The Infranet is a prospective architecture for the Internet and future packet-based telecommunications networks. The Internet's architecture is largely the result of the emergent behavior of the interacting protocols on the Internet and the business practices of telecommunications providers. The Infranet can be thought of as the result of reforming existing networking practices by starting with the question "What services are required?" rather than "What do the protocols and equipment provide?".
This top-down approach to network design is substantially different from the bottom-up practices used by most of the successful Internet standards distributed by the IETF.
The term Infranet is also used to refer to a proposed system of transferring sensitive data masquerading as anodyne data (an example of steganography) over the Internet. Its purpose is to enable people in territories whose regimes exercise strict control over information to have uncensored access to the web without risking censure. The system is under development by Hari Balakrishnan, David Karger and others.
Critics
Some competitors of Juniper Networks, such as Cisco Systems, initially claimed that the Infranet was nothing more than vaporware and marketing fluff. However under strong pressure from the service provider community, Cisco Systems and Alcatel joined the Infranet Initiative Council in June 2005, and the body was rechristened the IPsphere Forum.