Managing Information Technology

Chapter 3 • Telecommunications and Networking 85

Some commentators have referred to the Internet as
the “information superhighway.” That is wrong, as Bill
Gates, the cofounder and former CEO of Microsoft, pointed
out in his 1995 book, The Road Ahead(Gates, 1995). The
Internet is merely the predecessor of the information
superhighway; we are not there yet. Before we have a true
information superhighway, we need gigantic increases in
bandwidth, more reliability and security, more accessibility
by the entire population, and more applications. We are
only beginning to scratch the surface of possibilities for the
Internet and the information superhighway beyond.

INTERNET2 In reality, Internet2is not a network type,
although it does run a leading-edge, very high-bandwidth
network; it is a not-for-profit consortium of over 200 U.S.
universities, working in cooperation with 70 leading
technology companies, 45 government agencies and labo-
ratories, and over 50 international partner organizations, to
develop and deploy advanced network applications and
technologies. Internet2 hopes to accelerate the creation of
tomorrow’s Internet, a true “information superhighway.”
The three primary goals of Internet2 are to

• create a leading-edge network capability for the
  national research community
  
  
  • enable revolutionary Internet applications based on a
    much higher-performance Internet than we have
    today
  
  
  • ensure the rapid transfer of new network services
    and applications to the broader Internet community
  
  
  
  

Until 2007, Internet2’s “leading-edge network for

the national research community” was named Abilene.

Then in 2007, Internet2 rolled out a new, even higher-

performance network, with the appropriate but neverthe-

less confusing name Internet2. The original version of the

Internet2 network was an extremely high-performance

digital optical network, with all the links in Figure 3.10

operating at 100 gbps—10 times the capacity of its

predecessor Abilene network. Then the Internet2 network

was upgraded again to include several robust, logically

different, but related networks, each on its own overlaid

infrastructure: an advanced Internet Protocol (IP) network

provided by Juniper Networks routers, a Virtual Circuit

network provided by the switching capabilities of the

Ciena CoreDirectors (optical switches), and the Core

optical network based on Infinera’s optical networking

platform. In addition to Juniper Networks, Ciena, and

Infinera, other partners in building and operating the

Internet2 network include Level 3 Communications, who

Internet2 Regeneration and Add/Drop site

Internet2 Redundant Drop/Add Site

ESnet Drop/Add Site

Internet2 Optical Switching Node

Internet2 Router Site

Seattle WA

Portland OR Rieth OR

Boise ID

Tionesta CA

Sacramento CA

San Francisco CA

Sunnyvale CA

Reno NV

San Luis Obispo CA

Los Angeles CA

San Diego CA

Tucson AZ

Phoenix AZ

El Paso TX

Valentine TX

Sanderson TX

San Antonio TX

Cleveland OH

Detroit MI

Buffalo NY

Syracuse NY

Albany NY

Boston MA

New York NY

Dallas TX

Houston TX

Rancho de la Fe NM

Albuquerque NM

Raton NM

Denver CO

Ogden UT Rawlins WY

Heartwell NE Omaha NE

Kansas City MO

Tulsa OK

Chicago IL

Indianapolis IN

Louisville KY

Nashville TN

Baton Rouge LA

Mobile AL

Tallahassee FL

Jacksonville FL

Birmingham AL

Atlanta GA

Charlotte NC

Raleigh NC

Washington DC

Eureka NV Pittsburgh PA Philadelphia PA

Salt Lake City UT

St. Louis MO

FIGURE 3.10 Internet2 Network Map (Image courtesy of Internet2. Copyright © 2010 Internet2)