A project of the University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development (UCAID) to develop a high-speed network for research and collaboration and for developing innovative applications for education. Internet2 is supported by more than 150 universities in the United States.
The Internet2 project is designed to create a leading-edge network for developing and testing new Internet applications for researchers. Its members consist of a collection of national, regional, and campus organizations whose networks are linked by new technologies and common research goals. Internet2 is not a successor to the present Internet, but rather new technologies to be used as part of the Internet. Internet2 is being developed by a consortium of institutions working to improve on existing Internet technologies. The knowledge and new technologies developed using Internet2 will be made available to the broader Internet community as they emerge.
Some of the potential benefits of new Internet technologies include advances in areas such as telemedicine, digital libraries, and virtual laboratories. Internet2 will also provide researchers with a test bed for developing new networking technologies, such as the following:
Other groups are working toward similar goals in cooperation with Internet2. Examples include the federally led NGI (Next Generation Internet) initiative, the National Science Foundation’s High Performance Connections program, and the MCI WorldCom vBNS network service.