US plans for virtual laboratories by Internet

17 Jun 2002

The U.S. National Science Foundation plans to create a high-speed computer network that will allow US scientists to carry out activities-- such as collaborating in virtual reality laboratories and manipulating instruments by remote control-- that are impossible to do properly on the existing Internet.

NSF also hopes that the program, known as 'Connections to the Internet', will encourage the development of technologies that would allow its planned high-speed network to be grafted onto the existing network. The result will allow scientists at a few dozen universities to interact at high speeds for the first time. Researchers will be able to operate instruments such as telescopes by remote control, and collaborate using virtual reality laboratories.

Since last year, NSF has been leasing a 155-megabit very high-speed Backbone Network Service (vBNS) from the telephone company MCI. Until now, the vBNS has linked only NSF's supercomputers and has had few connections to the Internet. NSF will ask researchers to submit proposals on ways of using the backbone for high-speed networking. It will also fund high-speed connections from their home campuses to the vBNS, according to Mark Luker, director of both the vBNS and the new program.