Advanced Networking and Internet2: The Role of Regional, State and Local Participants

1. Advanced Networking and Internet2: The Role of Regional, State and Local Participants Laurie Burns Director of Member Activities EDUCAUSE Gathering of State Networks April 18, 2000

2. What is Internet2? • A project of the University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development (UCAID) • An umbrella term for many activities, such as Abilene, various working groups, the middleware initiative, etc. • The organization its staff work for • The member community as a whole

3. What’s UCAID? • The official corporate entity that takes in member dues and governs Internet2 activities • A 501(c)(3),non-profit organization • A less sexy name than Internet2

4. How and when did Internet2 begin, and how has it grown? • Fall 1996 - Internet2 project is created as a collaboration among 34 leading research universities • Fall 1997 - University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development is incorporated • April 1998 - Membership totals 123 regular University members, 30 Corporate members, and 22 Affiliate members • April 1999 - Membership totals 154 regular University members, 54 Corporate members, and 27 Affiliate members • March 2000 - Membership totals 176 regular University members, 72 Corporate members, and 36 Affiliate members

5. How does Internet2 do its work? • Through its members • Regular • US Colleges and Universities • Affiliate • Non-profit and other research or education organizations • Corporate • Members • Sponsors • Partners • Collaboration Site Status • Applies to Affiliate and Corporate members; allows designation of research and development site

6. Where does Internet2’s revenue come from? • Members pay dues • Regular - $25,000/year • Affiliate - $10,000/year • Corporate • Members - $10,000/year • Sponsors - member dues plus up to $100,000 in-kind contribution • Partners - member dues plus up to $1,000,000 in-kind contribution • Collaboration Site Status • Applies to Affiliate and Corporate members; allows designation of research and development site • Increases dues to $25,000/year

7. What activities and initiatives are underway? Working Groups • IPv6 • Measurement • Multicast • Network Management • Network Storage • Quality of Service Initiatives • Middleware • Health Science Applications • Routing • Security • Topology • Digital Video • Research TV • Internet Economics

8. What are Internet2 Goals? • Enable new generation of applications not supported in current commodity Internet Characteristics: • Collaborative or group process support, with high degrees of interactivity among participants • Access to remote resources, such as online research instruments, databases, digital libraries, and the movement of resources to other sites • Distributed computation and data handling, for aggregated cluster computing, data mining, and resource sharing • Immersive data visualization and virtual reality, for exploration of simulated environments

9. Internet2 Goals • Re-create leading edge R&E network capability Examples: • Core Middleware: Access Management • Performance measures • Multicast, QoS, Bandwidth brokers, IPv6 • Testbed network environment for networking research use

10. Internet2 Goals • Transfer technology and experience to the global production Internet • Work in partnership with corporate membership and partners • Facilitate cross-vendor collaborations • Facilitate vendor-researcher collaborations • Facilitate engagement of corporate labs

11. What is the Abilene Network? • OC48 (2.4 gbps) national backbone • Supported and operated by a partnership among Qwest, Cisco Systems, Nortel, and Indiana University • Peering agreements with 30 international networks • History: • April 1998 - Abilene Network announced • February 1999 - Abilene Network launched • April 2000 - 150 signed Participation Agreements

13. What are Abilene Participants? • Primary Participants • Regular members • Affiliate and Corporate members who also have Collaboration Site Status • Secondary Participants • Educational institutions (including both not-for-profit and for-profit K-20, technical, and trade schools), museums, art galleries, libraries, hospitals who are sponsored by a Regular University member • Other non-educational, not-for-profit or for-profit organizations, sponsored by a Regular member, that require collaboration on instructional, clinical and/or research projects with Primary participants or with other Secondary participants

14. What are Abilene Participants? • Network Participants • Research and/or instructional networks that have substantially the same purposes and limitations as Internet2 and that subscribe to Abilene under arrangements approved by the UCAID Board • Connectors (not participants) • Connectors establish and manage the physical connections to Abilene, and together with the Abilene Network Operations Center and campuses manage all the subsequent operations of the end to end network

15. How does participation differ from membership? • “Membership” represents the official relationship organizations have with Internet2 and UCAID • “Participation” applies specifically to use of an Internet2 network, such as Abilene • Primary participants must also be members • Primary participants also pay an annual participation fee to Abilene ($20,000)

16. What is the Abilene Conditions of Use Policy? • Governs types of organizations that can connect • Governs types of traffic that can be sent/received • Promotes traffic that primarily and clearly serves the teaching, learning, research, and clinical missions of US higher education • Promotes traffic that is primarily the result of collaboration and other related work on instructional, clinical, and/or research projects and services • and • Seeks to advance Internet2's goal of encouraging and enabling the development of advanced network applications

17. Why was the CoU revised? • Rising interest in connecting others... • by Internet2 University members • by gigaPoP organizations • by corporate members • Evolution of the CoU to foster and support... • benefits to primary participants • existing or planned collaborations between and among members and other organizations • direct relationships between the sponsor and the secondary • sponsorship responsibilities on the part of University members • Revised CoU approved by the Internet2 Network Planning and Policy Advisory Council (NPPAC) on 11/29/99

18. What is the process for secondary nominations? • Implemented with a simple nomination and approval process through a standard letter of sponsorship that indicates agreement to • provide and maintain information about the means of connection • ensure the secondary upholds the CoU

19. What is the process for secondary nominations? • Implemented with a simple application and approval process • Requires a description of the kinds of projects and collaborations enabled by the connection (planned or existing) • outline of plans that the proposed Secondary participant has for collaboration on instructional and/or research projects with other Abilene participants during the coming year • annual submission of a written summary of the contributions made to Internet2

20. What is the process for secondary nominations? • Implemented with a simple application and approval process • Requires a description of the kinds of projects and collaborations enabled by the connection (planned or existing) • Corporate lab nominations require a relatively greater degree of description and justification than do educational organizations • “Traffic to and from educational and most non-profit sites is assumed to be the result of collaboration and other related work with Primary and Secondary participants on instructional, clinical, and/or research projects and services.” • “Traffic presented to Abilene from corporate sites is expected to be the result of appropriate partitioning of their respective corporate networks and to be similarly focused on collaboration and related work.”

21. What is the process for secondary nominations? • Implemented with a simple application and approval process • Requires a description of the kinds of projects and collaborations enabled by the connection (planned or existing) • Corporate lab nominations require a relatively greater degree of description and justification than do educational organizations • Requires no fees to be paid to Abilene or Internet2 (but may involve fees paid to a gigaPoP or other connector organization)

22. What’s the experience to date? • Six approved secondaries • Seattle Community College Association, sponsored by the University of Washington • Visual History Foundation, sponsored by the University of Illinois-Chicago • The Oregon Institute of Technology, sponsored by the University of Oregon • Eastern Oregon University, sponsored by the University of Oregon • Western Oregon University, sponsored by the University of Oregon • Southern Oregon University, sponsored by the University of Oregon

23. What’s the experience to date? • Several potential secondaries • Other 2-year and 4-year institutions in state systems (Georgia and Nebraska) • State or local K-12 systems (Oregon, Florida, Oklahoma, Rhode Island) • K-12 science museum (Georgia) • Federal labs (multiple locations) • State agencies (Oregon) • Significant issues with state-wide networks of K-12

24. What issues have come up? • For state networks: • Network engineering efficiencies • Political realities • Concern that a different standard is being set for domestic networks than for international networks with which Abilene peers • For Internet2 • Dilution of Internet2’s primary mission • Potential to put Abilene in apparent competition with other ISPs

25. What are the challenges? • Fostering research into K-12’s use of high-speed connections and maintaining a principle focus on higher education • Preserving the ability of gigaPoPs to maintain efficiency in routing and network management and creating flexible network architectures • Strengthening the ability of state and regional networks to serve their diverse education constituents and preserving the focus on advanced applications and advanced networking technologies • Maintaining consistency between US networks and international networks and ensuring that Internet2 peers with networks that have a shared purpose

26. It’s not “if” It’s “how?” and “when?” • How can we, as a community, proceed in such a way as to preserve our focus on research and education while opening up capabilities to a wider variety of users and uses?

27. What happens next? • Letter from NPPAC to membership • FAQ • Work with gigaPoP community to find architectural solutions • Review and refine CoU language and applications process • Review terminology • Post applications on web • Bring forward your nominations!

28. Questions? http://www.internet2.edu/ http://www.ucaid.edu/abilene/ lburns@internet2.edu