9/1/01

Building the Next Generation Internet

By Government Technology

Abilene, Qwest's donated high-speed fiber optic backbone, speeds development of applications and services that will reach every classroom.

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 fiber-optic backbone, donated by Qwest® Communications International, Inc., Cisco Systems, 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 the University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development (also known as UCAID, or simply Internet2), the nonprofit corporation that oversees Abilene, describes them as “one-of-a-kind,” “amazing,” and even “heroic.”

Specifically, UCAID members – ranging from MIT and Stanford to North Dakota State and Cal State 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 internet might have, according to Steve Corbató, 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 Corbató.

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 as “Sponsored Educational Group Participants,” or SEGP (pronounced “seg-pee”). Corbató says this program is a logical extension for the network. “Over the last 5 to ten 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 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 Corbató. “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. Eleven state networks are currently slated to connect to Abilene, and nine more are in the application process.

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 around the country, and provides hosting, co-location, and professional services.

EXCEEDING EXPECTATIONS

Qwest’s donation of 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 Internet2 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 partnership approach, not a vendor approach,” says Montano.

Steve Corbató agrees with this characterization. “This has been a corporate partnership where Qwest made a very significant commitment,” Corbató says. “They delivered on that commitment, and they’ve stayed engaged in that commitment. … Qwest has exceeded our expectations as a partner, 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.

Go to Education - Top Story Index