What's the Internet2 connection?
Internet2 documents (here's one [Word doc]) refer to the internet that you and I access as the “commodity internet.”
What does that mean?
It could mean that it's what was left when the National Science Foundation dismantled its backbone and had private parties operate it. On this reading, “commodity” just means “commercial.”
It could mean that Internet2 is contrasting its highspeed architecture with the existing internet. That's the usage here:
In 2005, a remotely operated vehicle made its way underwater as part of Ballard's expedition to explore hydrothermal vent fields in the mid-Atlantic Ocean. Back in a lab at the University of Washington, Associate Professor Deborah Kelley steered the craft, as if she were playing a video game, over Internet2. Live video feeds went to classrooms across the U.S.
“We can't do this with the commodity Internet, because of latency,” says Tom Dudchik of Immersion Presents, an after-school science-education program founded by Ballard. “Commodity Internet” is researcher-speak for the regular Internet. “With Internet2, there is no latency, no delay, no need to wait for the vehicle to react or to overcompensate. I push it (remotely), it goes.”
Now, you may remember this story from 2004 about the MPAA collaborating with Internet2, and you may recall that in late 2005 the RIAA joined in too.
There's been some thought that sniffers inside Internet2 and perhaps requiring use of devices that recognize and adhere to a broadcast-flag-like regime might make sense for the MPAA. Here's a blog post headed Internet2: Orchestrating the End of the Internet.
One way this could all work together: once there are highspeed connections that reach into homes and are subject to the control of the network providers (rather than subject to common carriage obligations), the network providers will be free to hook them into Internet2 instead of the “commodity internet.” This new network will be fast, will be fully-protective of content, will clearly differentiate between “content providers” and “subscribers,” and will be fully authenticated.
But you may have other ideas about this.
Thanks to Tom Poe for pointing me to Internet2's use of “commodity internet.”
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