Internet2's breakthroughs for academic research

Internet2 products are now indispensable in the research environment. Over 200 US universities lead Internet2, a not-for-profit consortium with many projects in the works. For the networking community, the centerpiece is Abilene, a networking infrastructure available to consortium members. Already very fast and very high-performance, Abilene is being upgraded. Soon it should be able to move data at 10 Gbits per second - four times its previous capacity and about 10 thousand times faster than most computer networks used today. Even as the networking community explores Abilene's perils and possibilities, some researchers have raised questions about the Internet2 organization itself. They say that although Internet2 generally does a great job of bringing together high-end networking enthusiasts, the organization can sometimes be lax in particular policy areas.