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Internet2 Projects
Merit represents the Michigan research and education community in a number of Internet2 initiatives. Merit staff participate in order to help define the next generation in networking technologies as well as to learn about the latest initiatives and bring that knowledge to bear for Michigan.
- K20 Initiatives
The National Internet2 K20 Initiative brings together Internet2 member institutions and innovators from primary and secondary schools, colleges and universities, libraries, and museums to extend new technologies, applications, middleware, and content to all educational sectors, as quickly and connectedly as possible.
See the K20 Initiatives web site for more details.
- Network Performance Initiative
The goal of the Internet2 Network Performance Initiative is to create a predictable, and well-supported environment in which Internet2 campus network users routinely have successful experiences in their development and use of advanced Internet applications. The initiative focuses resources and efforts on improving performance problem detection and resolution throughout campus, regional, and national networking infrastructures.
Charts showing the End to End Performance/Measurement Tools and Services
are available online.
See the Network Performance Initiative for more about IPV6.
- Multicasting
Multicasting enables one to transmit a single stream of data to many recipients or endpoints. Instead of sending a data stream (data packet) to each recipient, only one data stream is sent from the source and the routers along the path to the destination make a copy of the data and send it on to the endpoints.
The Internet2 Multicast Working Group focuses on encouraging deployment and best practices for this growing technology. The Working Group provides a discussion forum as well as a number of workshops and resources to assist those new to multicast. Merit actively participates in the Internet2 Multicast Working Group by assisting in workshop presentations, as well as hosting them for Merit Members and Affiliates.
Some multicast activities include:
- The University of Michigan Electron Microbeam Analysis Laboratory (EMAL) uses multicast to stream live video from a scanning electron microscope. This allows a far wider audience to have access to this resource than would normally be possible.
- Broad distribution of meeting content. For instance, NANOG uses multicasting to stream their meetings.
- Campuses utilize multicast to stream digital video in a number of formats, including MPEG2, DVTS, Windows Media and Quicktime. They also use multicast for TV over IP.
- Some universities use multicast for ghosting machines, sending the hard disk images of machines to computers across their campuses.
For more information, please visit
Merit's Multicast section.
- SALSA-FWNA (Federated Wireless NetAuth) - EduRoam-US
SALSA-FWNA was formed as a sub-group of SALSA-NetAuth to address the "visiting scholar" issue. The group focuses on developing a means to support network access for visiting scholars among federated institutions. The main thrust is addressing the substantial technical details of deploying a pilot federated wireless network authentication system. Merit is participating in the in the planning and pilot project.
See the FWNA website for more details.
FWNA is related to the Eduroam project. Eduroam, an abbreviation for Educational Roaming, is a RADIUS-based infrastructure that uses 802.1X security technology to allow for inter-institutional roaming. Being part of Eduroam allows users visiting another institution connected to Eduroam to log on to the WLAN using the same credentials (username and password) the user would use if he were at his home institution. Depending on local policies at the visited institutions, eduroam participants may also have additional resources at their disposal. All this with a minimum administrative overhead.
See the Eduroam for more information.
- IPv6
The Internet2 IPv6 Working Group was formed to deploy IPv6 throughout the Internet2 backbone and across other regional networks. IPv6 is short for "Internet Protocol Version 6" and is the "next generation" protocol designed by the IETF to replace the current version Internet Protocol, IP Version 4 ("IPv4").
See the IPv6 Information Page for more about IPv6.
The Working Group has been extremely successful. Both Internet2 and Merit's networks are IPv6 compatible. The group is now focused on encouraging nationwide deployment, as well as deployment within individual institutions. For more information about the Internet2 IPv6 Working group, please visit
For more information, please visit
http://ipv6.internet2.edu/
- ResearchChannel Internet2 Working Group
The
ResearchChannel is a consortia of research and academic institutions created to create advanced distribution of interactive technology experiments. The ResearchChannel collaborates closely with EDUCAUSE and Internet2. Merit participates in the Internet2 ResearchChannel Working Group, which fosters working partnerships with key technology innovators.
Merit represents the Michigan research and education community in a number of Internet2 initiatives. Merit staff participate
in order to help define the next generation in networking technologies as well as to learn about the latest initiatives and bring
that knowledge to bear for Michigan.
Back to main Internet2 page.
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