INTERNERT2

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By:
Er. Amit Mahajan
WHAT IS INTERNET2
Internet2 is a not-for-profit advanced
networking consortium comprising more
than 200 U.S. universities in cooperation with
70 leading corporations, 45 government
agencies, laboratories and other institutions
of higher learning as well as over 50
international partner organizations.
WHAT IT DOES
Internet2 operates the Internet2
Network, a next-generation Internet
Protocol and optical network that
delivers production network services
to meet the high-performance
demands of research and education,
and provides a secure network testing
and research environment.

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WHY IT DOES SO
To increase the potential of Internet
technology, not only in the field of the
research and education community,
but to commerce and business, to
healthcare and science, to the arts and
humanities and beyond.

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OBJECTIVES
 Developing and maintaining a leading-
edge network.
 Fully exploiting the capabilities of
broadband connections through the
use of new-generation applications.
 Transferring new network services and
applications to all levels of educational
use, and eventually the broader
Internet community.
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OVERVIEW
Internet2 is a consortium initiated by the
University Cooperation for Advanced Internet
Development (UCAID) in October, 1996. Its
aim is to develop advanced Internet
technology and applications for research and
educational purposes now, eventually
extending to the commercial sector. The
project is currently led by 202 U.S. universities
that collaborate with other similar industrial
and federal initiatives such as the Next
Generation Internet (NGI) initiative, and with
initiatives from other countries.

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TIMELINE

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INFRASTRUCTURE
 ALIBENE

 vBNS

 BANDWIDTH

 GIGAPoPs
 MIDDLEWARE

 QUALITY OF SERVICE

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ALIBENE
At the core of Internet2 is a high-bandwidth
backbone named Abilene connecting eleven regional
sites across the United States. Fifteen high-speed
fiber-optic lines connect core sites in Seattle,
Sunnyvale, Los Angeles, Denver, Kansas City,
Houston, Chicago, Indianapolis, Atlanta, New York,
and Washington, D.C. The Abilene backbone consists
of 13,000 miles of fiber optic cable and transfers
about 1,600 terabytes of data per month. Abilene is
managed from a Network Operations Center at
Indiana University in Indianapolis and is monitored
24 hour a day, 7 days a week.

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CONTD.

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VBNS
While Abilene serves as the primary backbone of
Internet2, another network called vBNS (very high
performance Backbone Network Service) also
contributes to Internet2. vBNS, developed in 1995
by the National Science Foundation and MCI,
connects several governmental and university
research institutions and initially served as the
primary backbone of Internet2. Abilene and vBNS
now connect to each other, allowing users of
either network full connectivity to Internet2. In
2000, vBNS evolved into the commercial service
Vbns+ .

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BANDWIDTH
 Abilene is currently undergoing an upgrade
from OC-48 (Optical Carrier level 28) to OC-
192 (Optical Carrier level 192) connections.
Optical Carrier lines run over high-
performance fiber optic cable and are
commonly used in backbone networks. An OC-
1 line runs at 51.84 Mbps, and higher-level OC
lines run at multiples of this speed. Thus, OC-
48 lines, which currently form slowest part of
the Abilene backbone, run at 51.84 * 28 =
2488.32 Mbps, or 2.488 Gbps. Similarly, the
next-generation OC-192 Abilene links provide
a maximum bandwidth of 10 Gbps.
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CONTD.

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GIGAPOPS
In addition to the core nodes of the Abilene
backbone, Internet2 uses several regional
gigaPoPs to provide connectivity to multiple
institutions. A gigaPoP, or gigabit capacity
point of presence, is intended to be a meeting
place between the Internet2 backbone and up
to 12 institutional networks. Some gigPoPs
may also provide connectivity to additional
networks. The following map shows the 32
gigaPoPs connected to Internet2

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CONTD.

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MIDDLEWARE
Middleware is the layer of software that
mediates the connection between the network
infrastructure and the applications which use
it. It acts as a standard for various services
such as security and directories, thus
preventing cross-platform compatibility issues
and ensuring a high level of reliability.

Middleware is also the name of the working

group established under Internet2 to look into
developing this software interface. The group
has since focused their attention on five key
sub-areas:
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CONTD.

 Directories - they allow users and applications to search for information

about other users and applications on the network.
 
 Identifiers - they are labels for users, applications and other entities on the
network. By systematically allocating identifiers to entities on the network, it
becomes easier to produce applications which work with these entities. It also
allows better protection of user privacy and network security.
 
 Authentication - it is the process that ensures that the use of identifiers is
valid and secure. The main work is in studying various ways of verifying the
identity of a user, such as through passwords or biometrics.
 

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CONTD.
 Authorization - it is the process which sets the tasks
and information that the user is permitted to access.
For example, a scientist at a certain laboratory would
be allowed to access equipment and data from his
workplace by means of his identifier.
 
 Public Key Infrastructure - it refers to a very
promising but complex and hard-to-implement set of
techniques for electronic security. This security is
achieved by the exchange of electronic credentials
known as certificates. Certificates form the basis on
which the other four sub-areas are built: they are
stored in directories, tied with related identifiers, and
are applied in authentication and authorization
processes.
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QUALITY OF SERVICES
Many of todayís advanced network applications such as
video conferencing and telesurgery work with large amounts
of real-time data that needs to be sent quickly on dedicated
channels across the Internet without any loss. However, the
Internet tends to treat all data indiscriminately and packets of
high priority information are frequently dropped as a result of
congestion from lower priority traffic such as emails.

Quality-of-Service (QoS) guarantees are created to solve this

problem. Important data are tagged to ensure that network
routers send them down dedicated bandwidths. At the same
time, less important information are not dropped in times of
congestion but queued to ensure that they are eventually
sent. This reduces the need to resend data when it fails to get
through, and hence lessens unnecessary congestion on the
Internet.

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MULTICASTING
Today's Internet uses a model of communication known
as unicast, where the data source creates a distinct
copy of data for every recipient. This creates a huge
problem of network congestion when many people try
to access the same piece of information, such as the
live telecast of a show, at the same time.

Multicast is a method that solves this problem by

sending only one copy of the information along the
network, and duplicating it at a point close to the
recipients to minimize the bandwidth used along a large
part of the network.

Many different applications such as distance learning,

video conferencing and digital video libraries stand to
benefit from multicasting. Multicasting has been
deployed fully on the Internet2 20
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IPV6 AND INTERNET2

One of the goals in creating Internet2 was to

test and implement improved networking
technologies, including IPv6. An IPv6 Working
Group was formed within the Internet2
organization specifically for this task. As the
Internet2 backbone developed, care was
taken to upgrade and choose equipment to
support the new version of IP. In addition, the
working group aims to educate and motivate
Internet2 institutions to support IPv6 in their
equipment and networks. Today, the Abilene
backbone provides full IPv6 support, as do
many hosts connected to it.
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INTERNET2 NETWORK
The Internet2 Network's physical
implementation is made up of several robust,
logically different, but related networks, each
on its own overlaid infrastructure. These
networks include:

 Advanced IP network

 Dynamic Circuit network

 Core optical network

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CONTD.
 IP Network 
The IP network is built across a carrier-class
infrastructure and supports leading edge IPv4,
IPv6, multicast, and other advanced
networking protocols, as well as the ability to
more easily and flexibly increase its capacity
beyond any other network in the world.
 Dynamic Circuit Network This is a
completely new service that realizes the
community’s vision of hybrid (IP and dynamic
circuit) networking. The Internet2 Dynamic
Circuit (DC) Network is a network unlike any
other before it. It uses community-developed,
standards-based technologies and protocols to
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provide on-demand dedicated optical paths
between endpoints.
CONTD.
Services enabled by the DC Network include
short-term, point-to-point circuits, setup by
the requestor or application in standard
SONET bandwidth increments up to 10 Gbps.

 Static Circuit ServicesInternet2 provides a

unified service for Internet2 members looking
for long-term, static, point-to-point circuits to
cost-effectively extend their network
connectivity. Circuits are provisioned by
Internet2 over the Internet2-controlled
optical infrastructure

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APPLICATIONS
 HEALTH ORIENTED APPLICATIONS
 BIOSCIENCE ORIENTED APPLICATIONS

 DIGITAL LIBRARIES

 DIGITAL LABORATORIES

 ARTS AND HUMANITIES

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HEALTH ORIENTED APPLICATIONS
 Human Embryo Development

The purpose of this project is to better

understand and communicate information on
human embryo development in a 3D visual
form, utilizing a network of workstations
equipped with advanced technology.
High resolution images of the human
embryo can be annotated and used for
collaborative research, diagnoses, clinical
case management, and medical education.

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CONTD.
 Anatomy & Surgery Workbenches

In this project, the network is used to test the

workbenches' effectiveness as teaching tools. It
links laboratories, classrooms, clinical departments,
and medical libraries.

o NLM (National Library of Medicine)

This Internet2 network offers users a wide array of

abilities, including MPEG-2 videoconferencing,
telemedicine, videomicroscopes, and digital
stethoscopes.
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CONTD.

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BIOSCIENCE-ORIENTED
APPLICATION
 Telescience Alpha Project

This allows scientists real-time access to

instruments and resources to examine biological
specimens over a network

 Biomedical Informatics Research Network

The network built in this project is used to share

digital MRIs, 3D microscope images, and other data
pertinent to understanding brain-related diseases.

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CONTD.
 Virtual Laboratories
Enables a group of researchers located in
separate locations to work together on a common
project

o Digital Libraries
Access to online catalogs
Abstracting and indexing databases
Primary content, such as journals in electronic
formats
Continuous digital video and audio

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VIDEO APLLICATION
One common use of Internet2 for many
applications is videoconferencing. In
the medical field, videoconferencing has the
potential to enable remote collaboration
between researchers and students and remote
contact with a surgeon during a procedure.
Videoconferencing is available and used on the
standard Internet; however, the higher
bandwidth available on Internet2 allow higher
quality video and audio and more consistent
connections.
One application that has been tested over
both the standard Internet and Internet2 is the
live broadcast of laparoscopic surgery. 32
CONTD.
 This procedure was carried out on the standard
Internet on a connection between an ISDN line and a
dial-up modem in 1997. Overall quality was poor, as
the video appeared in a small 320x240 pixel window
at just 1-2 frames per second, an average of 17% of
audio packets were lost, and delays ranged from 0.5
to 2 seconds.

 A similar experiment done in 1998 over an Internet2

connection shows the clear benefits of using a next-
generation connection. The additional bandwidth
available at both ends of the connection allowed
transmission of full-screen TV-quality at a rate close
to 2 Mbps. Viewers reported excellent quality, delays
were less than 1 second, and packet loss was just
0.1%.
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TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS FOR
APPLICATIONS
To discuss the technical performance of
applications over a network such as
Internet2, it is useful to speak of four key
performance metrics: bandwidth, latency,
packet loss, and jitter.

 Bandwidth is the maximum amount of data

that can be transferred in a given amount of
time. It is closely related to throughput.
 
 Latency is a measure of delay, or how long
it takes information to travel across a 34
network from source to destination.
CONTD.
The effects of latency are often apparent when
browsing the web; after clicking a link there may
be a brief delay, after which the resulting page
loads rapidly.
 
 Jitter is closely related to latency and is a
measure of its variation. Because network
conditions constantly change and data does not
always take the same path from source to
destination, latency can vary.

 Packet loss describes the random loss of

pieces of information that never reach their
destination due to congestion or poor 35
connections.
CONCLUSION
 New applications exist that push the performance
limitations of the current Internet.
 While Internet2ís biggest strength is the large
amounts of bandwidth it offers, it can also
improve the performance of applications by
offering lower latency and packet loss.
 In addition, the creation of Internet2 as a separate
network rather than an addition to the existing
Internet is allowing the testing and
implementation of new protocols that increase the
quality of connections and can potentially
guarantee levels of service.
 Internet2 has made many improvements over the
standard Internet and has made new applications
possible. 36
CONTD.
 At the same time, these new applications
have begun to push the limits of even
Internet2 and are encouraging network
technologies to continually improve.

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REFERENCES
 http://abilene.internet2.edu
 http://loadrunner.uits.iu.edu/upgrade/

 http://www.springerlink.com

 http://www.wpi.edu/Admin/IT/Internet2/histor
y.
 http://internet2.stanford.edu

 http://news.internet2.edu/prAreaSelect.cfm

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