Improvements being made to the campus computer network will allow Yale researchers to share large amounts of data with their colleagues across the country more quickly and easily.
Last year Yale was among a group of leading universities selected by the National Science Foundation (NSF) for connection to the very high-speed Backbone Network Service (vBNS), a nationwide telecommunications network that is between 100 and 1,000 times faster than today's Internet.
Although originally conceived as a medium for the exchange of information between researchers across the country, the Internet has become congested by millions of commercial, governmental, educational and avocational users.
The need for a faster network to support advanced research and educational applications led a group of universities, including Yale, to launch Internet2 in October of 1996. Currently, more than 100 universities participate in the project, managed by the nonprofit University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development.
Internet2 currently uses the vBNS as its national spine. The NSF-funded network operates at 622 megabits per second, which is between 3 and 13 times faster than current commercial Internet backbones. Ultimately, the vBNS will operate at 2.4 billion bits per second.
Improved performance. In early January, Data Network Operations and vBNS engineers from MCI Communications Corp. installed a 45-megabit-per-second link between the vBNS and the Yale campus network. "Users can expect to see improved performance in connecting to other vBNS sites, especially with large file transfers and Web access," says Joseph Paolillo, director of data network operations. "At one level, the vBNS already is benefiting all users of the campus network because communications from Yale to other vBNS-connected institutions automatically travel over the vBNS rather than the Internet."
To realize the full potential of the vBNS, the NSF requires grant recipients to provide matching funds in the form of improvements to their campus network infrastructures, notes Paolillo. The first phase of Yale's improvements, which will be completed in the next few weeks, will provide 100-megabit-per-second network connections to the sites of the three applications cited in Yale's grant: High Energy Physics, the Computer Science/Engineering Robotics Lab, and the Center for Advanced Instructional Media. (See related story, page X.)
The second phase of the $350,000 network improvements will begin this summer and will be completed over the next 12 to 18 months. This phase will involve significant upgrades to the campus network "backbone" -- the common connecting point for all buildings on the campus network plus the vBNS and Internet gateways. The enhanced network initially will provide backbone speeds of 200-800 megabits per second, and will provide the foundation for upgrading to 1 gigabit per second, says Paolillo. In addition, the new backbone will provide the ability to connect buildings to the network at speeds of 100 megabits per second and higher as required.
According to Jeremy George, manager of network engineering, "National Science Foundation research indicates computer operating systems and application software likely will need some fine-tuning in order to derive the maximum advantage from our enhanced network. Bringing high speed to the wall jack is just the beginning."
Yale's effort to broaden participation in Internet2 activities will require collaboration and cooperation among many diverse groups, says George, who plans to make informational presentations to campus groups along with Paolillo and Philip Long, director of academic computing. They are especially interested in explaining the network's enhanced capabilities in disciplines that traditionally have not used networking. Interested individuals are encouraged to contact George at Information Technology Services, 432-6679.
Universities besides Yale that already are vBNS-connected are Dartmouth, University of Pennsylvania, University of Michigan, Duke, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Texas A&M, Carnegie Mellon, Penn State, and the University of Colorado. Also connected are the National Center for Atmospheric Research, the National Supercomputing Centers and the National Library of Medicine.
Scheduled for vBNS connection in coming months are the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard, the University of California system, Vanderbilt and others. For a complete list, see www.vbns.net/site.html.
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