RESUMEN Uno de los desarrollos mas recientes es la red denominada Internet2, la cual es un esfuerzo de colaboracion para desarrollar tecnologia y aplicaciones avanzadas en la Internet, vitales para las misiones de investigacion y educacion de las instituciones de educacion superior. Internet2 trabaja para hacer posibles aplicaciones tales como la telemedicina, bibliotecas digitales y laboratorios virtuales que no serian posibles con la tecnologia del Internet de hoy, es asi como el proyecto Internet2 no es una simple red aparte, sino que une las aplicaciones de red mencionadas anteriormente y los esfuerzos de desarrollo en ingenieria, con redes avanzadas de universidades, regionales y nacionales. Esta investigacion reune los requisitos de infraestructura, nuevas tecnologias, aplicaciones y costos que debera afrontar la Red de Universidades del Area Metropolitana de Bucaramanga (UNIRED) al momento de ingresar a Internet2; describe tambien las alternativas y establece su viabilidad teniendo en cuenta la economia, avance tecnologico y ubicacion geografica de Colombia. La realizacion del estudio de la situacion actual de las redes universitarias conectadas a UNIRED, permitio ademas de reconocer que Colombia debe estar a la delantera de los paises latinoamericanos que pertenecen a esta gran red, detectar cambios de infraestructura que deben ser efectuados para ingresar al Internet de Nueva Generacion.PALABRAS CLAVE: Internet2, Redes, UNIRED, Redes de Nueva Generacion ABSTRACT One of the most recent developments is the denominated network Internet2, which is a effort of collaboration to develop to technology and applications outposts in the Internet, vital for the missions of investigation and education of the institutions of superior education. Internet2 works to make possible applications such as the digital telemedicine, libraries and virtual laboratories that would not be possible with the technology of the Internet of today, are as well as the Internet2 project is not a simple separate network, but that it unites the mentioned applications of network previously and the efforts of development in engineering, with networks outposts of universities, regional and national. This investigation reunites the infrastructure requirements, new technologies, applications and costs that will have to confront the Network of Universities of the Metropolitan Area of Bucaramanga (UNIRED) at the time of entering to Internet2; it also describes the alternatives and it establishes his viability considering the economy, technological advance and geographic location of Colombia. The accomplishment of the present study of the situation of the connected university networks to UNIRED, allowed besides to recognize that Colombia must be in the advantage of the Latin American countries that belong to this great network, detecting infrastructure changes that must be carried out to enter the Internet of New Generation.KEY WORDS: Internet2, Network, UNIRED, Next Generation, Network