Actually, the aspect of the NGI which targets increased connection rates by a factor of 100 uses Internet 2's vBNS backbone.

However, the two projects have separate functions.

Internet 2 is focused on providing a separate academic Internet for universities. The NGI is looking at new technologies that can improve the use-and amount of bandwidth, said Don M. Heath, president and CEO of the Internet Society--a non-governmental organization concerned with the legal, ethical, social and political evolution of the Internet.

Internet 2 is "really the universities' trying to recreate the sort of private Internet they enjoyed during the first years of our existence," Heath said.

To the contrary, Bradner said, "This is not 'the universities are going to go away and play in a corner.' You can't go home again."

Either way, Heath predicted that the Internet 2 and any further versions developed by universities would eventually be folded into the NGI.

"I think once the [NGI] has the capability to deliver what people want in the form of bandwidth, and availability, and responsiveness, and performance, etc., then the need [for a separate academic Internet] will go away," he said.

For both projects, the "concept is a protocol that would scale worldwide and allow unfragmented connectivity. And that's key," Heath said.

Internet 2@Harvard

Harvard is currently developing, along with M.I.T. and Boston University (B.U.), a Boston area GigaPoP.

Each of the schools received a $350,000 grant from the NSF toward building the GigaPoP.

The University's connection to the GigaPoP will allow anyone at Harvard to notice improved connectivity to other Internet 2/vBNS sites.

Initially, the schools will have two T3 (about 45Mbps) connections to the GigaPoP, but this is expandable.

Also, other local universities will be able to connect to Internet 2 via the Boston area GigaPoP, which is not located in any one place, but rather distributed among the three universities.

B.U. and Harvard have connections to the vBNS, while M.I.T. has a two links: one to Harvard and one to B.U.