If the internet is going to crash anytime in the future, then Global Environment for Network Innovations (GENI) project will be there to catch it. At least that is the hope among its’ leaders, a network of University professors and computer scientists in conjunction with the National Science Foundation and BBN Technologies. GENI provides an opportunity for researchers to contribute to the redesigning of the internet in the large scale experimental environment that it has created.

As envisioned, the GENI network will consist of two major components: a substrate that includes the physical networking components such as fiber links, forwarders, storage, process clusters, sensor fields, and wireless regions; and a software management framework. This configuration will allow researchers to run thousands of experiments simultaneously on various slices of the substrate without risk of adverse effects on other sections. Additionally, all GENI components will be programmable, vastly expanding the range and scope of possible experiments compared to today’s Internet, enabling experimental services and architectures to run continuously rather than only in reserved time slots, and allowing incremental adoption of new technologies. End users will be able to participate in and evaluate new services through seamless opt-in mechanisms. GENI’s design, architecture, and interfaces will provide unprecedented flexibility to incorporate new networking technologies and the ability to adapt dynamically.

At the other end, GENI is turning to social scientists and economic professors in the humanities, who know more about internet social behavior. The Chronical of Higher Education focused on this new effort recently:

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