Fast, Local, Wide-Area, and National Networks

Next, let's turn to networking, which is as important as any other element and ties the other elements together.

Some of the good news is that we are obtaining more standards for I/O channels and networks. We have the ability to build on top of these standards to create things rather quickly. As an example of that, I mention the emergence of the Internet and the future National Research and Education Network (NREN) environment, which is based on standards, notably transmission control protocol/Internet protocol, and on open systems and has already proved its worth.

Unfortunately, as we move up to gigabit speeds, which we know we will require for a balanced overall system, we're going to need new hardware and new protocols. Some of the things that we can do today simply break down logically or electrically when we get up to these speeds. Still, there's going to be a heavy push to achieve gigabit speeds.

Another piece of bad news is that today the network services are almost nonexistent. Such simple things as yellow pages and white pages and so on for national networks just don't exist. This is like the Russian telephone system: if you want to call somebody, you call them to find out what their telephone number is because there are no phone books.

Another issue that was raised is how we can extend the national network into a broader user community. How can we move NREN out quickly from the research and education community into broader industrial usage? Making this transition will require dealing with sticky issues such as intellectual property rights, tariffed services, and interfaces.