Testimony

The Internet 2 Initiative

Mr. Chairman, I am Graham Spanier, President of The Pennsylvania State University, and I am testifying today on behalf of the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges, (NASULGC), whose Commission on Information Technology I chair, and the other higher education associations listed in the appended material. I would also like to acknowledge the Networking Task Force of Educom, which has made many contributions to the development of academic networks.

BACKGROUND

CURRENT INTERNET STATUS

For the last several years, many Internet engineers, including representatives from universities, federal R&D agencies, and the networking industry, have been working on improvements to the protocols and other foundation elements of the network that will allow it to meet daily production requirements more efficiently and reliably, as well as to expand the functionality of the network to better match the potential uses of ever more powerful computing equipment. Stated briefly, the "one size fits all" Internet that we currently have must be overhauled to support a greater range and variety of uses. It is no longer acceptable that the most computationally intensive uses of the Internet in support of national research objectives be limited by the loads imposed on the network from Internet home entertainment services. Conversely, it makes no sense to impose costs associated with the research networking environment on those who are interested in personal entertainment. We need both "low end" and "high end" services and we need to make them available in the marketplace with prices and costs that are appropriate to the intended uses.

Not only do we need a network with a continuum of functionality to serve multiple uses and users, there must be an organized process through which discoveries at the basic research level are moved into the applied development phase and then transitioned into routine commercial use. The university community participates actively in all three of these areas. Much of the most notable research in advanced networks has been and will continue to be conducted on university campuses. Efforts such as NSFnet and the NREN of the past decade are the source of the structure and organization of the Internet 2 development project. And colleges and universities throughout higher education are now substantial consumers of production Internet services from the private sector. Although the Internet world is now much bigger and more complex than it was ten years ago, many of the roles that the federal government, the university networking community and interested industry partners have played are still very important. As the Internet moves from adolescence into adulthood, it will continue to need a flow of new ideas, new technology, and new investment from all of its original partners.

INTERNET 2

It is in the context of preparing for the future that a group of one hundred research universities has organized Internet 2. The effort will bring focus, energy and resources to the next stage of Internet development in academia. The project will establish a prototype of the next generation Internet, and use the prototype environment to develop a new family of advanced applications to meet emerging requirements in research, teaching and learning. Internet 2 addresses the major challenges facing the next generation of university networks by: -- First and most important, creating and sustaining a leading edge network capability for the national research community. For a number of years since beginning in 1987, the network services of NSFnet were unequaled anywhere else. But the privatization of that network and the frequent congestion of its commercial replacement have deprived many faculty of the network capability needed to support world class research. This unintended result has had a significant negative impact on the university research community. -- Second, directing network development efforts to enable a new generation of applications to exploit fully the capabilities of broadband networks--media integration, interactivity, and real time collaboration, to name a few. This work is essential if new priorities within higher education for support of national research objectives, distance education, lifelong learning, and related efforts are to be fulfilled. - Third, integrating the work of Internet 2 with ongoing efforts to improve production Internet services for all members of the academic community. A major goal of the project is to transfer rapidly new network services and applications to all levels of educational use and to the broader Internet community, both nationally and internationally. In its first six months, the Internet 2 project has grown to include essentially all U.S. research universities and is now concentrating on detailed engineering of the prototype network facilities and of the applications development environment. Initial operations are expected in the latter part of calendar year 1997. A current membership list and other project information is included with this testimony. A fuller description of the project is available at the Website, www.internet2.edu.

FEDERAL NETWORKING INITIATIVES - NEXT GENERATION INTERNET

Last October, President Clinton announced the Administration's Next Generation Internet initiative and stated three goals: "1. Connect universities and national labs with high-speed networks that are 100 - 1000 times faster than today's Internet: These networks will connect at least 100 universities and national labs at speeds that are 100 times faster than today's Internet, and a smaller number of institutions at speeds that are 1,000 times faster. 2. Promote experimentation with the next generation of networking technologies: For example, technologies are emerging that could dramatically increase the capabilities of the Internet to handle real-time services such as high quality video-conferencing. There are a variety of research challenges associated with increasing the number of Internet users by a factor of 100 that this initiative will help address. By serving as "testbeds", research networks can help accelerate the introduction of new commercial services.

3. Demonstrate new applications that meet important national goals and missions: Higher-speed, more advanced networks will enable a new generation of applications that support scientific research, national security, distance education, environmental monitoring, and health care." (The full text of the announcement is available at www.hpcc.gov/white-house/internet/background.html.)

The Next Generation Internet initiative comprises the major new funding proposed for High Performance Computing and Communications (HPCC) in the FY98 budget. As Dr. Gibbons stated in his February 6th statement on the FY98 R&D budget, "The President's FY98 budget provides major new support for technologies that ensure that America benefits from the revolution in information technology. Investments in computing and communications R&D are increased by 10%, to $1.1 billion. This includes a 3 year, $300 million Next Generation Internet initiative."

My colleagues and I believe that the NGI initiative has great potential to promote advanced networks in support of U.S. research and education and, beyond that, to help keep the U.S. information technology industry in a leading position in the global economy.

<> Many details concerning the implementation of the NGI initiative remain to be worked out among the participating agencies and their university, laboratory and industry partners. The development of working documents and schedules to accomplish this is now underway. I emphasize, since there have been some contrary reports, that the goals of Internet 2 and of the NGI are entirely compatible and complementary. Many of the persons involved from both sides have worked together for a number of years. I detect no friction in my discussions with Internet 2 leaders concerning the federal role or contribution to next generation development work. Like all partnerships, there are areas of NGI and Internet 2 that reflect the specific needs of the government and of the universities and that will be conducted separately from each other. But on the joint goal of ensuring that a developmental high performance network is made available to the academic and research community at the earliest opportunity, there is compelling unanimity of purpose and direction.

NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION VERY HIGH-PERFORMANCE BACKBONE NETWORK SYSTEM (vBNS)

I take this opportunity to recommend to the subcommittee and to the Administration that every effort be made to use existing, successful grant mechanisms as the means to fulfill the federal role in implementing goal 1 of the NGI program. In particular, I believe that the High Performance Connections element (HPC) of the NSF's Very High-performance Backbone Network System (vBNS) is the most appropriate vehicle. Using the lead agency concept which has been successful many times in the past, the funds necessary to enable university participation can be effectively and efficiently awarded to grantee institutions through existing vBNS procedures. My reasons for making this recommendation include:

a) The vBNS HPC is a merit based, cost sharing, competitive program that ensures that the participating institutions are fully committed to the goals of the program and that adequate resources, both federal and university, have been identified. <> b) The vBNS has recently completed a successful external review and the NSF has adjusted the program goals and requirements in response to the review. As a result, this program represents the best thinking of experts both inside and outside the federal government on the execution of advanced network development plans. (The report of the review panel is available at www.cise.nsf.gov/ncri/nsfnetrev.html.)

c) The program contains a mix of funds that are distributed through centralized mechanisms and also through grants to individual campuses. This provides very useful flexibility in adapting to future changes in program goals and technology options.

SUMMARY

Mr. Chairman, I conclude with the following points:

-- The government, academic and industry partnership that built the first generation Internet should lead the work to forge a next generation network that will continue United States' leadership in this important area. The interest and support of the House Science Committee has played an important role in networking research and development in the past and I urge that you give an equal or greater priority to the challenges of the Next Generation Internet that you gave to the highly successful networking programs of the last decade.

-- The $100 million requested by the Administration for NGI, which is contained in several agency budget requests, is an important part of the total funding picture. This type of core financial support has demonstrated the ability to leverage additional investments from industry and from the universities in the past and I believe this will continue to be true in the future. In comparison with other federal R&D investments, the NGI authorization is relatively modest but will have potentially far reaching effects in advancing the development of a network infrastructure upon which all of science and scholarship is increasingly dependent.

-- Although we are still at an early stage in the Internet 2 and NGI initiatives, program coordination arrangements are in the process of being put in place that will ensure effective use of the resources which the partners respectively bring to this important work. Joint milestones need to be developed, and specific contributions and their timing must be integrated into a coherent plan. It would be appropriate for the subcommittee to track NGI results in coming months, and those of us in the university community would be pleased to keep you informed of our progress.

HIGHER EDUCATION ASSOCIATIONS ENDORSING THIS TESTIMONY

American Association of Community Colleges

American Association of State Colleges and Universities

American Council on Education

Association of American Universities

Association of Research Libraries

Educom

National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges

University Continuing Education Association