Building the Next Generation Internet
Abilene, Qwest's Donated High-Speed Fiber Optic Backbone,
Speeds
Development of Applications and Services that will Reach Every Classroom
By Fred Sandsmark
In the 1860s, railroad pioneers looked west from Abilene, Kansas and
saw
an
unknown
frontier with great possibilities. In the 21st century, their
pioneering spirit is celebrated by the Abilene Network -- a
high-performance Internet backbone supporting advanced applications and
services largely contributed by Qwest Communications International,
Inc., Cisco Systems, Indiana University and Nortel Networks, that links
over 180 top research universities in all 50 states.
Like the people contemplating the Kansas railhead 140 years ago, the
Internet pioneers working on Abilene can't tell you what lies ahead.
But the possibilities they envision are breathtaking; Greg Wood of
Internet2, the nonprofit corporation that oversees Abilene, describes
them as "one-of-a-kind," "amazing," and even "heroic."
Specifically, Internet2 members -- including MIT, North Dakota State
University, Stanford University and California State University,
Hayward -- are using Abilene to test things like tele-immersion --
virtually connecting two rooms so that people in the rooms can interact
with each other and pass virtual objects back and forth. Or remote
operation of scientific equipment, such as the massive telescope on
Hawaii's Mauna Kea, in real time. Or moving digitally encoded medical
information from one hospital to another.
These applications are possible because Abilene has per-capita
available bandwidth that’s 10 to 100 times what a typical
user on
the commercial internat might have, according to Steve Corbato, the
Director of Backbone Network Infrastructure at Internet2.
“With
each order of magnitude you add in bandwidth, you enable another whole
generation of real-time applications," says Corbato.
These next-generation applications drew Qwest to the project. "Our
purpose with providing the Abilene Network and being involved in
Internet2," explains Debbie Montano, Qwest's Director of Advanced
Internet Initiatives, "is to support research and education, and to
support endeavors that advance the state of the art for the Internet."
STATES OF THE ART
This year, state educational networks -- such as MOREnet in Missouri
and OPEN (Oregon Public Education Network) -- began connecting to
Abilene under its Sponsored Educational Group Participation Program.
Corbato says this program is a logical extension for the network. "Over
the last five to 10 years, the research universities have begun to
collaborate much more closely with the other sectors of education in
their states," he explains. "A number of states have very integrated
cross-sector state education networks - Missouri, Indiana, Michigan,
Virginia. In almost every case, the leading research universities have
played key roles in these those developments. The extension of Abilene
to allow expanded access for other educational sectors is a natural
step in the evolution."
But does connecting institutions that aren’t engaged in
network
research diminish Abilene's usefulness? It doesn't have to,
according to Corbato. "We're very conscious of the fact that
Abilene’s mission is to be a leading-edge network for higher
education," he says. "It has a research mission, a clinical mission, as
well as an educational mission. I want to make sure we maintain that
focus while, at the same time, expanding." It helps that
state
networks which connect to Abilene need to be sponsored by --
and
connected through -- one of the research universities. To date, ten
state networks have been approved to connect to Abilene, and at least
seven of their counterparts are proceeding with applications.
As more state networks -- as well as K-12 networks -- become connected,
the challenge becomes imagining ways to link up participants
for collaborative projects. Montano imagines classrooms in
one
region connecting with classrooms in other regions to study
geography or regional history, or Spanish-language classes in
English-speaking schools connecting with English-language
classes in Spanish-speaking schools to practice
conversational
language skills.
These types of applications are possible because the state networks --
many of which use services from Qwest -- are often hotbeds of
innovation themselves. For example, in February 2001 Qwest was awarded
a $100 million contract to network all of Arizona’s 228
public
school districts. The company also markets IP (Internet protocol),
ATM (asynchronous transfer mode), and SONET (synchronous
optical
network) connectivity to educational institutions at all levels, and
provides hosting, co-location, and professional services.
EXCEEDING
EXPECTATIONS
Qwest's donation of backbone capacity for Abilene has made it one of
the country's leading Internet access providers. And its ongoing
involvement in the Internet2 project lets the company identify
innovative applications as they first appear. "Qwest, by participating
with Abilene in the Intemet2 effort, is able to gain experience/with
new capabilities and applications that they can quickly transfer to
their customers," according to Wood.
Qwest sees itself as a collaborator in the Abilene project, not a
vendor. The backbone the company donated is valued at $500 million, and
the company continues to be actively involved in Abilene as it grows
and evolves. "It's all based on a collaborative approach, a strategic
approach, not a vendor approach," says Montano.
Steve Corbato agrees with this characterization. "This has been a
corporate relationship where Qwest made a very significant commitment,"
Corbato says. "They delivered on that commitment, and they've stayed
engaged in that commitment. ... Qwest has exceeded our expectations as
a collaborator, and we went into this with high expectations."
And, according to Wood, those sorts of high expectations drive
Internet2. "It's a window into what the rest of us -- including
government agencies -- will be doing three to five years from now," he
says.
This first appeared in
2001 in Government Technology magazine as an advertorial
sponsored by Qwest.
Copyright © 2001, 2006 Fred Sandsmark / Marble Publishing
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