Did you know that United States of America has a alternative Internet called Internet2. In fact it has celebrated its 19th birthday this year. Internet2 is a very low profile WAN that gives its users a amazing 10 to 100 gigabits/sec speeds but sadly it is not open for ordinary users. Internet2 was created by 34 university research institutions in 1996, when the commercial and non-commercial branches of the Internet’s evolutionary tree split off and went their separate ways. The mission of Internet2 was to provide reliable, dedicated bandwidth to support the ever-growing demands of the research and educational communities, and in doing so, to develop technologies that would advance the state of the ‘commodity’ Internet. Spread of Internet2 Internet2 is a not-for-profit United States computer networking consortium led by members from the research and education communities, industry, and government. Internet2 headquarters are located in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with offices in Washington, D.C. and Emeryville, California. As of January, 2016, Internet2 has over 1000 members including 282 institutions of higher education, 9 partners and 86 members from industry. Internet2 comprises of :
282 U.S. institutions of higher education 86 leading corporations 66 affiliate members, including government agencies 42 regional and state education networks More than 65 national research and education networking partners representing over 100 countries
Internet2 operates the Internet2 Network, an Internet Protocol network using optical fiber that delivers network services for research and education, and provides a secure network testing and research environment. The Internet2 backbone is an Infinera-based optical network that delivers up to 400Gbps of wavelength capacity. The network is operated in partnership with Level 3 Communications. And Juniper routers are used to create multiple 10 Gigabit Ethernet links between nine core nodes around the country. Internet2 can provide downstreaming speeds ranging from 10G to 100Gbps. Internet2 is also the link between the U.S. and the global research community. For example, U.S. scientists involved in the Large Hadron Collider particle physics research in Europe could not participate without Internet2. Internet2 is growing a faster clip ever since it invited private corporations on board. However, as of now all this is for research, higher education and healthcare.
