Using high-definition videoconferencing technology available through the Internet2 network, he can give individual instruction to students half a world away with CD-quality sound and DVD-like images.
Zukerman accesses the network as part of a program at the Manhattan School of Music. The school, an affiliate member of Internet2 through a relationship with Columbia University, has been using the network to do videoconferencing since 1999.
"I'll be the first to say that videoconferencing, even the high-quality technology available through Internet2, will never replace the live experience of teaching music," said Christianne Orto, director of recording and distance learning for the Manhattan School of Music. "But it has tremendously enhanced and revolutionised our ability to teach from a distance at a high level."
Before Internet2, teaching music via videoconferencing was almost impossible. The Manhattan School of Music, a pioneer in distance learning via videoconferencing, has used ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) technology since 1996. But the inherent limitations of the technology have been a constant challenge.
Elements that are critical for music performance education -- sound, rhythm and timing, visual imagery, movement -- are almost always compromised within this environment, Orto said.
But now, with the high-bandwidth, low-latency Internet2 network, programs like this are commonplace not just at the Manhattan School of Music but at universities and music conservatories around the world. Today, researchers are looking at ways to extend collaborative learning even further over Internet2's backbone, called Abilene. Applications for telemedicine and remote astronomy also are being developed to take advantage of the network.
"Abilene has become a necessity for research universities," said Steve Corbato, the director of backbone network infrastructure for Internet2. "It's not just about building a really fast network. University members rely on it to collaborate with colleagues and students around the world."
Most of the public Internet today uses 2.5gbps links, but some carriers are upgrading those links to 10gbps.
More than 227 universities, libraries, public schools and research institutions are connected to Internet2. The network connects to more than 57 international high-capacity networks. It provides a test bed for new technologies such as IP version 6.
Peer-to-peer applications, high-definition videoconferencing, remote manipulation of lab equipment, and distributed computing are all applications that are enabled by Internet2. Entrepreneurial students at some universities are using a peer-to-peer application to buy and sell used textbooks over the network.
So far, commercial deployment of these applications has been slow. On the consumer side, the limitation is the connection between a carrier's central office and people's homes. Internet2 nodes are connected to the Abilene national backbone through regional fiber networks with almost unlimited bandwidth capacity.
Musical Webcasts over the Internet can transfer up to 250 megabytes of data per second over Internet2. This is more than 4,000 times the rate of a standard dial-up modem and more than 800 times that of a cable modem.
"The road map is still in its early stages," said Amy Dietrich, a spokeswoman for Qwest. "There's been huge demand from education users on Abilene, but we haven't seen the same kind of demand on the commercial side."
Corbato said carriers still need to figure out how to make money from services sold over an Internet2-like network. The financial models for Internet2 and the regular Internet are completely different, he explained.
While commercial carriers charge by the bit, Internet2 charges members and affiliate organisations a flat yearly fee for all-you-can-use bandwidth. Members pay roughly US$27,000 for the year, and affiliates pay $12,000. While commercial carriers try to control how much bandwidth customers use, Internet2 encourages explosive and extensive use of the network, he said.
"It's important for Internet2 for universities to use as much of the network as possible so that we promote as much experimentation as possible," he said.
But as more college graduates who use applications running over Internet2 enter the work force, demand should grow within the corporate community. E-mail evolved in a similar way. Early on, e-mail was used only between university campuses. Most of the e-mail networks in the early 1990s did not communicate with each other. But eventually, the technology was opened up, and it became possible to send e-mail anywhere in the world. Now it's become an integral part of the modern workplace.
The next step
Researchers are still looking for ways to improve the efficiency and speed of Internet2. Since 2000, Internet2 has sponsored an ongoing contest over its backbone to see which research teams can build the fastest IP routing configuration.
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