hnology can't support making choices, thereby limiting its utilization. The protocol's other key advantage is that it is decen- tralized, enabling it to function with its own information. This allows for col- laboration across multiple, independent organizations within the Internet's open environment. Existing protocols require communication with other applications, but this is not presently feasible in the open environment of today's Internet. Internet computing-the integration of widely distributed computational and informational resources into a cohesive network-allows for a broader exchange of information among more users than is possible today. (users include the military, government, and businesses). One example of Internet collaboration is grid computing. Like electricity grids, grid computing har- THE NEXT INTERNET nesses available Internet resources in support of large-scale, scientific com- puting. Right now, the deployment of such virtual organizations is limited because they require a highly sophisticated method to coordinate resource allocation. Park's decentralized protocol could provide that capability. Caltech computer scientists have developed a new data transfer protocol for the Internet that is fast enough to download a full-length DVD movie in less than five seconds. The protocol is called FAST, standing for Fast Active queue management Scalable Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). The researchers have achieved a speed of 8,609 Mbps by using 10 simultaneous flows of data over routed paths, the largest aggregate throughput ever accom- plished in such a configuration. More importantly, the FAST protocol sus- tained this speed using standard packet size, stably over an extended period on shared networks in the presence of background traffic, making it adaptable for deployment on the world's high-speed production networks. The experiment was performed in November 2002 by a team from Caltech and the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC), working in partnership with the European Organization for