News for and about the Internet2 community

["Greg H. Wood" <>]

University of Illinois at Chicago Electronic Visualization Laboratory (M/C 
154)
851 S. Morgan St., Room 1120 SEO, Chicago, IL 60607-7053, (312) 996-3002

October 25, 1999

Contact: Laura Wolf
(312) 996-3002


NSF Award Paves the Way for the Next Phase of STAR TAP

Having successfully linked more than 100 U.S. universities and national 
laboratories to most of the world's premier international networks in just 
over two years, the University of Illinois at Chicago Electronic 
Visualization Laboratory (EVL) will use a second National Science 
Foundation (NSF) grant to enhance the network services of its STAR TAP(SM) 
program.

This summer, the NSF announced that, through this new award, it is 
extending its original three-year grant of $2 million, to $5 million 
through 2003, securing STAR TAP as the focal point of next-generation 
internet providers.

"We were extremely pleased that STAR TAP had achieved the goals set forth 
in the 1997 award, and we wanted to let the research community know that 
they could count on STAR TAP's continued presence for at least another 
three calendar years--a long time in 'internet years,'" said Steve 
Goldstein, NSF Program Director for International Networking. "That's why 
we made the second award well before the term of the first one had expired. 
We have learned that persistence is important, because crucial 
international scientific collaborations need to have confidence in the 
staying power of the infrastructure on which they depend."

The Science, Technology And Research Transit Access Point, or STAR TAP, is 
a proving ground for long-term interconnection and interoperability of 
advanced international networking. Launched in 1997, it provides a 
universal peering point in the U.S. where international networks have 
formal agreements to exchange data traffic with the NSF's vBNS and other 
advanced networks, such as Internet2's Abilene, and those of the U.S. Dept. 
of Energy, U.S. Dept. of Defense and NASA.

"STAR TAP has persistence, many U.S. and international peers, value-added 
services and enough critical mass to attract the contributions of many 
members of the networking and scientific research communities," said EVL 
director Tom DeFanti, "Our goal is to generate higher level services to 
decrease latency and improve bandwidth performance. These services include 
the newest protocols and technologies to simplify connectivity and 
facilitate digital media broadcasts. We are particularly pleased that this 
new award makes possible the addition of John Jamison, STAR TAP senior 
research scientist, to our team."

International research networking organizations that peer at STAR TAP are: 
CANARIE (Canada), CERN, IUCC (Israel's Inter-University Computation 
Center), MIRnet (Russia), NORDUnet (Nordic countries), SURFnet (The 
Netherlands), RENATER2 (France), SingAREN (Singapore), APAN (Asia-Pacific), 
and TANet (Taiwan). Israel has linked via satellite--important technology 
for countries without sufficient optic cable access.

EVL manages STAR TAP in collaboration with the Mathematics and Computer 
Science Division of Argonne National Laboratory, Chicago's Metropolitan 
Research and Education Network (MREN), Northwestern University's 
International Center for Advanced Internet Research (iCAIR), Indiana 
University, and Ameritech Advanced Data Services (AADS).

About EVL
UIC's EVL is a graduate research laboratory specializing in networked 
virtual reality and real-time interactive computer graphics. It is a joint 
effort of the UIC's College of Engineering and School of Art and Design, 
and represents the oldest formal collaboration between engineering and art 
in the country offering graduate degrees to those specializing in 
visualization. EVL receives major funding from the NSF and is a partner in 
the National Computational Science Alliance. For more information, see 
<http://www.evl.uic.edu>

About STAR TAP
STAR TAP is the crossroads that supports the long-term interconnection and 
interoperability of advanced international networking in support of 
applications, performance measuring, and technology evaluations. The STAR 
TAP anchors the international vBNS connections program. STAR TAP is made 
possible by major funding from the NSF, awards ANI-9712283 and ANI-9980480, 
to the University of Illinois at Chicago. For more information, see 
<http://www.startap.net>

STAR TAP is a service mark of the Board of Trustees of the University of 
Illinois.


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Date: Thu, 11 Nov 1999 14:03:04 -0800 (PST)
From: Susan Brandt 
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Subject: Press Release "SC99 Participants Break Gigabit Speed Barriers"   
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contacts:

Karen Green, NCSA/Alliance, 
,
 217-265-0748
David Richardson, University of Washington, 
,
 206-543-2876
Susan Brandt, ResearchTV, 
,
 212-414-4672
Lisa Young, Sony Electronics, 
,
 408-955-5683
Jacqueline Brown, PNWGP, 
,
 206-685-6238


SC99 Participants Break Gigabit Speed Barriers


PORTLAND, OR, November 10, 1999--Seven high technology leaders will
collaborate at SC99 to demonstrate that long-distance gigabit-per-second
networking is now ready for prime time and that next generation Internet
technologies and capabilities are now emerging in applications, in
end-systems, and in network infrastructure.

At the network infrastructure level, the National Transparent Optical
Network (NTON), the University of Washington-led Pacific/Northwest Gigapop
(PNWGP), and Nortel Networks will join forces to deliver 2.4 gigabits per
second (Gbps) of Internet capacity from the Microsoft Corp. and University
of Washington (UW) campuses to the SC99 exhibition hall. Microsoft, the
National Computational Science Alliance (Alliance), and the UW and Sony (in
support of the ResearchTV consortium) will each demonstrate gigabit
applications in their SC99 exhibits. These applications will run
concurrently over the PNWGP Internet and underlying NTON SONET fabrics from
Seattle to the SC99 show floor at the Oregon Convention Center. The
demonstrations will use more than 2 Gbps in aggregate bandwidth--the
fastest realtime applications ever run over a wide area network.

The Microsoft/Alliance demonstration shows that it is now possible to send
a gigabit-per-second TCP/IP stream from one Windows 2000 workstation to
another over a WAN. Microsoft teamed with the Alliance's NT cluster
development team and with the National Laboratory for Applied Network
Research (NLANR) to verify that Windows 2000 TCP/IP software performance
scales at Gbps rates on long-distance networks. This work  demonstrates
speed breakthroughs in end-to-end workstation internetworking and shows the
capabilities of Windows 2000 TCP/IP.   

 "Our role in NLANR is to work with application teams to help them harness
the capabilities of high performance networks," said Larry Smarr, director
of the Alliance and NCSA, the leading-edge site for the Alliance. "Because
many of these applications involve Windows workstations, gigabit per second
performance of Windows over wide area networks is a capability that impacts
the entire high performance computing community." 

Jim Allchin, senior vice president of the Platforms Division at Microsoft
Corp., said this demonstration will show that distributed computing over
high-speed, long-distance networks is a major part of the future for the
Windows OS.  "This exhibition shows that Windows 2000 truly is a broadband
operating system prepared for the next millennium.  Microsoft is thrilled
that Windows 2000 is able to display its gigabit-readiness through such a
tremendously innovative engineering feat."

Ed Lazowska, UW's head of computer science, added that "enabling gigabit
networking capabilities on what will eventually be millions or tens of
millions of desktops is the first step in unleashing developers worldwide
to create the next generation of applications, architectures and content."
   

The UW/Sony gigabit applications and content demonstration will transmit
five simultaneous channels of minimally-compressed studio-quality Internet
HDTV using industry standard video, computer, and networking equipment.
Each channel will require bandwidths in excess of 200 megabits per second
(Mbps).

"This demonstration illustrates the feasibility of using Internet transport
technology for the real-time delivery of extraordinarily high quality
video, virtual reality, telemedicine, and other imaging streams," said UW
vice president Ron Johnson.  He added that the demonstration shows it is
now possible to run distributed broadband applications over high-speed,
next generation Internet WANS using hardware and software available in the
consumer market. The demo will use broadcast and Internet standards, Sony's
suite of HDTV gear, off-the-shelf networking equipment, and commodity NT
PCs running custom software developed at UW with Microsoft Visual Studio. 

The demonstration is the equivalent of concurrent transmission of the
entire channel lineup of a 150 channel cable TV system, or of 50 channels
of broadcast quality HDTV, five feature movies, or interactions among a
number of  high-resolution video walls or immersive environments.

Together, these demonstrations show that the era of gigabit-per-second
networking and the next generation of Internet applications and content is
at hand.

For demonstration times, visit the Alliance research booth (R300) or the UW
research booth (RE602), where both sets of demos will run.

About Microsoft 
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in
software for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide
range of products and services designed to empower people through great
software - any time, any place and on any device. 
Microsoft and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of
Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries. 
Other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their
respective owners. 

About The University of Washington (UW)

The University of Washington is one of the world's leading research
institutions. While the UW has great strength in a comprehensive array of
disciplines and professions in the technical realm, it is especially well
known for its programs in computer science and the health sciences, and for
its long and continuing role in the evolution of the Internet, Internet
messaging technologies, and digital convergence in new
media. For more information see http://www.washington.edu.

About the Alliance/NCSA

The National Computational Science Alliance is a partnership to prototype
an advanced computational infrastructure for the 21st century and includes
more than 50 academic, government and industry research partners from
across the United States. The Alliance is one of two partnerships funded by
the National Science Foundation's Partnerships for Advanced Computational
Infrastructure (PACI) program, and receives cost-sharing at partner
institutions. NSF also supports the National Partnership for Advanced
Computational Infrastructure (NPACI), led by the San Diego Supercomputer
Center. The National Center for Supercomputing Applications is the
leading-edge site for the Alliance. NCSA is a leader in the development and
deployment of cutting-edge high-performance computing, networking, and
information technologies. The National Science Foundation, the state of
Illinois, the University of Illinois, industrial partners, and other
federal agencies fund NCSA. 

About ResearchTV

ResearchTV is a consortium of many of the world's leading research
institutions that is dedicated to providing greater, much more timely, and
far broader access to progress in, and the findings and outcomes of
university, government and corporate R&D efforts.  For more information see
http://www.washington.edu/researchtv.

About Sony

Sony Electronics is the premier provider of leading-edge digital video
technology for broadcast, production and HDTV, as well as exceptional
quality consumer electronics, computer, and display products. The
University of Washington and Sony have partnered successfully to pioneer
HDTV over Internet capabilities. For more information, see
www.sony.com/professional.

About the Pacific/Northwest Gigapop (PNWGP) 

The Pacific/Northwest Gigapop is the northwest's next generation Internet
applications cooperative, testbed, and point of presence. PNWGP connects
universities as well as research institutions and R&D enterprises
throughout Washington, Alaska, Montana, Idaho and Oregon, to one another,
to the next generation Internet backbones (including vBNS,
Internet2/Abilene and now NTON), to federal research networks, and to
super-high-performance commodity internets.  For more information, see
http://www.pnwpg.org.

About NTON

The National Transparent Optical Network links government, research and
private sector labs and provides the ability to interface with most of the
broadband research networks in the U.S. NTON is a 2000 km 10-20 Gbs
Wavelength Division Multiplexed network deployed using in-place commercial
fiber. NTON provides direct access to nearly all of the major universities
on the West Coast at data rates up to, and potentially beyond, 2.5 Gbs.





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