One outcome of the explosion of interest in deploying the Internet has been the largely uncoordinated implementation of links by both the public and private sector. In that process some general principles of network optimization that are especially relevant to isolated areas can easily be lost. One is that keeping packets as local as possible leads to lower costs and higher performance. Another is that sharing high-capacity links is generally more cost-effective than proliferating lower-bandwidth connections. These principles may become even more important to the next generation of emerging internet applications.

While the days of universities running the internet are long gone, there may still be unique contributions that the public sector can make to advance local and global internetworking. This presentation will share some of the strategic approaches and specific projects of the University of Hawaii to advance the state of networking and the Internet for the Hawaiian islands. These include a set of public partnerships, private partnerships, and basic customer/provider relationships all focused on improving both local and global connectivity.

ACTEW Corporation, the electricity and water utility in Australia's National Capital, Canberra, is developing an alternate model for broadband communications through its TransACT Project. Instead of pursuing a vertically integrated business that provides carriage, services and content, ACTEW is concentrating on local access and throwing its network open to third party service providers to reduce the incentive for wasteful duplication of infrastructure.

This business approach requires a full-service network solution capable of supporting multiple services and service providers. The advanced fibre-to-the-curb architecture that has now been tested in a pilot deployment uses very high-speed digital subscriber line (VDSL) technology over the final copper segment of the network to deliver 52Mbps of switched (or dedicated) digital bandwidth to each customer.

This advanced architecture will position Canberra with one of the most sophisticated communications infrastructure available in the world today. Coupled with an open network innovative services and content. This promises to form the basis for long-term sustainable business underpinned by strong customer loyalty.

The Internet2 project is being led by over 160 leading US universities, working with industry and government to enable new advanced networked applications to meet the emerging needs of higher education. To meet these needs, Internet2 has launched a set of technology initiatives focused on deploying and refining new IP network services including QoS, native multicast, IPv6, and network storage.

This talk will present an overview of Internet2 technology initiatives and of the Abilene backbone network - an OC48 packet-over-SONET interconnect for Internet2 universities. Particular emphasis will be placed on the QBone project, which has brought together a number of research and higher education networks to build an interdomain testbed for new QoS services, and on the implementation of the QBone Premium Service in the context of the Abilene network.

How often we hear the term "The Network" these days, as if there were just one. In fairness, for years most networks have done about the same thing, delivered a standard service, so most people knew what "The Networks" meant. The lingering effects of the OSI architecture have kept alive the notion that networks and applications should know nothing about each other. Those days are gone.

Networks today must be application-aware, user-aware, and business-aware. Some public networks have made significant strides in being designed for specific purposes and services, but these networks, such as cable television networks, are now being redesigned to accommodate a new foundation for services, namely Internet-Protocol-based ones.

Enterprise networks, meanwhile, have languished in their design, striving mainly to be faster and cheaper but still frighteningly uniform. Now, however, enterprises are tying their network design to their business strategy much more closely, as their networks increasingly become competitive differentiators. They are asking more of their networks than packet-based send and pray. 

In our talk today we discuss design elements to enable networks to be application aware and to be customized by businesses. Surprisingly, we don't necessarily have to violate proper architectural principles to achieve this.