Volume 5, Number 2     March/April 1997

  Advanced Technologies

Future Internet Faster

ASA IS INVOLVED IN AN INITIATIVE that could result, by 2002, in information flowing a million times faster than today's modern home computer modems and a thousand times faster than a current standard T1 business computer line. Ames Research Center (ARC) will lead NASA's $30 million portion of a three-year $300 million federal project to develop Next Generation Internet (NGI). Other federal agencies involved include the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense's Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Department of Energy, the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Christine Falsetti, NGI project manager at ARC, said, "We want to guarantee levels of service that will eliminate slowdowns and network stagnation that users sometimes have to endure now while waiting for Internet images, movies and other services."

President Clinton endorsed the NGI concept in his State of the Union address earlier this year. NASA and other federal agencies will conduct research and development that could interconnect "core sites" with high-speed lines late this year, Falsetti said. The next step is to connect GigaPOPs across the United States, she added.

A "GigaPOP" is a regional group of core organizations that will connect their separate computer network systems by high-speed communications lines. An example of a GigaPOP in the greater San Francisco Bay area would be the high-speed linking of ARC, Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, University of California at San Francisco and Stanford University. A "POP" is a "point of presence," and "Giga" stands for a billion computer bits.

"The federal government is going to hook up about 100 universities, research laboratories and other institutions at a hundred times the speed of today. NASA now has five research sites connected at 155 megabits (155 million bits per second)," NASA Program Manager Bill Feiereisen said. The NASA sites include ARC, Goddard Space Flight Center, Langley Research Center, Lewis Research Center and Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The centers soon will be converted from 155 megabits to 622 megabits, Feiereisen said.

"Over time, we will improve GigaPOP interconnects so that they can transmit computer data at faster and faster rates," Falsetti said. Medical use of NGI is expected to be very significant. "You'll go to your local doctor, and he will be able to consult with specialists across the globe. That will mean you can get access to the best medical expertise in the world," she said.

NGI initially will be a national network, Falsetti said. However, international partners are being sought.

For more information, contact Christine Falsetti at Ames Research Center.
Call 415/604-6935,Email: cfalsetti@mail.arc.nasa.gov
Please mention you read about it in Innovation.