Internet2

Internet2
source
Name	Internet2
Founded	1996
Type	Non-profit consortium
Location	United States
Area served	Research and education networks

Internet2 Internet2 is a U.S.-based advanced networking consortium formed to develop and deploy high-performance networking for research, higher education, and partner communities. It brings together Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley, University of Michigan, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign and other institutions to prototype next-generation network services and support large-scale science and scholarship. The consortium collaborates with regional optical networks, national research facilities, and international research networks such as GÉANT, ESnet, CERN, National Science Foundation, and NASA.

History

Founded in 1996, the consortium evolved from collaborations among Internet Society, Merit Network, BOLT Beranek and Newman, and the National Science Foundation to address limitations of the public ARPANET-era infrastructure. Early projects built on technologies tested in initiatives involving MCI Communications, ANSNET, UUNET, and research at Bell Labs and Xerox PARC. During the 1990s and 2000s, the organization partnered with Oracle Corporation, Cisco Systems, Juniper Networks, IBM, and Microsoft to trial optical wavelengths, IPv6, and Quality of Service across backbone links reaching campuses such as Harvard University and Princeton University. Major milestones included deployment of the Abilene Network, transition to a 100 Gbps backbone, and demonstrations tied to experiments at Brookhaven National Laboratory, Fermilab, Argonne National Laboratory, and collaborations with the Large Hadron Collider community.

Organization and Governance

The consortium is governed by a membership-driven board including leadership from universities like Columbia University, Yale University, Cornell University, and technology partners such as Ciena, Infinera, and Arista Networks. Committees and working groups involve representatives from regional networks including California Research and Education Network, Northwest Academic Computing Consortium, and consortia such as REANNZ and AARNet. Strategic planning ties to federal and state funders including U.S. Department of Energy, Department of Defense, and philanthropic entities like the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. Policy and ethics discussions engage stakeholders from American Council on Education and professional societies such as the Association of American Universities.

Network Infrastructure and Technology

The consortium operates a high-capacity optical backbone using DWDM, ROADM, and wavelength services developed with vendors including Ciena, Infinera, Huawei Technologies, and Nokia. Core technologies experimented with include IPv6, MPLS, software-defined networking from OpenFlow research, and network function virtualization pioneered in testbeds alongside ONF and IETF working groups. The network supports dedicated lightpaths for science collaborations at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, real-time remote instrumentation for Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and data transfers for Human Genome Project-scale datasets. Testbed initiatives reference distributed computing platforms such as Globus, Hadoop, OpenStack, and orchestration tools from Apache Mesos and Kubernetes.

Services and Applications

The consortium provides services including identity and access federation using InCommon, high-performance data transfer tools like GridFTP and FDT, and collaboration environments integrating Zoom Video Communications, Vidyo, and telepresence projects involving Polycom. Educational applications include distance learning pilots with MIT OpenCourseWare, remote microscopy for partnerships with Smithsonian Institution, and digital humanities projects connected to Library of Congress and National Endowment for the Humanities. Scientific users run workflows for astronomy projects with Hubble Space Telescope and Atacama Large Millimeter Array, climate simulations for NOAA collaborations, and genomics pipelines connected to National Institutes of Health initiatives.

Membership and Funding

Membership comprises research universities such as University of Texas at Austin, University of Washington, University of Florida, private research labs like Los Alamos National Laboratory, community colleges, regional research and education networks, and corporate partners including Google, Amazon Web Services, Red Hat, and Intel Corporation. Funding sources combine membership dues, cooperative agreements with agencies including National Institutes of Health, project grants from National Science Foundation, and in-kind contributions from industry partners such as Cisco Systems and Juniper Networks.

Impact and Collaborations

The consortium has influenced standards and operations across Internet Engineering Task Force, fostered international links with GÉANT, Canarie, SURFnet, CERNET, and KREONET, and supported major scientific achievements at Fermilab and LIGO. Collaborations with NOAA, NASA, and USGS enabled high-resolution remote sensing workflows; partnerships with cultural institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art advanced digitization and virtual access. The organization’s testbeds accelerated adoption of IPv6 and informed cyberinfrastructure strategies used by European Organization for Nuclear Research and national research infrastructures in Japan and Australia.

Category:Research networks