Nationwide Fiber Optic Science Network

zCyl writes "An article at SMH describes a large fiber optic network called the National LambdaRail, which has completed 1,084 out of a planned 16,000 kilometers between major universities and research institutions. Upon completion it should transmit 400 Gbps and stretch across the continental U.S. Access to the network will be intentionally restricted to scientists and researchers only 'for research and experimentation in networking technologies and applications'."

Comments

I wonder

[IANAL(BIAILS)]

Any plans to string a few lines up to Canada and connect our institutions up here?

Re:I wonder

[SugoiMonkey]

Maybe after we invade you.

Re:How would you use that?

[meta-monkey]

Somebody moderated this Interesting? Jesus.

You're not going to get 50GB/sec from one node to another. it's from one network to another. PCI-X 533 (the next gen PCI-X) can only do 4.3GB/s. However, if you want to connect a cluster of, say, a dozen nodes with PCI-X 533 to another dozen nodes with PCI-X 533 across the country...

Rural America?

[ksemlerK]

Shouldn't getting broadband communication capabilities to rural America be a top priority also? Where I live, I cannot subscribe to DSL due to the poor quality of the telephone lines. Hell, just 4 years ago, the telephone company,(Inland Telephone), changed all the lines from the old aluminum wiring to the "new" copper wire. The fastest I can transfer connect out here is only at 33.6k on a good day. As we speak, I am only connected at 26.4k. I find this assanine, esepecially when I can move 14 miles to town, and have access to DSL, Cable, and WiFi. Out here, the only option for high speed data transfers is sattilite. Far too expensive for me. This should be a major priority if we intend to bring rural america out of the mid-ninteys, and into the 21st century of data transfer speed. Hell, I would be happy if I could connect at just 53k, but I do not think that the monopolistic telephone companies will be upgrading the lines within the next 20 years. After all, the aluminum wiring went out of common usage during the 1970's, when copper wire replaced it. How long am I going to have to wait for 56k capabilities, 40 more years? I will propanbly be dead by then, as that would put me at 65 years old.

Re:"scientists and researchers only" ?linux

[XipX]

Since SCO claimed ownership of physics.