UVM's Internet 2 Membership

Background

"Internet2® is a not-for-profit consortium, led by over 200 US universities, developing and deploying advanced network applications and technology, accelerating the creation of tomorrow's Internet. With participation by over 60 leading companies, Internet2 recreates the partnership of academia, industry and government that helped foster today's Internet in its infancy." (1)

In 1997 at the urging of Tom Tritton, then Vice Provost for Research and IT, UVM became the 102nd institution to join Internet2. As principle investigator, Steve Cavrak submitted a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant proposal which subsequently funded most of the first 2 years (fiscal years 2001 & 2002) of UVM's Internet2 (I2) connection. In order for UVM to obtain this funding, Provost Geoffrey Gamble committed to match the $350,000 grant in campus network infrastructure upgrades and to sustained funding of the I2 connection. The matching campus network upgrades were funded through Network Services' income-expense activity and vendor donations.

Who at UVM Uses Internet2?

Virtually everyone at UVM uses I2 because all network traffic that is destined for any of the over 200 member institutions is automatically routed over Internet2. Whether it is a student sending email to a friend at another I2 school or a researcher sharing research data with an associate at another I2 research institution, the information flows over I2. The I2 membership includes most leading research universities and corporate partners such as IBM, Microsoft, Intel, Nortel, WebCt, Blackboard, Lucent, Cisco, Sun, and many others.

How does UVM use Internet2?

Internet2 provides high-speed, low congestion connections to our peer institutions and many of the companies with whom UVM regularly works. I2 provides researchers with unfettered connections to their peers in other leading research institutions as well as major corporations that serve the higher education market.

2002 Utilization Levels

UVM's current daily average (over 5 minutes) utilization is approximately 27% (of 35 megabits), peaking at 76% sustained (and 100% for brief periods). Other New England institutions have similar or lower usage levels:

The above utilization statistics are provided by I2 Northern Crossroads. Utilization ranges are shown for schools whose inbound and outbound (typically the larger) utilization percentages differed substantially. Note that the cost bandwidth in the Boston area is much lower than it is in northern New England.

One of the goals of Internet2 was to have flexible, unburdened bandwidth that would permit research into network applications that are impossible over the congested commodity Internet. Therefore, by design, I2 utilization percentages tend to be low.

How Much Does Internet2 Cost?

Internet2 is currently budgeted at about $237,000 per year. The greatest part of the cost is the connection cost to the I2 Northern Crossroads (NoX) in Boston. I2 membership and NoX bandwidth charges come to over $70,000 per year. The Telecommunications and Network Services Department is currently investigating lower cost alternatives which UVM could take advantage of when our current agreement with Dartmouth and University of New Hampshire expires in FY04. The flexibility to choose alternative routes and competitive bidding should mean significantly lower connection costs.

How important is Internet2 to UVM?

Internet2 is important in several important ways. Internet2:

• enhances UVM's prestige;
• makes UVM more attractive to perspective students;
• is regarded as a necessity by many research faculty -- both current and prospective;
• is required to be considered for some research funding.

What UVM Internet2 Research Efforts Are Currently Active?

Internet2 infrastructure is essential for several major UVM initiatives under development, including:

• a computation center in an early planning stage with the College of Medicine (CoM) plus other interested parties from the College of Engineering and Mathematics(EM) and the College of Arts and Sciences;
  
• the bioinformatics/structural biology program in CoM and Microbiology & Molecular Genetics;
  
• environmental modeling initiatives in EM and the Gund Institute.