%0 Journal Article
%T Internet 2 - WWW: Where, When and Why?
%A Adi Armoni
%J Informing Science The International Journal of an Emerging Transdiscipline
%D 2001
%I Informing Science Institute
%X After the World Wide Web and other great inventions of the academic world, comes Internet 2. The new Inter-University project is rapidly evolving into a powerful consortium. 181 universities, 60 American companies and a few dozen international institutions are collaborating to create the communications technologies of the future. Their main focus is to rid themselves of the terrible congestion that exemplifies the Internet and create a new fast multimedia connection between research institutions. They promise that all this will be done far from the intrusion of the private market, a market that, according to the four fathers of Internet 2, "stifles creativity". The foundations of Internet 2 are comprised of two main technological notions. The first is the Gigapop, which is a regional network's interconnection point to the new Internet 2 cutting edge services. Some types of Gigapops are being constructed so that Internet 2 members can connect solely to Internet 2 services, while other Gigapops are being constructed to connect non Internet 2 members to various other services, such as the old Internet (a.k.a. the commodity Internet or Internet 1). The second technological notion is QoS, which stands for Quality of Services and is a new method of sending information around more efficiently. The basis of QoS is to create priorities for the information sent. In this way crucial medical information will have priority when compared to chess game simulations. The implementation of these two notions, together with other innovative technologies, requires a vast amount of funding, which is partly private but mainly governmental. The methods discussed here for budgeting and funding of institutions for the Internet 2 project are interesting and are a main force in the shaping of Internet 2. Moreover, they will also influence important infrastructure and technical decisions yet to be made, such as routing methods, protocols and speeds that will shape and mold I2. The following research deals with both the technology and infrastructure needs and the advantages to be gained by the Internet 2 project worldwide. This is the first time that readers are exposed to a comprehensive survey of the financial and technological aspects gained from the implementation of the project.
%K Communications
%K Infrastructure
%K Internet 2
%K Financial Aspects
%K Gigapop
%K Internet
%U http://inform.nu/Articles/Vol4/v4n3p095-104.pdf