Vite co je Internet2??

[Ross Hedvicek]

Gore unveils 'Internet2' for universities

Private sector to help build super-fast network

  April 14, 1998
  Web posted at: 11:43 a.m. EDT (1543 GMT)

                 WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Imagine a computer network that can
                 transmit the entire 30-volume Encyclopaedia Britannica in
                 one second. That's the promise of a partnership between
                 academia and high-tech companies, one with broad
                 implications for the Internet in general.

                 Internet2, or "I2," as the network has been called, was
                 formally announced Tuesday by U.S. Vice President Al Gore
                 at the White House. In its early stages, Internet2 will
                 link 100 universities 100 times the speed of the current
                 Internet and a smaller group of schools 1,000 times as
                 fast.

                 Internet2 will not be accessible to the general public,
                 but one of the stated goals of the project is to develop
                 hardware and software that will trickle down to the
                 Internet as well as private computer networks.

                 In addition to making current uses of the 'Net faster, the
                 Internet2 project will look for new applications made
                 possible by a faster, more reliable network. Doctors, for
                 example, could look at real-time images of a beating heart
                 and make a diagnosis. Better weather forecasting is
                 another possibility researchers are exploring.

                 Three U.S. companies have pledged more than $500 million
                 in goods and services toward the project. Cisco Systems
                 and Northern Telecom are offering networking equipment,
                 such as routers and switchers. Qwest Communications has
                 offered the use of its fiber-optic lines, which run from
                 Los Angeles to New York. 3Com has also funded research
                 grants to 10 universities.

                 "We think this is the cutting edge that's going to define
                 how our products shape next generation networks," said
                 3Com's director of global education markets David Katz.
                 "What happens here will be happening in other industries
                 in a very short period of time."

                                            While the I2 project is funded
                                            primarily by the universities
                                            and companies involved, it is
                                            closely tied to the
                                            government's Next Generation
                                            Internet initiative.

                                            U.S. President Bill Clinton
                                            alluded to the project in his
                                            1997 State of the Union
                                            address, pledging support for a
                 "second generation of the Internet so that our leading
                 universities and national laboratories can communicate at
                 speeds 1,000 times faster than today."

                 Flanked by technology industry officials, Gore also
                 announced $50 million in new Internet-related projects by
                 the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Defense
                 Department's research office. It was that agency which
                 laid the groundwork for the Internet, originally named
                 ARPAnet.

                 Last month, 23 members of the I2 group were granted
                 permission to connect the National Science Foundation's
                 very high speed Backbone Network Service, or vBNS. The
                 vBNS can theoretically transfer data at a speed of 622
                 million bits per second -- compared to most home modem's
                 speed of 28,800 bps -- and is expected to be upgraded to
                 an eventual 2.4 billion bps.

                 The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this
                 report.

                             Factoid:

                   Internet2 will link
                   100 universities 100
                   times the speed of the
                   current Internet and a
                   smaller group of
                   schools 1,000 times as
                   fast.