Comments on: Optical networking: The next generation

Forget Internet2. The National LambdaRail is the most ambitious network research project going.

It's sad :-(

It's kinda sad. When I was reading about how fast the network would be all I was thinking was "Imagine how well I'd ping on one of these things." :-/

[CyberWoLfman]

A fiberoptic daydream.

Let's be realisitc, here. The technology that's being held in front of us like the ancient pictures of a carrot held just out of reach of a beast of burden's mouth isn't going to be available to most of us for at least a decade, if not longer.

Considering the fact that other technology like electronarcosis has been repressed and kept out of the average guy's hands for a century now, this gigabyte bandwidth story isn't thrilling me overmuch. Past experience has taught me to throttle down my reaction to hype. See the Repressed Technology page I created if you don't believe me here: www.cyberwolfman.com/rprsdtec.htm (not an ad, just one of my information pages).

Perhaps in another century we can expect such things, with VRD (Virtual Retinal Display) nearly obscuring the reality around us, and we can walk around like datajacked zombies, hyping the 24/7 jacked-in experience to everybody who will listen. But, this is something I'll believe in when I see reality de-res. Heck, we're still using the same protocols (TCP/IP) we had over 25 years ago!

Oh, and there's still some of the old ARPAnet out there. There's probably IMPs (Interface Message Processors) sitting in high-tech junkyards, too, somewhere...

- CyberWoLfman

[shreeg]

Why not extend research on wireless networks

Why spend time and energy on a land based network when wireless technologies could be developed in this time to radically change the way we build and use networks?
I do agree that the full capabilities of fibre optics is yet to be realized but when the wireless world has evolved to some extent this effort by Universities should have been focused on wireless rather than miles of wired technology. That would have resulted in amazing benefits ina few years.

There might be more to this than my naive mind can think about.

[volterwd]

but

wired will always be faster and more secure

[Dachi]

I don't get it.

OK, so Internet 2 uses one shared 10 gig median and NLR does not require traffic be passed through this median allowing 10 gig point to point links? Is that not what routing is for? Why do they have to be 2 seperate networks.

Why does using DWDM for most links require an entirely seperate network?