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."

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.

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.

Related sites:

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

• Internet2 Home Page
• Next Generation Internet (NGI) Initiative
• Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
• Cisco Connection Online by Cisco Systems, Inc.
• 3Com
• MCI

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.

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