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IP: Next Generation Internet
From: Dave Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>
Date: Thu, 10 Oct 1996 13:14:36 -0400
October 10, 1996 BACKGROUND ON CLINTON-GORE ADMINISTRATION'S NEXT-GENERATION INTERNET INITIATIVE The Internet is the biggest change in human communications since the printing press. Every day, this rapidly growing global network touches the lives of millions of Americans. Students log in to the Library of Congress or take virtual field trips to the Mayan ruins. Entrepreneurs get the information they need to start a new business and sell their products in overseas markets. Caregivers for people with Alzheimer's Disease participate in an "extended family" on the Cleveland FreeNet. Citizens keep tabs on the voting records and accomplishments of their elected representatives. We must invest today to create the foundation for the networks of the 21st Century. Today's Internet is an outgrowth of decades of federal investment in research networks such as the ARPANET and the NSFNET. A small amount of federal seed money stimulated much greater investment by industry and academia, and helped create a large and rapidly growing market. Similarly, creative investments today will set the stage for the networks of tomorrow that are even more powerful and versatile than the current Internet. This initiative will foster partnerships among academia, industry and government that will keep the U.S. at the cutting-edge of information and communications technologies. It will also accelerate the introduction of new multimedia services available in our homes, schools, and businesses. Economic benefits: The potential economic benefits of this initiative are enormous. Because the Internet developed in the United States first, American companies have a substantial lead in a variety of information and communications markets. The explosion of the Internet has generated economic growth, high-wage jobs, and a dramatic increase in the number of high-tech start-ups. The Next Generation Internet initiative will strengthen America's technological leadership, and create new jobs and new market opportunities. The Administration's "Next Generation Internet" initiative has three goals: 1 Connect universities and national labs with high-speed networks that are 100 - 1000 times faster than today's Internet: These networks will connect at least 100 universities and national labs at speeds that are 100 times faster than today's Internet, and a smaller number of institutions at speeds that are 1,000 times faster. These networks will eventually be able to transmit the contents of the entire Encyclopedia Britannica in under a second. 2. Promote experimentation with the next generation of networking technologies: For example, technologies are emerging that could dramatically increase the capabilities of the Internet to handle real-time services such as high quality video-conferencing. There are a variety of research challenges associated with increasing the number of Internet users by a factor of 100 that this initiative will help address. By serving as "testbeds", research networks can help accelerate the introduction of new commercial services. 3. Demonstrate new applications that meet important national goals and missions: Higher-speed, more advanced networks will enable a new generation of applications that support scientific research, national security, distance education, environmental monitoring, and health care. Below are just a few of the potential applications: Health care: Doctors at university medical centers will use large archives of radiology images to identify the patterns and features associated with particular diseases. With remote access to supercomputers, they will also be able to improve the accuracy of mammographies by detecting subtle changes in three-dimensional images. National Security: A top priority for the Defense Department is "dominant battlefield awareness," which will give the United States military a significant advantage in any armed conflict. This requires an ability to collect information from large numbers of high-resolution sensors, automatic processing of the data to support terrain and target recognition, and real-time distribution of that data to the warfighter. This will require orders of magnitude more bandwidth than is currently commercially available. Distance Education: Universities are now experimenting with technologies such as two-way video to remote sites, VCR-like replay of past classes, modeling and simulation, collaborative environments, and online access to instructional software. Distance education will improve the ability of universities to serve working Americans who want new skills, but who cannot attend a class at a fixed time during the week. Energy Research: Scientists and engineers across the country will be able to work with each other and access remote scientific facilities, as if they were in the same building. "Collaboratories" that combine video-conferencing, shared virtual work spaces, networked scientific facilities, and databases will increase the efficiency and effectiveness of our national research enterprise. Biomedical Research: Researchers will be able to solve problems in large-scale DNA sequencing and gene identification that were previously impossible, opening the door to breakthroughs in curing human genetic diseases. Environmental Monitoring: Researchers are constructing a "virtual world" to model the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem, which serves as a nursery area for many commercially important species. Manufacturing engineering: Virtual reality and modeling and simulation can dramatically reduce the time required to develop new products. Funding: The Administration will fund this initiative by allocating $100 million for R&D and research networks to develop the Next Generation Internet. This increase in FY98 funding will be offset by a reallocation of defense and domestic technology funds. As with previous networking initiatives, the Administration will work to ensure that this federal investment will serve as a catalyst for additional investment by universities and the private sector. Implementation: The principal agencies involved in this initiative are the National Science Foundation, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Department of Energy, NASA, and the National Institutes of Health. Other agencies may be involved in promoting specific applications related to their missions.
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