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Posted April 17, 2000

Maine Internet Service Crosses Threshold

Internet service to Maine's research institutions crossed a major threshold when a link to a national high performance system known as Abilene went into operation in February. Internet traffic between The University of Maine and the more than 90 other U.S. research institutions connected to Abilene now travels over the new network. The UMaine connection was established with support from a $350,000 two-year grant from the National Science Foundation.

The new link means that researchers can collaborate on complex modeling tasks, share sophisticated instruments and meet in virtual groups without the delays that have become common on what has become known as the "commodity Internet." Among UMaine research projects that may take advantage of the network are the following:

• development of an autonomous oceanographic network through simulation and manipulation of experimental vehicles;
• interpretation of x-ray data on the microstructural characteristics of wood composites;
• modeling of a fungus which attacks the Colorado potato beetle, a worldwide scourge of potato crops;
• sharing of large electronic libraries of geographic data;
• development of underwater communication devices with the U.S. Navy;
• collaboration between researchers in UMaine's Laboratory for Surface Science and Technology and two federal labs, the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory;
• development of new digital information resources through Fogler Library working together with other libraries and public institutions.

Gerry Dube of the University of Maine System Network for Education and Technology Services (UNET) and John Gregory of Information Technologies (IT) are coordinating expansion of Abilene, which also goes by the term Internet2. Telecommunication firms maintain the new link between Orono and the regional Abilene distribution point in Boston, known in the trade as a gigaPoP.

Although the terms "Abilene" and "Internet2" are used interchangeably, the former refers to the network while the latter refers to an academic collaboration designed develop new protocols and applications to maximize Abilene's benefits.

The Abilene network is managed by a national group known as UCAID, the University Consortium for Advanced Internet Development. UCAID also coordinates the Internet2 project of which UMaine is a member.

Three firms (Bell Atlantic, New England Optical Networks (NEON) and the national carrier QWEST) are involved in the service. The gigaPoP is a Boston area aggregation point connecting many institutions including UMaine, UNH, Dartmouth, UVM, Boston University, Harvard, MIT, Northeastern, and Tufts. In turn, the gigaPoP is connected to the national Abilene backbone.

Researchers at the Maine Medical Research Center Institute in Portland also have a link to the system. Future links are anticipated at the University of Southern Maine, The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor and other Maine research facilities.

"There is a misconception that many new services exist on this new network," says Dube. "That is not the case. Eventually, the high capacity of the Abilene network will facilitate new activities such as multimedia conferencing for collaborators and multicasting of major conferences, but the biggest advantage is a guarantee of high quality service. For example, if you listen to Internet radio now, you notice that it occasionally hesitates and blanks out altogether. That won't happen over the new system."

"What distinguishes Abilene from the commodity Internet," he adds, "is restricted access and a commitment to high quality service."

Abilene can be thought of as a commuter lane on a busy highway. Restricted access allows traffic to flow more quickly and smoothly while other lanes tend to get congested. The other lanes are comparable to the commodity Internet. UMaine traffic still uses the more congested lanes on the Internet to reach organizations that are not connected to Abilene.

"Information Technologies will share details with potential users of Internet2," says John Gregory, director of IT. "There are many demonstrations and on-line conferences among Internet2 institutions, and IT needs to facilitate UMaine's involvement. All institutions are on the learning curve with this new network, and UMaine faculty will learn along with others."

In the short term, system users will not see any apparent differences between Abilene and previous Internet activities. No bells will sound or flags wave as messages enter or leave the network. In a sense, the system will be known by the delays that are absent, thereby allowing time-sensitive applications to function properly.

Since 1996, UNET and IT have been upgrading campus network switches to handle larger volumes of data per second. "IT and UNET are building the campus networking infrastructure to deliver high speed access to the Internet2 system from anyplace on the campus," says Gregory. "Ultimately, we will be expanding the fiber optic backbone of the campus to accomplish this."

"Internet2 requires some unique `environments' for advanced digital video collaboration," adds Gregory. "The system will be used by many departments in all of the colleges, and IT will facilitate and support such environments."

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