News for and about the Internet2 community

[Lauren Rotman <>]

Internet2 donates bandwidth to support next generation Internet research

ANN ARBOR, Mich., and CAMBRIDGE, Mass., November 30, 2010 — Internet2, the 
foremost U.S. advanced networking consortium, and the GENI Project Office 
announced today that Internet2 will donate bandwidth on its national backbone 
to support GENI subcontractors and the GENI Project Office.  The GENI Project 
Office is located at Raytheon BBN Technologies in Cambridge, MA . Internet2’s 
connections will support the emerging GENI meso-scale prototype, which now 
spans over a dozen U.S campuses, with direct connections at ten backbone 
locations.

Sponsored by the National Science Foundation, GENI  (Global Environment for 
Network Innovations) is a virtual laboratory for exploring future internets 
at scale, now rapidly taking shape in prototype form across the United 
States. It supports experiments on a wide variety of advanced research in 
communications, networking, distributed systems, cyber security, networked 
services, and applications. GENI facilitates a smooth transition path from 
“innovative experiment” to useful service at significant scale. GENI will 
enable “at scale” experimentation for controlled and repeatable experiments 
to improve scientific understanding of complex, large-scale networks, and for 
“in the wild” trials of services that piggyback or connect to today’s 
Internet and engage large numbers of participants, along with instrumentation 
and data archival/analysis tools for both.

This new “Phase 2” agreement builds on Internet2’s previous network 
investment in the GENI community and provides donated network resources 
through July 2012. Internet2 will contribute eight 10 gigabits per second and 
five one gigabits per second connections across its nationwide network. GENI 
subcontractors and developers will be able to access the network at every 
Internet2 connection point to enable nationwide collaboration to further 
design and development efforts on GENI meso-scale prototypes.

“Internet2 congratulates the GENI community on its successful work thus far 
in developing transformative network technologies. As an organization 
dedicated to networking and research, we are delighted to continue to support 
the GENI community in its pioneering efforts to develop future Internet 
architectures. The GENI effort has great potential to transform the Internet 
as we know it today which we believe will lead to even greater impacts on 
science, education and society,” said chief technology officer, Randy Frank, 
Internet2. “This donation builds on Internet2’s significant investments in 
the GENI community and by leveraging our production network, helps to set the 
stage for even longer term use of Internet2 resources by the GENI community." 

“Internet2 is playing a critically important role in advancing NSF’s goals 
and the GENI project," said Chip Elliott, project director, GENI Project 
Office. “With their broad membership base that includes 300 major research 
institutions, their latest contribution will enable GENI researchers to 
continue to grow and further develop the GENI-prototype nationwide 
infrastructure suite that uniquely supports pioneering research leading to 
the next generation Internet.”

About Internet2
Internet2 is the foremost U.S. advanced networking consortium. Led by the 
research and education community since 1996, Internet2 promotes the missions 
of its members by providing both leading-edge network capabilities and unique 
partnership opportunities that together facilitate the development, 
deployment and use of revolutionary Internet technologies. Internet2 brings 
the U.S. research and academic community together with technology leaders 
from industry, government and the international community to undertake 
collaborative efforts that have a fundamental impact on tomorrow's Internet. 
For more information:http://www.internet2.edu.

About GENI and the GENI Project Office
GENI is envisioned as a national resource for experiments on a wide variety 
of advanced research in communications, networking, distributed systems, 
cyber security, and networked services and applications. It is sponsored by 
the National Science Foundation. GENI will afford the research community the 
opportunity to try out novel ideas and clean-slate designs on a large-scale 
real-world environment with real user populations. The GENI Project Office, 
which is based at Raytheon BBN Technologies, is responsible for project 
management and design of the GENI infrastructure. Visit www.geni.net for more 
information.