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Internet2 and National LambdaRail To Merge
An anonymous reader writes "Ars Technica has the story on the rapproachment of the two main US providers of high-speed networks to academic and research institutions: Internet2 and National LambdaRail have agreed to merge. And they're moving quickly, after tussling over the details of such an agreement for more than a year. The two groups have decided to put final merger documents before their respective boards by April 20, with merger completion to take place by June 29."
Internet2 and National LambdaRail have agreed to merge. And they're moving quickly, after tussling over the details of such an agreement for more than a year.
Great news. So what sort of tubes will they be going forward with in this joint venture?
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
They were so careful to make sure one group didn't look superior to the other.
Who gives a **ck about either of these networks?
Now they can share Kingship of a very, very small pond.
Wake me in 924329992349 years when this merger is relevant to me.
You read it. Lick them. Coward. Lick them like you mean it.
Internet2? Psshhh... I'm not buying into that. Everyone knows Internet3.0 will be out in 6 months.
So they're setting up a monopoly. Who did they pay off to get this through the FCC and the "Justice Department"?
SunSITE/iBiblio has been connected to the National Lambda Rail since moving to the MCNC data centre;
In addition to giving warp speed access to research sites, the National Rail also allows traffic for the regular Internet to be routed via providers in Atlanta at much local cost than could be obtained directly from North Carolina, making it possible for iBiblio to increase the amount of bandwidth to commercial sites to 1/2Gbps.
When NLR and Abeline combine there networks far more campuses will be able to get to iBiblio without having to bother the real world.
Simon
Let us know when you finish your quest to locate and tag every piece of information on the internet that doesn't interest you.
I think the same can be said about your statement.
It's hard to tell if this is a good thing or not. Funny thing about Internet2 it's not a network. It helps you get connected to a network. Currently there are several to get connected up to. Abilene was the biggest network, and the fastest for a long time. But the key player behind Abilene was QWest. Well, since the Internet2 decided to start providing network access through Level3, Abilene is the way of the dodo now. Only problem is that the Level3 connection is more expensive. This sucks for smaller schools like the one I work for. Now, the NLR provided you with a way to get connected to an even faster network as long as you had access to Dark Fiber. If you could get Dark Fiber and a Wave Division Multiplexor, you could light up multiple 10Gb Lambdas. As many as you could afford. And that all depended on the Fiber you could get access to. Now, with the merger, will we still be able to get that 10Gb connection to the various institutions connected to the network? Will we have to pay more? From what I understood the NLR fees were much cheaper than the Internet2 fees. I personally would have liked NLR to stay seperate and blow Internet2 out of the water. Especially since we have already spent some money to get connected to NLR. Is that money just going to be wasted? It was Grant money, but still, that money could have went somewhere else if this screws up our deals. Oh well, I guess only time will tell.
When DARPA and NSF put together what became the Internet (merger of NSF-net and ARPA-net) in the National Research and Education Network (NREN) Act -- a.k.a. the "Gore Bill" -- Bob Kahn and Anita Jones (DARPA) and Bill Wolfe (NSF) had the bright idea of setting down some rules (really, "standards") that if other, existing commercial and educational networks (i.e., CompuServe, AOL, MERIT, etc.) played by, they could be part of the NREN as well. Even though the "big networks" at the time used slow, dialup networks, they joined. An the Internet spread with a rapidity that no one involved in the process ever anticipated. Fortunately, the TELCOs were not paying attention at the time and the genie was out of the bottle. This time, the fears that the big, rich guys will try to "divide and conquer" and control is a real threat that I for one hope is resisted. I hope the merger between these two "academic leaders" is followed quickly by appropriate legislation that guarantees open access to bigger, better pipes (bandwidth). The reluctance of the Telcos to give up their highly subsidized analog switches and twisted copper is why the U.S. is 16th in the world (per capita) in terms of broadband connections and is falling behind in networking technology. As to what this greater bandwidth will be used for? Does it really matter? It is impossible to forecast -- but you can bet it will be interesting if it isn't taken over by the advertising/marketing industry in search of more "face time."
Perhaps the internet is actually composed of a series of rails?
How can you tell if you have a moron computer operator working for you? Answer: Find the computer operator using white out on the monitor trying to erase the mistakes.
all these different internets will merge into just one internet. To stop the confusing situation where you never know which of the internets you should connect to. My modem is always connecting to the wrong internet and I have to keep hitting it until it finds the right one. I think I need to upgrade to a rooter. Maybe a radio one.
I am pretty clueless about what internet2 really is and how it works, and I have a few questions about it. Maybe some fellow slashdotter can enlighten me.
- There is no such thing as anonymity on internet2 is there?
- There is a central control that can yank sites they don't approve of, isn't there?
- Are there any powerful entities that are seeking to replace internet1 with internet2 for regular people?
- Why could we just not add more bandwidth (as is already being done), use the good old internet1 and hopefully eventually ipv6, and be happy with that?
Sam has one liberty, which he sacrifices for one security. Can you tell me what Sam has now?
What's that, the choo choo ride at the nerds' amusement park?