University researchers say they're doubtful of rumors about a potential Internet revamping that would replace the current system with a new one.

"To some degree, the current Internet is going to have to change," Gerry Santoro, assistant professor of information sciences and technology, said. "But that's a far cry from literally building it over."

According to a Fox News report published April 18, researchers are looking to get rid of the current Internet system and start over. The report said the only way to fix problems with the Internet that have been around since its beginning would be to start from scratch.

The Internet has been unbelievably successful since it was first introduced 25 to 30 years ago, Larry Peterson, professor and chairman of the computer science department at Princeton University, said. However, he added, despite the success of the Internet, assumptions were made in its design and those assumptions have changed.

"There was an assumption made that everybody that could access the Internet was your friend and that all of the bad guys were on the outside looking in," he said. "Now we know that's not the case. That's the source of the huge number of security-related problems."

Darleen Fisher, a program director for Networking Technology and Systems -- a National Science Foundation (NSF) program -- said the robustness of the Internet brings up questions as to whether it can sustain the expected increase rate of growth with millions of new wireless and sensor networks being introduced in the future.

Researchers maintain that the current system cannot simply be started over and that a successful system will take time.

"Trying to come up with solutions [for the current Internet system] and then also having to say 'how will this become a part of the product tomorrow' is very constraining," Peterson said.

The results are short-term patches that can be adopted today; however, quite often these patches introduce new problems, he said. Continual patching results in problems

with system security and manageability, making the system more likely to "break" and be more vulnerable to attack, he said.

"It's removing those kinds of problems," he said. "That's the hope for redesigning the Internet." It will be a long process and the adoption of any new systems will be gradual, he said.

In the meantime, Santoro said he feels some things can be done to protect users. Power grids and utility systems should not be connected to the Internet and more should be done to educate individual users about safety and security on the Internet, he said.

Peterson is also the director for PlanetLab consortium, a global testbed for new Internet services and software.

Work on the project started in 2002, according to a Princeton University news release.

The project -- which has three phases -- is in its second year, she said.

The first phase consists of research focusing on architecture components, which could include new schemes for security and routing, among other things. The second phase allows researchers to propose how these components will fit into network architectures, and the final phase will allow full implementation and testing on a full-scale national test bed, Fisher said.

The duration of the project should take eight to 10 years, she said. Santoro said any major changes will warrant some discussion.

"In terms of any large scale restructuring, I would hope that before we do anything, there would be a really big public dialogue about where we want the Internet to go," Santoro said.