A testing-ground network for universities to work together and develop advanced Internet technologies such as telemedicine, digital libraries, and virtual laboratories. In October of 1996, 34 US research universities began working on Internet2, and in September of 1997, the University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development (UCAID) was created to give an organizational body to the project. Requiring state-of-the-art infrastructure, Internet2 universities are connected to the Abilene network backbone, which uses regional network aggregation points called gigaPoPs, high-speed Sonet facilities, and IP-over-Sonet routers. Abilene supports transfer rates between 2.4 gigabits per second and 9.6 gigabits per second. With over 140 members, Internet2 currently has 30 gigaPoPs, about 150 HPCs, two backbones, and around 1500 routes. See multicast backbone, backbone, internet.