Here's something for the long-term network investors:
Internet Too Slow? Faster Network On
the Way?
By BOB DART
c.1997 Cox News Service
ASHINGTON -- While most home computer users are
still thrilled to zip e-mail around the world in a few hours, the
popular Internet has become too clogged to meet many
high-tech communication needs.
On Wednesday, the House Science Committee will examine
what progress has been made toward the Next Generation
Internet (NGI), a network up to 100 times faster.
President Clinton, announcing a national research effort for NGI
last fall, said it would not only restore speedy links for
traditional Internet uses such as scientific research and national
security, but also could lead to exotic new applications such as
distance education, environmental monitoring and health care
consulting.
Originally built to link the computers of scientists, engineers
and military technicians, the Internet has become crowded with
inconceivable numbers of digital bits created by millions of
online enthusiasts. In a few short years, e-mail has become a
staple for college students, chat lines a forum for every
conceivable subject, X-rated Web sites a concern for parents,
and home pages nearly as prevalent as business cards.
The Internet has been ``almost a miracle'' in speeding
communications and ``has provided a new way of doing things''
in the science and education community, said Mark Luker, a
National Science Foundation official and member of Clinton's
Next Generation Internet implementation team.
But in its current configuration, the Internet is incapable of
some needed types of communication - real-time video and
sound imagery, for example - and must be upgraded, he said.
``Our national system is straining to meet increased demands,''
Henry C. Kelly, acting director of the Office of Science and
Technology Policy, warned a Senate science subcommittee this
summer.
``The medical community needs increased communications
speeds and data processing capabilities so that specialists around
the country can collaborate in the treatment of a patient,'' Kelly
testified.
To get pictures and data back from space, NASA sometimes
needs to move ``a thousand billion bits of information per
second - an impossible requirement for today's communication
systems,'' he said. ``Even the very fastest operational (Defense
Department) systems need six hours to send the kinds of
information battlefield commanders would like to have about a
100-by-100-mile battlefield.''
The Next Generation Internet is one of several projects aimed at
upgrading the nation's high-tech information highway.
Internet-2, for example, is the joint effort of 108 research
universities to link themselves through a network that is 100
times faster than the present Internet.
The Clinton administration's NGI initiative, if fully funded by
Congress, will spend $100 million a year for three years to link
NASA, the Defense Department and other federal agencies
through the National Science Foundation's high-speed network
to a myriad of research groups.
Use of the NGI would be restricted for a while - but only
through its experimental stage, said Luker. Eventually, he
predicted, it would be opened to the wider cyberspace
community.
In explaining how the Next Generation Internet could operate,
Luker likened it to a freeway. Currently all electronic messages
on the Internet are equal, much like cars on the freeway. The
freeway can add lanes to alleviate traffic, but more cars come on
and eventually there are new traffic jams.
The NGI would prioritize traffic. Some messages would travel
in high-speed trains down the center lane, he explained, and
others in special fast lanes like those used for car-poolers.
Regular Internet operations - such as personal e-mail or
log-ons to sports sites - would be treated like the lone
commuter in a car.
Congress is now considering how much to spend on this new
information highway and how the academic and industrial
sectors of the Internet community can help with the research and
funding. |
