As voice and data continue to converge, the Internet is becoming the focal point of attention and is taking on the role of the one single global network providing access to information as well as different types of services. But the Internet is not about to replace the existing voice networks, such as the public switched telephone network (PSTN) and other data networks, such as the ATM and frame relay networks, that are deployed on a global scale as well. The one thing that the Internet has yet to achieve is the reliability and security of the PSTN. But it is definitely on its way to achieving that factor of reliability and security. The Internet in its first generation has been mostly connected to fixed and wired end hosts . But as the world becomes increasingly wireless and people are more mobile and need constant connectivity, the Internet as we know it today will change. The Internet will grow in areas that make information access ubiquitous from any place on the earth. Exponential growth over the years has put some strain on the original design, and as a result a new Internet protocol, IPv6, will be deployed over the next few years. New types of applications, multimedia services, games , and a host of other things will make the Internet an integral aspect of daily life. 1.7.1 Internet2The Internet was initially a network that was primarily used by research institutes. At one time, use of the Internet by commercial organizations required these organizations to agree to a policy that constrained them to use the Internet only for commercial purposes. The Internet as we know it today is primarily a commercial network. As a result of this change in philosophy, (i.e., from being a research network to a commercial network), there has been an impact on the network in terms of congestion and availability. Research organizations decided to build a next generation Internet exclusively for research purposes. This initiative resulted in Internet2 (www.internet2.org). The primary goals of Internet2 are to:
At the time of this writing, Internet2 has also deployed IPv6 in its backbone. |