The Future Internet

As this paper describes, the architecture of the Internet has always been driven by a core group of designers, but the form of that group has changed as the number of interested parties has grown. With the success of the Internet has come a proliferation of stakeholders - stakeholders now with an economic as well as an intellectual investment in the network.

We now see, in the debates over control of the domain name space and the form of the next generation IP addresses, a struggle to find the next social structure that will guide the Internet in the future. The form of that structure will be harder to find, given the large number of concerned stakeholders.

At the same time, the industry struggles to find the economic rationale for the large investment needed for the future growth, for example to upgrade residential access to a more suitable technology. If the Internet stumbles, it will not be because we lack for technology, vision, or motivation. It will be because we cannot set a direction and march collectively into the future.

The current trends in development of the net are described below:

Bandwidth increases : Large increases of bandwidth in the 1 Mbps range and up will be deployed to home users through cable, phone, and wireless. Cable modems and telephone DSL modems will spread high speed Internet throughout populated areas.

Integration into applications : The net will become increasingly integrated with phones, televisions, home appliances, portable digital assistants, and a range of small hardware devices, providing an unprecedented level of integrated data communication.

Wireless networks : Wireless communication has two great advantages -- there are no infrastructure costs, and it enables mobility. Wireless technologies will rapidly improve, providing reliable, high bandwidth technology that can work in crowded city centers, and on the move, providing the same mobility as the cellular phone.
Advanced Interfaces. With the continued doubling in computer chip speeds, 3D graphics will become more and more sophisticated. Near realistic Virtual reality interfaces will provide new ways of navigation through the net's universe of information.

As an example of the advanced capabilities the future Internet will provide, there will come a day where you will be able to have a virtual dinner with a group of friends, each of whom is in a different city. Of course, you will all have to bring your own food.

One of the leading efforts to define the next generation Internet is the Internet2 project.

MCI also has a high bandwidth Internet network project called the "very high performance Backbone Network Service", or vBNS. The vBNS supports very high bandwidth research applications, and was established in 1995 as a five year cooperative agreement between MCI and the National Science Foundation.

About Internet2 project :

Internet2 is a consortium being led by over 180 universities working in partnership with industry and government to develop and deploy advanced network applications and technologies, accelerating the creation of tomorrow's Internet. Internet2 is recreating the partnership among academia, industry and government that fostered today´s Internet in its infancy. The primary goals of Internet2 are to:

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.
Through Internet2 Working Groups and initiatives, Internet2 members are collaborating on:

Advanced Applications
Middleware
New Networking Capabilities
Advanced Network Infrastructure
Partnerships and alliances
For more information about Internet2 see:

Internet2 Newswire archives, the latest Internet2-happenings.
Internet2 Email Lists that are publicly accessible
Frequently Asked Questions and answers
Internet2 Glossary and Style Guide defines and explains many advanced networking terms
Information Kit with downloadable documents and multimedia
Internet2 Videospace has net-accessible, high-performance video about Internet2

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