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The Internet2 Mission
"Facilitate and coordinate the development, deployment, operation and technology transfer of advanced, network-based applications and network services to further U.S. leadership in research and higher education and accelerate the availability of new services and applications on the Internet."

The University of Delaware is a Charter Member of the Internet2 initiative. This collaborative initiative is a major focus of the University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development (UCAID), a non-profit consortium, led by more than 180 university members working in partnership with corporate and affiliate members, providing leadership and direction for advanced networking development within the university community. As part of this initiative, the University of Delaware works closely with local, regional, and national Internet2 institutions to create the infrastructure and applications needed for the further development of the Internet.

UD's Network Infrastructure

The University has implemented a campus-wide network infrastructure to support high-performance network connectivity. Our ATM-switched fiber-optic backbone reaches every research laboratory, office, classroom and residence hall, and provides links to the commodity Internet. The University's (pre-Internet2) backbone configuration is illustrated below: Campus backbone

The University provides access to the commodity Internet through two separate Internet Service Providers: GTE Networking (formerly BBN Planet and SURAnet) and VoiceNet. Access through GTE Networking is provided by two T1 links carried on Bell Atlantic SONET facilities. Access to VoiceNet is provided by a full-duplex 10Mb/s link between a University router and a co-located VoiceNet router over a pair of 10BaseT connections. The VoiceNet router is connected to VoiceNet's network over a pair of DS3 circuits. These circuits are carried on separate fiber feeds owned by AT&T.

The University was awarded a $350,000 National Science Foundation grant under its Connections to the Internet Program to assist with the startup costs of connecting to one of the national high-performance networks. (The online version of the proposal and requires use of Adobe Inc.'s public-domain Acrobat Reader, version 3.01 or above.)

The initial target audience has been meritorious research projects at the University which are currently hampered by bandwidth and latency problems. An OC-3c connection to the Abilene network was secured in October, 1999. Information Technologies staff designed, and are currently engineering and installing a campus backbone with gigabit Ethernet capabilities to accommodate those identified researchers. The network design will eventually provide 100 Mb/s in-building switching capability throughout the campus.

Sampler of Internet2 Projects at UD

The following list is comprised of several demonstration projects that have been showcased on- and off-campus. If your research project is exploiting UD's high-bandwidth, low-latency connectivity to the Abilene network, we would like to highlight it in this list also. Please send mail to rdms-info@udel.edu with details or a URL.

UD's First Internet2 Day - introductory material, project descriptions, videos.
MALDI-TOF Mass Spectrometer Collaboratory - remote control, collaboration and viewing of equipment and results by several geographically separated researchers.
Virtual Halloween Musical Performance Event - a concert based in Atlanta, GA with performers on stage interacting with performers at UD and other US locations.

UD's Representatives to Internet2 Project

Susan Foster, Institutional Representative
Dan Grim, Engineering Lead
Dick Sacher, Applications Lead

University of Delaware Home Page

URL of this document: http://www.udel.edu/topics/internet2/index.html
This page maintained by Richard S. Sacher
Last modified: April 15, 2001
Copyright (c) University of Delaware, 2001.