoP network enables users from distant locations (points) to interact together in virtual communities as if they were really located in the same room or present at the same location.

Internet 2 was designed with research in mind. One of the first projects that will be tested is a new IPv6 protocol that will be needed as the Internet continues to grow. New switching and routing technology can be tested before introduction into the Internet. The ability to reserve Internet 2's bandwidth makes weather prediction and artificial intelligence research with multiple supercomputers located around the country possible.

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