Internet2 and National LambdaRail To Merge

An anonymous reader writes "Ars Technica has the story on the rapproachment of the two main US providers of high-speed networks to academic and research institutions: Internet2 and National LambdaRail have agreed to merge. And they're moving quickly, after tussling over the details of such an agreement for more than a year. The two groups have decided to put final merger documents before their respective boards by April 20, with merger completion to take place by June 29."

excellent!

[User 956]

Internet2 and National LambdaRail have agreed to merge. And they're moving quickly, after tussling over the details of such an agreement for more than a year.

Great news. So what sort of tubes will they be going forward with in this joint venture?

Re:excellent!

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

Who gives a flying fuck about this? What of value is on Internet2 or National LambdaRail?

Dude, It's Internet2-on-rail. It's a major buzzword and hype innovation. Just look at the good it did to Ruby!

Re:excellent!

[Bender0x7D1]

Well, I am. Of course, that probably doesn't matter to you. However, there are a lot of things of value on these networks, but if you aren't on a node, then the additional bandwidth isn't going to matter to you.

Having a ton of bandwidth is great when you have to transfer GB of data between research institutions. For example, the research group I am working in now, Xen Worlds, uses Xen to provide virtual networks to students so they can have their own virtual machines to configure/use/break since root access in a physical lab is a security nightmare. At the end of the semester, we will provide all of the VM images and assignment documentation so they can be used by other universities. Since each assignment is going to require several GB of disk images and other material, I think the bandwidth will come in handy.

It's also nice when I need to download different Linux or BSD distros. I can usually find a mirror at another university and I don't have to wait hours for the download to complete. If I am using my laptop, the bottleneck is usually the wireless connection. This means I can download and test multiple distros in one day, which keeps my work moving forward.

Re:

[bfizzle]

I was actually looking at the list and I was surprised to find most institutions are one both lists. The university I work for is on both, so I doubt we'll see much improvement.

Lambda - the ultimate network

[Simon Spero]

SunSITE/iBiblio has been connected to the National Lambda Rail since moving to the MCNC data centre;

In addition to giving warp speed access to research sites, the National Rail also allows traffic for the regular Internet to be routed via providers in Atlanta at much local cost than could be obtained directly from North Carolina, making it possible for iBiblio to increase the amount of bandwidth to commercial sites to 1/2Gbps.

When NLR and Abeline combine there networks far more campuses will be able to

Moron Computer Operator

[IT073580]

How can you tell if you have a moron computer operator working for you? Answer: Find the computer operator using white out on the monitor trying to erase the mistakes.

Re:

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

Who gives a **ck about either of these networks?
Now they can share Kingship of a very, very small pond.
Wake me in 924329992349 years when this merger is relevant to me.

I think it's likely that someone said exactly the same thing in 1969 when Arpanet was created. Look at what it morphed into in a mere 38 years. Given that Internet2 isn't radically innovative like the Arpanet was, I think the merger could become very relevant to you n 10/15 years.

However, the real question is, how will it grow? meaning, at wh

Re:In other news:

[Dr. Eggman]

Err, I seem to be confused about what the Internet2 is. I had thought it was merely a large, non-profit run, high-speed network among universities. I do not know of any major technical differences that evil organizations could take proprietary ownership and force everyone in the future to use it. What are these differences you seem to imply? How would they keep ahold of it? Really, how 'free by design' is the Internet1 anyways?

Re:In other news:

[LurkerXXX]

Here's a huge hint for you. Internet1 used to be a large non-profit run, high speed (for the times) network among universities and military bases. In a few decades time it now under the looming threat of major telco's who want you to have to pay for both incoming and outgoing traffic, based on who is serving or receiving it, and how much they paid that telco in particular for the service of allowing traffic in/out of their network.

Re:In other news:

[aonic]

As far as I know, what most people call "internet2" is actually the Abilene network, which is a university/corporate cooperation to build a large backbone network between all of the universities for use with data transfer. this gives the added benefit to students at those universities, because they can transfer data over the abilene network at the same high speeds. it's a standard internet backbone using IP. the reason why people get internet2 and abilene confused is due to the file sharing that students were doing (RIAA got involved, shit met fan).

national lambdarail is slightly different. it's an ethernet network connecting all of the universities. and by ethernet, i mean OSI layer 1/2 are defined, the rest is up in the air. this means it CAN be used as an IP backbone, but its main purpose is to experiment in large scale networks (researching replacements for IP, for example, or experimenting with WDM over fiber).

now, internet2 and national lambdarail are kind of intertwined, which is why this merger is rather unexciting. internet2 (the creators of the abilene network) are a part of the national lambdarail project. not only that, national lambdarail and abilene intersect at regional university interconnects such as the front range gigapop (where the university of colorado and UCAR link in) and CENIC/CalREN (where places like stanford, berkeley, and cal-tech link in).

so really, to joe sixpack, who thinks internet2 is some kind of secret research network, and has never heard of national lambdarail, this seems like some kind of mysterious and intellectual coup on the intertubes, when in truth it's barely newsworthy.

Re:

[BeBoxer]

National lambdarail is slightly different. it's an ethernet network connecting all of the universities. and by ethernet, i mean OSI layer 1/2 are defined, the rest is up in the air. this means it CAN be used as an IP backbone, but its main purpose is to experiment in large scale networks (researching replacements for IP, for example, or experimenting with WDM over fiber).

At it's lowest level, it's a WDM network. They can provide layer 1, 2 or 3 connections to members. Each member has connection to the layer

Re:

[tsalaroth]

Actually, they just started rolling out commercial services in some cities (including mine!).

Fear my fat 10Gb Ether uplink!

Fear my empty bank account for the next 8 years... :/

Re:In other news:

[daeg]

I think it's more likely that the telcos will wait for innovation in Internet2 and commercialize it in Internet1 in some form or another. The days of huge network capacity spending, unless it's backed by heavy subsidies and tax breaks, are nearly over. The Telcos in America have little incentive to provide continually higher bandwidth. Their impending defeat with Net Neutrality will hurt their feelings too much and they will punish consumers and the market.

The Telcos want to scream "I told you so!" regarding Net Neutrality more than any 5 year old could ever want to scream it.

Unfortunately, there's not a corner big enough to scold them in, or a newspaper heavy enough.

Re:

[bockelboy]

Jesus Christ! You have no idea what Internet2 is, do you?

Internet2 is a bunch of universities who go together to negotiate a bunch of bandwidth from a single Telco (Level 3, used to be Quest) for a low price. Otherwise, a university wouldn't be able to afford a dedicated 10Gbps line.

It is then used to research network technologies and to carry experimental data. Sometimes it's used for distance education classes in high-def. Most often, it sits unused and is a penis-measurement between universities (alt

Re:

[daeg]

I didn't necessarily mean anything from Internet2 in the short term. There's nothing of major note even for educational use yet, other than as you said, some classroom stuff and experimental data.

I would imagine (and hope?) that will change at some point in the future, either the new stream formats or something new entirely. If nothing else, something fun to read on /. even if no one will ever use it or see it outside of a few penis-comparing universities.

Don't feed the trolls?!

[frieko]

Let us know when you finish your quest to locate and tag every piece of information on the internet that doesn't interest you.

Internet2

[TheUni]

Internet2? Psshhh... I'm not buying into that. Everyone knows Internet3.0 will be out in 6 months.

Re:

[Zantetsuken]

NO NO NO, this merger will make it either Internet2.5 or 3.0. And what does that make "the *other* new Internet" (the one about 4 days ago with Stanford guys doing the "Clean Slate" approach [slashdot.org]) - does this merger make that project Internet4.0? If thats the case, I'll just wait for Internet360 - cuz everybody knows that'll be like 120 times better than Internet3...

Monopoly

[Animats]

So they're setting up a monopoly. Who did they pay off to get this through the FCC and the "Justice Department"?

Re:

[Eternauta3k]

So they're setting up a monopoly. Who did they pay off to get this through the FCC and the "Justice Department"?

You're assuming it's a commercial service you can buy. AFAIK it's a voluntary network of universities.

Re:

[Cheapy]

You're assuming it's a commercial service you can buy. AFAIK it's a voluntary network of universities.

And you're assuming your knowledge is correct. If anyone wants free karma, now is the time to link to wikipedia.

Re:

[yabos]

It's a private network they can do whatever the hell they want.

Re:

[LighterShadeOfBlack]

Monopoly? Maybe you might remember that "Internet" thing from a few years back. I think that might still be around too. Maybe that's an option.

Re:

[Jeff DeMaagd]

I think the same can be said about your statement.

How Internet-1 Became Ubiquitous

[pghpirate]

When DARPA and NSF put together what became the Internet (merger of NSF-net and ARPA-net) in the National Research and Education Network (NREN) Act -- a.k.a. the "Gore Bill" -- Bob Kahn and Anita Jones (DARPA) and Bill Wolfe (NSF) had the bright idea of setting down some rules (really, "standards") that if other, existing commercial and educational networks (i.e., CompuServe, AOL, MERIT, etc.) played by, they could be part of the NREN as well. Even though the "big networks" at the time used slow, dialup n

Re:

[kilonad]

Ummm.... no. This network is for research and education, and for those purposes only. Notice how the first one was also originally for research and education, but that it got swamped by porn, spam, and torrents when the masses came online. Keeping the two networks separate ensures a decent level of service on the research network for the people who actually rely on it.

Internet2 and National LambdaRail To Merge

[Skythe]

Perhaps the internet is actually composed of a series of rails?

Maybe one day...

[unapersson]

all these different internets will merge into just one internet. To stop the confusing situation where you never know which of the internets you should connect to. My modem is always connecting to the wrong internet and I have to keep hitting it until it finds the right one. I think I need to upgrade to a rooter. Maybe a radio one.

internet2 and anonymity

[paltemalte]

I am pretty clueless about what internet2 really is and how it works, and I have a few questions about it. Maybe some fellow slashdotter can enlighten me.

- There is no such thing as anonymity on internet2 is there?
- There is a central control that can yank sites they don't approve of, isn't there?
- Are there any powerful entities that are seeking to replace internet1 with internet2 for regular people?
- Why could we just not add more bandwidth (as is already being done), use the good old internet1 and hopefu

LambdaRail?

[Fear the Clam]

What's that, the choo choo ride at the nerds' [imdb.com] amusement park?