Number 283 - December 2006

Internet 2 IsFast!
Internet 2 describes the technologies and policies of the members of Internet2--government, universities, and industry--to develop an alternate and faster Internet. So far, access is not open to the general public. No one knows when, or if, it will be.    If it does become the norm, users would be able to transmit 3-D and high-definition images, even entire digital libraries of rich audio and video files, at blazing speeds. Virtual distance	learning classes could take place in real time, with instant collaborative communication. Internet2 will be a network that is 100 to 1,000 times faster than today's Internet. Whereas a 56K dial-up download of the Encyclopedia Brittanica would take eight days, it would take only 15 seconds at speeds 1,000 times faster. At today's fastest connections over T3 lines, a full audio CD takes 17 seconds to transfer. But over a high speed Internet2 network, it takes less than a second.
Number 283 - December 2006