Tuesday, July 27, 1999
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For Most Campus Users, Internet2's Network Advances Are IncrementalBy JEFFREY R. YOUNG
Although Internet2's engineers talk about revolutionizing research by building a superfast version of the Internet, the reality is far more mundane. In many respects, the project's most important accomplishment is that it's helping a lot of big universities update their hardware and software. True, the information superhighway is in dire need of wider lanes, and Internet2 members
In fact, you might have used Internet2 and not even known it. If your university is one of the 159 members listed on the group's Web site, your campus Internet connection is probably a bit faster than before. But we're not talking warp speed yet. "The average user probably won't notice that much of a huge difference," says Greg Wood, a spokesman for Internet2. Why not? For one thing, most campuses haven't upgraded their local networks to take full advantage of the new national backbone, called Abilene. The other problem is software -- researchers are just beginning to develop applications that take advantage of the backbone's speed. "Let's say you put this huge engine into my Honda Civic," explains Mr. Wood. "You're not going to be able to take advantage of that performance until you upgrade the suspension and the brakes and so forth." If you're wondering how many people are using Internet2 right now, you can look at a constantly updated Web page that monitors traffic on the network. "You'll see that, at this point, there are relatively low utilization rates on parts of these networks," says Mr. Wood. These days, only 1 per cent or 2 per cent of the network's bandwidth is in use. "But that's starting to change," says Mr. Wood, as more researchers are attempting to build applications for the network. David J. Farber, a professor of telecommunications at the University of Pennsylvania, says the low usage is good for researchers who are doing experiments with the network. "You don't want crowded highways if you want to do experiments on what it's like on uncrowded highways," he notes. Besides, it's summer -- time for professors to take vacations. "Right now if you see any traffic on an academic network, it's a real miracle," quips Mr. Farber. "I think it's paid off from the beginning," says Lawrence M. Levine, director of computing at Dartmouth College. "A lot of science is just enhanced by being able to move large amounts of information around." Mr. Levine says that any research university now faces a "constant progression" of network needs. That means campus computing officials face constant struggles to pay for the network upgrades. So far, Uncle Sam has helped many Internet2 universities pay for new hardware. One example is Princeton University, which has moved to upgrade its campus network thanks in part to a $350,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. (See a story from The Chronicle, March 6, 1998.) But Ira Fuchs, vice-president for computing and information technology at Princeton, says he wonders how the university will be able to pay for that technology after the grant runs out. "I think it's a question that a lot of us are going to ask," he says. "Especially as government funding disappears." The new network's architects say the improvements are necessary just to keep universities up to par with the commercial sector, which is now embracing network technology more than ever. (See a story from The Chronicle, July 15.) "You've got to give researchers modern equipment," says Mr. Farber.
Background stories from The Chronicle:
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Copyright © 1999 by The Chronicle of Higher Education