Wednesday, SiliconAngle founder and The Cube host John Furrier and Wikibon senior analyst Stuart Miniman sat down with Rob Vietzke, VP of network services at Internet2 and talked about what Internet2 is has been doing and how Brocade is working with it.

Internet2, Vietzke explained, was formed by universities in 1996 to ensure that there was always a sandbox for the next generation of Internet where they could test new ideas and technologies. The current technology being tested at Internet2 is 100 gigabit networking, and Brocade is one of the key partners in the implementation of this technology throughout the university and research institution network. Internet2 is also currently working on dark fiber acquisition and several other technologies.

According to Vietzke, innovation in Internet technology was much swifter in the early years because bandwidth was so abundant. Now, bandwidth has become less readily available, and that has resulted in a slowing of innovation. With SDN and the wider bandwidth of Internet2, innovation is one again opening up for increase progress. The network, he explained, needs to become an extension of the application set rather than a separate independent entity.

Furrier then asked Vietzke how he viewed the current state of broadband in the U.S. Vietzke said some other countries definitely have an advantage where they are laying fiber and building a solid infrastructure. The U.S. is going to have to do a better job of funding broadband and not spending that money on old technology. This will happen both through private efforts like Google’s fiber project, and through policy changes.

Finally, Furrier asks Vietzke to give his outlook on Internet2 specifically and the future of networking and the Internet in general. Vietzke explains his vision for Internet in the next decade on The Cube. You can watch the full interview online.