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• Email and Internet access

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• Network Engineering

Internet, Internet2, LambdaRail access

All Medical Center users have full connectivity to the global Internet.  This includes service to the "commodity Internet," the high speed Internet2/Abilene backbone, and to the ultra-high-speed LambdaRail.  

Internet

As its name implies, the Internet is a network of networks.  Multiple inter-connected physical networks provide "highways" for data packets to travel the globe.  As with the roads for motor vehicles, which in the US range from local access streets to the Interstate Highway System, different data network structures provide for different speeds and capacities.

The "commodity Internet" -- or just Internet -- is the basic logical network that underlies most of what we know as the World Wide Web.  It supports standard information, education, and e-commerce applications.   

Internet2

Internet2 refers to a second generation Internet, intended not for commercial use or to replace the first, but a higher-capacity network primarily for research.  It was developed by a consortium of more than 200 universities, private companies and the U.S. government -- originally named UCAID (University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development), but now Internet2.  

The Internet began as a network designed to exchange text, and has been ungraded over the years to handle traffic increasingly containing data-intensive images, sound and video.  From its inception, Internet2 efforts have focused on data-intensive applications that could not run, or at least could not run well, on the commodity Internet. 

Internet2 spawned the high-speed Abilene backbone network, to which Internet2 members can connect.  Hence the label "Internet2/Abilene" or use of the two terms interchangeably.

LambdaRail

National LambdaRail (NLR) is the newest incarnation -- a nationwide network that uses transcontinental optical circuits (light waves, or lambdas) for transporting massive quantities of data over fiber-optic cable.  Florida LambdaRail (FLR), the state's infrastructure to connect to the NLR, comprises ten universities:  FAU, FIT, FIU, FSU, NSU, UCF, UM, UNF, UWF, and UF, where the FLR network operations center is located.

NLR provides researchers with a national 10 billion bits per second (10 Gbps) IP network to support inter-networking and end-to-end transport to some of the most important research sites and databases in the world.

Network routing and capacity

Simplifying a bit, you can think of Internet data traffic being routed based to its destination this way:

• When the routers (data traffic directors) see a packet destined for a remote site that is on NLR, it goes out over NLR.
• If the remote site is not on NLR, but is on Internet2/Abilene, it goes out via Internet2. 
• If the remote site is on neither NLR nor Internet2, it uses the commodity Internet connection.

UM can support transmission speeds at 10 Gbps of capacity for NLR traffic.  The capacity to Internet2/Abilene was also greatly expanded as a result of the work done for NLR.

Service charges and appropriate use

There is no charge to medical campus users for general access to the Internet.   If you have specialized networking needs, please contact the Network Engineering group.   We may be able to help provide specialized connections and/or help with throughput issues. 

Internet access, like all other computer use, should be for legitimate business purposes.  Please note that your Internet use is subject to monitoring, just like any other computer activity.  Network audit trail software tracks and stores records of everything you do on a computer here, including email use, file storage, etc.  If you need to do personal Internet browsing, you generally need to do it at home.

More information

Atlas of Cyberspaces
A fascinating collection of maps that illustrate the Internet's architecture and data traffic patterns

Internet architecture, Internet2, and LambaRail (Wikipedia)
Discussion of and reference links for the Internet generally, Internet2 and LambdaRail