History+of+Internet+2

Internet2 (I2) is a network of 47 systems that form a worldwide high-speed broadband network. Formed in 1996, it consists of 206 universities who partner with industry and government to run a parallel network to Internet 1 (I1). K-12 schools began to be involved with I2 in 2001. Today K-12 schools, libraries, museums, aquariums, universities, and non-profit organizations are utilizing the I2 network for educational and research applications. The goals of I2 are to;  =Internet 2 Facts =  
 * create a leading edge network capability for the national research community
 * enable revolutionary Internet applications
 * ensure the rapid transfer of new network services and applications to the broader Internet community. (Thickman-Miller)
 * Established in 1996
 * Speed - 10 Gigabytes per second ( one billion bits per second)
 *  Fiber network
 *  The high-performance backbone networks are Abilene and vBNS+
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">Abilene, which went live in 1999, was formed through a partnership with <span style="font-family: Georgia,Palatino,'Times New Roman',Times,Serif,serif">Qw<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">e st Communications, Cisco Systems, Nortel Networks, and Indiana University.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">vBNS+ is a high-speed network backbone developed by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and MCI WorldCom.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-family: Georgia,Palatino,'Times New Roman',Times,Serif,serif">Internet 2 is coordinated by University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development (UCAID, www.ucaid.org) in Washington, D.C.