Editing Internet2 (section)

==History==
As the [[Internet]] gained in public recognition and popularity, universities were among the first institutions to outgrow the Internet's bandwidth limitations because of the data transfer requirements faced by academic researchers who needed to collaborate with their colleagues. Some universities wanted to support high-performance applications like data mining, medical imaging and particle physics. This resulted in the creation of the very-high-performance Backbone Network Service, or [[vBNS]], developed in 1995 by the [[National Science Foundation]] (NSF) and [[MCI Communications|MCI]] for supercomputers at educational institutions. After the expiration of the NSF agreement, vBNS largely transitioned to providing service to the government. As a result, the research and education community founded Internet2 to serve its networking needs.

The Internet2 Project was originally established by 34 university researchers in 1996 under the auspices of EDUCOM (later [[EDUCAUSE]]), and was formally organized as the not-for-profit University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development (UCAID) in 1997. It later changed its name to Internet2. Internet2 is a registered trademark.<ref>[http://www.internet2.edu/termsofuse.html "Internet2 - Terms of Use"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061020085946/http://www.internet2.edu/termsofuse.html |date=2006-10-20 }}, Internet2.</ref>

The Internet2 community, in partnership with [[Qwest]], built the first Internet2 Network, called [[Abilene Network|Abilene]], in 1998 and was a prime investor in the [[National LambdaRail]] (NLR) project.<ref>[https://archive.today/20140706214238/http://news.cnet.com/Optical%20networking%20The%20next%20generation/2100-1033-5403589.html?part=dht&tag=ntop&tag=nl.e703 "Optical networking: The next generation - CNET News.com, By Marguerite Reardon (Staff Writer), Published October 11, 2004 4:00 AM PDT]</ref>
During 2004–2006, Internet2 and NLR held extensive discussions regarding a possible merger.<ref>[http://www.osc.edu/press/releases/2005/lambda.shtml "Internet2, National Lambda Rail, In Merger Talks (July 18, 2005)"]</ref> Those talks paused in spring, 2006, resumed in March, 2007, but eventually ceased in the fall of 2007,<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20080327142035/http://www.internet2-nlr.org/ Internate archive of now defunct www.internet2-nlr.org site)]</ref> due to unresolved differences.

In 2006, Internet2 announced a partnership with [[Level 3 Communications]] to launch a brand new nationwide network, boosting its capacity from 10&nbsp;Gbit/s to 100&nbsp;Gbit/s.<ref>[https://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techinnovations/2007-10-11-faster-internet2_N.htm "Speedy Internet2 gets 10x boost - USAToday.com, By Anick Jesdanun (AP Internet Writer), Published October 11, 2007 8:16 AM"], Retrieved on 2009-06-26</ref> In October, 2007, Internet2 officially retired Abilene and now refers to its new, higher capacity network as the Internet2 Network.

In 2010, Internet2 received a $62.5 million [[American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009|American Recovery and Reinvestment Act]] grant,<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www2.ntia.doc.gov/grantee/university-corporation-for-advanced-internet-development | title=University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development &#124; BTOP / SBI Archived Grant Program }}</ref> which allowed Internet2 to put in place a long term [[Indefeasible rights of use |IRU]] for fiber and upgrade the network with its own [[DWDM]] optical network system. Ciena later announced that this was the first [[100G]] nationwide optical network.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.ciena.com/insights/case-studies/Internet2-Building-Americas-First-National-100G-Network.html |title = Internet2: Building America's First National 100G Network - Ciena}}</ref> The upgrade to the new optical system was completed in December 2012.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.internet2.edu/blogs/detail/4630 | title=Internet2 Community's New Owned Optical Infrastructure Fully Deployed &#124; Internet2 Blogs | access-date=2019-05-22 | archive-date=2020-08-01 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200801202308/https://www.internet2.edu/blogs/detail/4630 | url-status=dead }}</ref>