Page 63 - Intelligent Communication Systems

CHAPTER 6 / INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAYS 47
Common carriers and computer manufacturers donated the funds, which amounted
to $400 million dollars.
As one of the research results in the gigabit network test bed project, the Uni-
versity of Illinois developed a CAVE, a virtual reality distributed environment, A
viewer enters the CAVE's virtual space for an experience of virtual reality. Wearing spe-
cial glasses with a sensor, he or she has a stereoscopic view of an object from differ-
ent viewpoints. The system deforms the object and displays it to match the viewpoint.

6.2 SUPER-HIGH-SPEED BACKBONE NETWORK PROJECT

Among the initiatives for high-speed backbone network construction are the MCI
project and the ACTS project, the latter conducted by NASA.
In the early 1990s, MCI, the long-distance common carrier, enhanced its back-
bone network from 155 Mbps to 622 Mbps. In 1998, MCI upgraded its network
to 1.2 Gbps. The company proposed the very high-speed backbone network ser-
vice (VBNS) in cooperation with the NSF. In 1993 the NSF decided to establish
a 2.4-Gbps high-speed network for supercomputer centers in the United States and
named it VBNS. A project on the modeling and visualization of weather forecasts
was conducted using VBNS. The network has been maintained by MCI. Access to
VBNS for the clients of supercomputing centers have been provided under this
project. VBNS uses protocols such as Internet protocols and ATM protocols and
provides 622-Mbps network services to end users.
The United State has conducted the projects on high-speed data transmission
via satellites. One of them is the Advanced Communication Technology Satellite
(ACTS) project, started in 1993, through which NASA has launched communi-
cation satellites. The project uses the KA band (30/20 GHz) and provides a band-
width of 2.5 GHz. The transmission speed between satellite and base station was
initially 156 Mbps, gradually increasing to 600 Mbps. ACTS has been used mainly
for a distributed network of supercomputers. One application is the interconnec-
tion of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Washington, D.C., and the Jet
Propulsion Laboratories (JPL) in California, which enabled an experiment on the
simulation of hydrodynamics.
Under the ACTS project, the Keck telescope has been operated remotely from
the California Institute of Technology and the data obtained from the telescope has
been visualized. The network was established by linking mainland United States and
Hawaii via ACTS and then extended by linking Hawaii and Japan via INTELSAT.
The network has allowed analysis of data obtained from the telescope.
The ATM Research and Industrial Enterprise Study (ARIES), NASA, the
Department of Energy, and common carriers have conducted joint research on
probing for petroleum and on telemedicine, by interconnecting ACTS, terrestrial
networks, and ships over the networks. ARIES has also conducted joint research
on high-speed transmission by interconnecting the NASA Lewis Research Center
and JPL via ACTS in cooperation with NASA and JPL.