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Article In The Guardian On Internet2
Sam Halter writes: "The Guardian carries this story about the future of the Internet and the expermental Super high-speed academic networks that are being built in Europe and the U.S."
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I'm on the "blazing" internet 2 now. This office is part of the main connection. But guess what! There's 1 connection coming in. And interstate workers have cut the line like 3 times in the last week.
How am I supposed to keep productivity up with this internet 2 thing?!
(As I post to slashdot, click refresh, see what my karma is, refresh,
wash, rinse, repeat if necessary)
IMHO, i'd rather have service that is stable where the provider doesn't play any tricks (ahem, Cox@home blocking port 80, ahem), etc.
I kinda view this the same way as i view the "3G" cell phones. I don't care if Joe the businessman can video conference, i just want to have decent voice quality. Same goes for the net... i don't care if Joe the net surfer can browse his pr0n ten times faster, i just want it to work well!
It was interesting to read in "The Lexus and the Olive Tree" how Europe fumbled with computer manufacturing to the point that the industry is non-existent. Hopefully the latest round of deregulation will help their telecom companies compete. Whether or not they can efficently transfer technology from the lab to the market as well as the US or Asia remains to be seen.
Does internet 2 use IPv6? v4 is getting very limiting.
IMO the only way to get v6 adopted is (was?) to build a new internet. One of those chicken-and-egg problems, no incentive to upgrade the routers because the endpoints don't use it yet, endpoints don't use it because the routers can't route it.
I don't think there is that much demand for it. In ancient times the Internet served purely academic purposes and was used for sharing of information (in post-military and pre-commercialism days). I believe the same is true for Internet2 now.
I don't need no fancy GUI in a webpage, I don't need fancy movies, I don't need shock-the-monkey etc.
And plain HTML does a good job of giving me what I need.
-- The plural of 'anecdote' is not 'data'.
Anyone else frightened by the positive and negative potential of the "Grid" refered to towards the bottom of the article? At once, the notion of distributed computing at this level overwhelms the mind in terms of the benifit to research and developement. But it also seems to tap into a familiar theme in sci-fi - the interweaving of all the world's computers into some sort of incomprehensible entity that eventually destroys humankind for whatever reason (inefficiency, malaise, etc.).
Another thing: this article doesn't get into any of the specifics of the networking and transport models of the internet2. I have looked on the internet2 website to no avail as to quesitons of compatability with the current internet, readiness for ipv6, and built in security features. Has anyone hacked the internet2? It might end up being the fastest way to get your MS Passport stolen.
http://futur.thednb.com
You've got to wonder how far this is going to get without commercial support. If the thing remains pure, then that's great-- but there's only so far it can go.
The internet didn't really pick up until businesses got the idea that they could rape it for all it's worth. Of course, this is what left the researchers feeling like they needed something new in 1996, but it's also probably the reason that it's as widespread as it is today. You can't have a revolution these days if somebody's not coughing up the cash.
Not that using this thing to get a nonexistant ping in Quake 3 isn't a bit of a shame. But it's a bit optimistic to think that the future for Internet2 is as rosy as the article implies, I think.
At the very least, getting some corporations involved in something other than a research capacity would allow them to supply some advertising muscle-- I mean, you'd think somebody in the past five years would have been able to come up with a snappier title than "Internet2."
There is supposedly going to be some sort of dance production to promote Internet2 at the SuperComputing 2001 conference in Denver. The performance is going to be done entirely on Internet2, with choregraphers, dancers, and a sypmhony from various locations around the world.
There's an article here. The project site is here.
Having done some good looking-into for this...a lot of these comments are irrelevant.
Commercialism: The Internet(1) is plenty good for this. Internet2 is for research. In fact "Internet2" isn't a network, but a group of people, much like "open source" isn't a company but a movement. Abilene is the network the people who are Internet2 memebers connect to, and it's pretty much only research traffic. You can connect to the internet (commodity traffic) over your I2/Abiline link, but that is not routed over the Abiline backbone you have to pay for an ISP for that as well.
Controlled? Not really. Once you are in, you can do just about whatever you want with other orgs that are in as well.
Get this in your room? Not likely, unless you can get through the application process (stating that you are a research university, nonprofit research group, or a corporation doing research with at least $25,000 to spare for dues. You then have to buy an OC3 to a local "gigapop", who will connect you (and then probably pay more if you want to use any of this bandwith to get to the Internet(1)). I would skipp all the paperwork and extra fees and just get the OC3 if I were condiering this. I mean $2000/month is better than $4000/month and a lot of red tape.
What they are getting in return? They are doing research in middleware, networks, video, you name it...that is on the leading edge. Enough research in these areas and you're going to come up with some pretty neat ideas: product ideas, service ideas, etc.
However I2 isn't just supposed to set FTP speed records. Connecting educational institutions was designed to advance research in high speed network and practical applications. Some mentioned were interactive video applications, multicast HDTV and the like. It will be great when we start to see these apps, but unfortunately this will be some time coming.
While I2 now provides the theoretical playground for researchers and some developers to start generating next generation applications and protocols, these applications and protocols will most likely depend on the bandwidth of I2. Right now there are like 200 universities that are on I2. However the technology that is produced by them will stay theoretical until thousands of companies gain access, and those companies will have to wait until millions of homes are wired before they can ship their products.
I see I2 as being a lot like IPV6. A needed improvement, and a good thing. However something that will take time to permiate into our daily lives. Here's hoping it doesn't actually take that long to hit the market.
I'm not a tech guru... but why can't we make a new "net" wirelessly, using 80211B connectors, that share information with a gnutella like interface with other computers around us? We could have a cloud of computers instead of a net. all the computers witin range of a connection, sharing 10 percent of its resources with all the others, which in turn share with the ones they connect to... this could actually replace the internet.
Ok, first of all. Internet2 is slow. Really slow. They are hopeing for 10Gigabit in 2003? What? I know people with home networks that fast. That really is bottom of the line when it comes to backhaul networks. Most major telecommunication companies know have backbones in the Tb range, because of DWDM technology. I know Time-Warner has 80Tb lit, and will another 80Tb soon. You used to be able to get around 10Gigabit on a single fiber strand, now its about 16x that with dwdm technology by Nortel, Lucent, or a host of other companies. Thats 160Gigabit on a single strand of fiber. This network really is not fast in any way whatsover. I have used computers on schools on I2, it really isnt that fast. In fact, its so bogged down, its slower then 10Mbit for the most part.
Second, I wouldnt exactly call Europe lagging behind hind us in bandwith. In fact, as far as bandwith between colleges they kick our ass, and have for many many years. Have you have transfered between Euro schools. We are talking about 8-9megs a second, consistantly. I believe their is a network (not sure if its Janet or what its called) that is 80Gigabit running between a bunch of schools. The bandwith at uwente.nl is amazing. Thats why all the top software piracy sites are located there. US colleges internet speeds are pathetic and in the range of 1/100th of that of Euro schools. Most euro schools I have ran into have 100Mbit to the dorms, and have for years, most US schools are still 10Mbit (I know University of Washington , where I go, is, and I can name of dozens of other major universities that are). In fact, 1Gigabit in dorms is really starting to become popular in euro schools. Like I said, Utwente.nl has quite a few software piracy sites running a 1Gigabit. We cant even hope to catch up until we upgrade to at least 100Mbit in most of our schools. Then we will still be years behind.
Jeff Knox