Internet2

Internet2 Blasts to New Level of Connectivity

Created about seven years ago as a consortium developing an advanced, high-speed network for academic institutions, Internet2 has eased its way into mainstream tech culture even as it remains the province of an elite, by-invitation-only group.

Here is a dynamic example of new internet power:  If the lead in a pencil represents a cable modem signal, then the Internet2-backed pipeline is 100 pencils bound by an uber-tight rubber band.

Thanks to a recent $20,000 planning grant from the state Department of Education, pencil power has taken a small but significant step toward making distance learning in Allegheny County schools super fast, super clear and super real.

First Internet2 Hookup

The Allegheny County schools are hard at work planning for Internet2's arrival, but shcools in Washington, Greene and Fayette counties are ahead of the game. The first Internet2 hookup in this region was on Oct. 24, when second-graders at Central Elementary School in Perryopolis, Fayette County, got a virtual tour of the Indianapolis Zoo.

The Internet2 network is different from the Internet in that it is not available to everyone, has no physical storage for Web sites and users must prearrange a time and place to interact.

Its network requires the kind of muscle that only supercomputing centers like those at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University can muster as part of a national consortium of about 185 universities and the network technology industry.

Advanced Network

One goal is to eventually create an advanced network connecting Pitt and Carnegie Mellon with schools in all districts in Allegheny County, Mr. Devlin said. This would enable videoconferencing and virtual field trips with seamlessly crisp, you-are-there speed at 100 gigabits per second. Five megabits per second is a typical residential cable modem speed.

The experience, Internet2 advocates said, would be like having a tour of the Louvre using high-definition cameras perched from within the air-sealed enclosures that protect Mona Lisa and friends from their many admirers.

It takes geography out of the equation. Inside the glass you have the video camera ... at your desk you have a joystick and you can control the view.

Students at the intermediate high school, for instance, wouldn't have to traipse north on Perry Highway to attend classes at the senior high school.

Wow Factor

Ron Perry, the in-house expert on Internet2, gave several eye-opening examples of its wow factor. A movie that might take 15 minutes to download across a DSL line would zap through Internet2's innards in but a few seconds. The network has been tested in applications ranging from robot surgery to deep-sea cameras in the Gulf of Mexico.

"It's absolutely phenomenal and it all fits together with distance learning," he said.

It's so expensive that at this point, Mr. Devlin suggested, it would be a waste of time to estimate the cost to get the network into the county's schools.

It might take another two years or so to see the network up and running here. That's why a regional consortium at the various state intermediate unit levels is essential.

What Internet2 provides is a safe, secure resource to share educational resources without worrying about all the illisite material that can be found on the traditional Internet. It's a safe and secure closed system accessable by invitation only.

High Travel Costs Boost Video Conferencing  >>

Web video conferencing is here now. 
     Bruce Chandler

Internet2