The Internet of the future
The history of the Internet is that of a fabulous collaboration between people from totally different fields who, by combining their efforts, have managed to create what we know today as the World Wide Web. The Internet2 consortium, in turn, is trying to combine the efforts of specialists in various fields to create the Internet of the future, the Abilene network.
Let's start with a quick summary of the history of the current (commercial) Internet network. It was first primarily created in the United States. He is the descendant of the ARPANET network created by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the US Department of Defense in 1969. In 1983, the network goes to TCP / IP, the current communication protocol of the Internet. In 1986, the National Science Foundation joins the team creating the vertebral column of the network, the connections between the major universities of the United States. Finally, in August 1991, Tim Berners-Lee announces his project of a global network accessible to all: the World Wide Web, popularized in 1993 by the launch of Mosaic, the first real popular browser of the Web. It is a story of collaboration between the military, academics and computer scientists that gave birth to this incredible tool that is now part of everyday life.
2 Internet
The idea behind the formation of the Internet2 consortium is to recreate the collaborative spirit behind the Internet to create the next generation network. Internet2 is a consortium of which 207 is a member, working in partnership with the IT industry and governments. The consortium aims to create an advanced network for the scientific research community, to develop revolutionary new services for the Internet and to ensure their rapid use in the conventional Internet when they are ready and tested.
In addition to universities, the Internet2 community includes 70 companies and 40 organizations, including US government research centers. All work in collaboration with more than 30 networks of its kind worldwide including CA * net 4 in Canada. Their efforts focus, among other things, on new network applications allowing interactive access to resources in a way that would be impossible on the traditional Internet. Distance education, access to remote scientific instruments, access to huge databases and very high definition interactive video conferencing are some of the potential uses of the network.
New developments in Internet2 networks will be used in the future on the conventional Internet. One of the major developments that will allow the expansion of the commercial Internet will be the IPv6. This is the 6 version of the Internet Protocol (IP). One of the most well-known applications of the Internet Protocol is the IP address. This is the address of each of the computers and servers connected to the networks, much like home and office addresses. In the case of the traditional Internet, the Ipv4 is currently used. This specifies an address of 4 groups of 3 digits going from 0 to 255. For example, your computer might have the following address: 207.142.131.235.
This type of address only allows 4 billions of IP addresses. This number is sufficient for the moment, but with computer development across Asia and new services requesting their individual addresses, it will become insufficient by 2025. The IPv6 is composed of 8 groups of 4 hexadecimal characters (digits from 0 to 9 and letters from A to F). An IPv6 address could be:
2001: 0db8: 85a3: 08d3: 1319: 8a2e: 0370: 7334; the IPv6 allows the creation of 3,4 x 10 38 addresses (34 followed by 37 zeros). To give an idea of size, one could with this system give 6,7 x 10 17 (670 million billion) IP addresses per square millimeter of the planet. Enough to last for some time, hopefully.
Abilene
The network on which all the Internet technologies of the future are developed by Internet2 is called Abilene. His name comes from a section of railroad that ended in Abilene Kansas in the 1860 years. The ambitious 19th century railway project made the furthest terminus of the eastern coast of the United States the frontier of the growing country. The project's designers believe that just as the railway network has allowed the exploration and development of new technologies and the lifestyle changes of the people of the time, the Abilene network is transforming the work of today's researchers and educators. and the world of tomorrow.
It all began with a ceremony at the White House on 14 April 1998 where the then Vice President, Al Gore, announced the project. The network was fully deployed in 1999 and allowed transfers to 2,5 gigabits per second. If you compare this transfer rate to the speed of Fast Ethernet cards, they are only 100 megabits, about 250 times faster. So we see immediately that with such a speed of data transmission, many things become possible. In 2004, the speed of the Abilene network has increased to 10 gigabits per second, about 1000 times faster than the commercial Internet, making it easy to transmit videoconferences with high definition video.
Participation in the Abilene Network is not free: it will cost 28 500 $ US to universities and large companies to access the network and 11 500 $ US to smaller companies and affiliates. Members must also abide by a code of conduct that does not authorize any commercial activity on the Abilene network. Universities and companies need to make sure that this type of use goes through the conventional Internet and that only use for research uses Abilene broadband. This is a rather difficult monitoring to put in place since, lately, 405 students have been accused by the RIAA (American Industry of the disk) of illegal use of the network Abilene for the exchange of musical files protected by the copyrights, much like on the Internet.
CA * net 4
On the Canadian side, a similar network is also developing. Canaria, a non-profit organization supported by its members, project partners and the federal government, is committed to accelerating the development and use of the advanced Internet in Canada by encouraging the widespread adoption of faster and more efficient networks and by preparing the next generation of advanced products, applications and services. A mission similar to Internet2 with a network similar to Abilene, the CA * net 4 which also rolls at 10 gigabits per second.
One of the direct applications of this network is the development of a high definition videoconferencing network and without delay at McGill University in Montreal: the Ultravideo Conference. This system allows its users to chat in real time from one city to another through 3 giant screens of 64 inches. This system will be tested soon, but a previous system has already shown that it was even possible to play music duet by this system as the sound is clear and the delay barely noticeable. This is one of the many applications of super networks working to forge the Internet of tomorrow.
By Jean-François Gélinas
Source:
http://www.quebecmicro.com/dossier_juillet.php