Research Scientists To Use Network Much Faster Than Internet

nickweller writes with this story from the Times about the Pacific Research Platform, an ultra-high-speed fiber-optic research infrastructure that will link together dozens of top research institutions. The National Science Foundation has just awarded a five-year $5 million dollar grant for the project. The story reports:The network is meant to keep pace with the vast acceleration of data collection in fields such as physics, astronomy and genetics. It will not be directly connected to the Internet, but will make it possible to move data at speeds of 10 gigabits to 100 gigabits among 10 University of California campuses and 10 other universities and research institutions in several states, tens or hundreds of times faster than is typical now.

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Troll Slashdot if you're lonely

[Dutch Gun]

He's actually a perfect example of how well slashdot's moderation system typically works. Oddly enough, he's demonstrating the exact opposite of what he's intending, especially since no one is joining him in his angry little crusade.

Anyhow, back on topic. It seems like we might as well expand the regular internet's capacity to transfer this much data. Streaming video has a practical limitation beyond which there's no point in increasing resolution or fidelity. There's also finite amount of video you'd need to stream or download (essentially, one 24-hour HD stream per person), beyond which you're going to venture into a fairly extreme outlier. So, I think the notion that capacity needs to increase forever seems flawed. Just like most computers are far more powerful than needed, at some point, bandwidth will far exceed what a typical user needs in day to day life. At that point, occasional transfers of very large amounts of data by researchers, universities, or corporations won't be a problem, because there will be a lot of headroom for those sorts of burst transfers.

Still, for the short term, this seems like a smart idea for universities. Until consumer pressure or competition forces expansion of the national network, I think this makes sense. I'd imagine the investment is largely a one-time cost, with maintenance being far less expensive over the long term. The only question is whether the investment will pay off before the commercial internet capacity and costs are equivalent. Given how sluggishly things have been evolving (compared to other regions), I'd say they're probably making the right decision.