Wednesday, August 5, 1998

Indiana U. Is Chosen to Run Nerve Center for Internet 2 Network By JEFFREY R. YOUNG WASHINGTON Indiana University will become the nerve center of the Internet 2 network, officials said Tuesday. The university has been chosen to run the "network operations center" for Abilene, a super-fast fiber-optic data network connecting universities that are members of Internet 2. The operations center and some parts of the network are expected to be up and running as early as November. Internet 2 consists of more than 130 universities committed to building faster computer networks and better network tools for researchers, scholars, and students. About 10 groups -- including universities, network companies, and partnerships of universities and businesses -- put in bids to run the operations center, said Greg Wood, a spokesman for the Internet 2 project, in an interview on Tuesday. Project leaders were to announce their decision formally today. Indiana already runs an operations center for the statewide network that connects the university's eight campuses. That five-year-old center will be "scaled up" to oversee the new nationwide network, said Michael McRobbie, the university's vice-president for information technology. The center is located at Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis. The center will handle the day-to-day chores involved in keeping the high-speed network running, said Mr. McRobbie. For example, if a network administrator in California noticed that a video feed to a campus in North Carolina wasn't flowing fast enough, he could call the Indiana operations center to have the problem investigated. Support from Indiana's Governor, Frank O'Bannon, helped the university win the bid, said Internet 2's Mr. Wood. The Governor, a Democrat, has indicated that the state would help pay the cost of running the center, if necessary. Officials said they weren't sure how much the center's operations would cost or who would pay the bills. "It may require us to put some additional resources into this," said Mr. McRobbie of Indiana. "We may have to find a couple of more [staff] positions." In a statement prepared for release today, the Governor said, "The new initiatives of the Abilene network have the strongest support and endorsement of the State of Indiana." Mr. Wood said that Mr. McRobbie's leadership in Indiana's network projects was also a factor. "He's really pushing things a lot at Indiana," Mr. Wood said. The network will provide opportunities for Indiana University, said Mr. McRobbie, allowing it to become an early adopter of the technologies developed for the new network. And the university's network experts will "develop experience and competencies of running a network of this scale -- which has never been done before," he said. The Abilene network was announced by Vice-President Gore in April. Three large communications-and-technology companies -- Qwest Communications International, Cisco Systems, and Nortel -- are contributing more than $500-million in equipment and services. The network is expected to run so fast that it could transmit the entire contents of the Encyclopaedia Britannica in one second. The new network, which is expected to be completed next year, is named for a frontier-era railroad terminus in Abilene, Kan. Background stories from The Chronicle: "Gore Announces Plans for New Fiber-Optic Network to Serve Researchers," 4/24/98 "Fund to Improve Internet Is Jeopardized by Judge's Ruling on Registration Fee," 4/10/98 "Backers of Next Generation Internet Show Its Potential in Capitol Hill Exhibition," 3/13/98 "Clinton's Budget Proposal Highlights Spending on Science and Technology," 2/13/98 "NSF-Financed Team Will Help Campus Users of High-Speed Network," 1/30/98 "Federal Support for New Version of Internet Hinges on 5 Spending Bills," 9/5/97 "NSF to Help Rural Universities Connect to High-Speed Network," 7/18/97 "Some Participants in Internet 2 Fear It Is Becoming Too Large," 6/27/97