Contact: Joe Farris
Mississippi State is set to connect to Internet2, providing researchers with access to a computer network 100 times faster than the existing general Internet.
The university recently signed agreements with the national consortium implementing Internet2 and is ready to tap into the national backbone network. Major telecommunications companies providing the high-speed circuits to MSU expect the connection to be operating by the start of the fall semester in mid-August.
Funding for the Internet2 connection was awarded to Mississippi State last year by the National Science Foundation through a competitive grant program. MSU won the state's first such award on the basis of its record of research and instruction using high bandwidth networks.
The university will be part of the Abilene Project, a high performance network that spans more than 10,000 miles and will connect about 70 major research universities and federal laboratories to Internet2. The network began operating earlier this year and should be fully deployed by the end of 1999.
Abilene is a project of the University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development, a consortium of 154 major research universities formed to put Internet2 in place. Mississippi State is a charter member of UCAID and the only member university in Mississippi.
Qwest Communications International and other major telecommunications companies are working with UCAID to develop and operate the Abilene network. As soon as they install the required high-speed circuits, the university can begin using Internet2 for advanced networking as well as developing applications such as virtual laboratories, digital libraries, distance learning, and tele-immersion.
The Internet2 connection will help the university achieve its goal of moving into the ranks of the nation's top 50 research universities, said Joe Thompson, MSU's chief technology officer and a member of President Clinton's Information Technology Advisory Committee. The new technology will enhance collaborative research in scientific visualization with the Naval Oceanographic Office at the Stennis Space Center and other projects at federal labs and other universities.
Abilene also will connect with other advanced research and education networks, such as the very high performance Backbone Network Service (vBNS) and will play a role in the federal government's Next Generation Internet initiative. Network research by the universities on Internet2 will ultimately result in higher speed for the general Internet, Thompson said.
Thompson and Mike Rackley, head of Information Technology Services at the university, are coordinating Mississippi State's connection to Internet2.