The Internet of the Not-So-Distant Future Next Generation Internet Architecture NGI: Click on the image above to view more detail. by Pat Kaspar

Issue 3, September 1997 Welcome to the on-line version of NASA's Insights Newsletter. Text Only F E A T U R E S >Propelling Power of Prediction >Cataclysm in the Sky >The Internet of the not-so-distant Future ->__RETURN TO COVER__ I N T E R V I E W S >John Toole >Lee Holcomb ->__RETURN TO COVER__ I N - B R I E F >NASA HPCC News ->__RETURN TO COVER__ E V E N T S >Recent Events ->__RETURN TO COVER__ Insights is published by the High Performance Computing and Communications (HPCC) Program Office. Address changes to Judy Conlon or write to: NASA HPCC Insights, Mail Stop 269-3, Moffett Field, California 94035-1000, USA

By 2002, today's information superhighway will seem like a dirt road filled with pot holes. Information traversing tomorrow's Internet will flow at speeds a thousand times faster than today's com-mercially provided services and perhaps a million times faster than today's home computer modems. You will no longer struggle to "get there" -- you will already "be there," working with distant colleagues as if they were at the next desk. NREN: click on the image above to see more detail. "The existing Internet is a 'best effort' standby network that regularly has massive traffic jams, motivating researchers to develop a more powerful successor," said Bill Feiereisen, HPCC Program Manager. Data from Sojouner's stereo cameras are transmitted from JPL to Ames Research Center via the NREN for 3-D image processing to create a virtual terrain model toelp guide the rover's operations. "Given NASA's achievements in science networking, NASA will participate in the Next Generation Internet (NGI) through increased network research and applications demonstrations, with the NASA Research and Education Network (NREN) project leading the way." NASA works with other federal agencies on the NGI to make this goal a reality. "NGI propels the present Internet into the future with orders of magnitude greater speed, bandwidth and reliability," said Christine Falsetti, NREN Manager. "NASA is involved in NGI because of its unique missions that require advanced networking technology, and because it has a quarter century of network systems engineering experience. NASA missions require two to three orders of magnitude improvement in high-performance networking today. We are developing technology that charts a course for future networking applications, that interoperates with the existing Internet, and that can be readily transferred to commercial networks. Without this accelerated development, these improvements may not be available for 15 to 20 years." NREN's existing high-performance network is the cornerstone for NASA's collaboration in the NGI. NREN supports the HPCC community, NASA missions such as Mission to Planet Earth, advanced aerospace design, telemedicine, astrobiology, astrophysics, remote operations and simulations, and important national goals. "NREN tests tomorrow's networking applications today," said Falsetti. "It provides a testbed for both advanced network research and science applications research."

NREN Project Manager Christine Falsetti is bringing the best minds of government, industry and academia together melding science and technology to create the 21st Century Internet. NREN works with the Department of Energy (DOE), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and the National Science Foundation (NSF) to build the NGI. At present, these agencies have their own networks that are supported by different telecommunications carriers and connected only to specific sites. NGI will create "eXchanges" (NGIX) to interconnect these networks for a vast increase in coverage. A parallel effort in the academic world, called Internet 2, is building high-speed connectivity "Points of Presence," called "GigaPOPs." These sites connect initially through NSF's backbone and internetwork with NREN. NREN now connects five NASA centers at speeds of 155 Mb/s and is expanding in speed, function, reliability, and reach. "NGI propels the present Internet into the future with orders of magnitude greater speed, bandwidth, and reliability." - Christine Falsetti NASA Researchers will soon assist surgery on the other side of the world, control airframe design in a distant wind tunnel, operate a virtual laboratory and one day use NREN to direct a rover on Mars. As the technology to handle these applications is developed and refined, and as the speed and capacity of the Internet grows, the technology will flow from the scientific community to the general public. New and exciting applications are emerging to take advantage of the NGI. "The Next Generation Internet is a critical investment in America's future," said Falsetti, "with enormous economic and social benefits."

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