Next Generation Applications and Infrastructure: The Internet2 Project Ted Hanss Director of Application Development, Internet2 Project

Around the world a number of next generation initiatives are underway, developing networked applications for research and education that can't run on today's commodity internet. The applications come from a range of disciplines, from health care to astronomy to the arts, and involve such enabling technology as collaboration environments, digital libraries, and immersive virtual reality. Each application requires an advanced infrastructure, one that provides new functionality through enhanced middleware services, quality of service guarantees, and much higher bandwidth (typically 100 to 1000 times greater than what we have today). Similar to the role universities had in advancing the first generation of the internet, we see this next round of applications development as a bellwether for the ubiquitous internet applications environment five to ten years from now.

The Internet2 Project is a university-led program providing coordination andsupport for advanced networking initiatives in the U.S. Working cooperatively with industry and government, the Internet2 Project emphasis is on building advanced applications and effecting technology transfer to the broader internet. The talk will provide an overview of both the Internet2 applications and engineering efforts. I will provide examples of specific applications and outline the middleware challenges we face. The engineering challenges include deploying a nationwide OC48 to OC192 (2.4 gigabits/second to 9.6 gigabits/second) backbone networking together the leading research universities in the U.S. I will also highlight similar efforts around the world and describe the plans to link national efforts into a global research and education network.