ATDnet/MONET at OFC 2000

The basic question that we're answering here is, 'What could you do with all this bandwidth?'

Transparency is the key

Summary

The ATDNet/MONET research community partnered with MIT Lincoln Laboratories BOSSnet researchers to deliver 8 wavelengths directly to the OFC 2000 Exhibit floor to provide a first hand visual demonstration of the capabilities of transparent optical networking. The total data delivered to the convention center floor exceeded 17 Gigabits-per-second (Gbps) aggregate, including applications that utilize IP, ATM and direct optical transparent network interfaces in excess of 1.5 Gbps sustained.

The data delivered included roughly 2.5 Gbps packet over SONET, 10 Gbps ATM and 4.5 Gbps of direct optical. The packet over SONET connection provided connectivity to OFC for several DARPA NGI Supernet activities. The ATM and transparent optical connections provided full quality (uncompressed - SMPTE 292M) High Definition Motion Imagery (HDTV), including feeds from the Naval Research Laboratory’s Center for Computational Science (NRL/CCS) and the National Security Agency's Laboratory for Telecommunications Science (NSA/LTS). Three live interactive visualization feeds in HDTV format were generated realtime from NRL’s SGI Monster Infinite Reality Engine (3x IR2). The SGI Space to Face demo was featured and was remotely controlled from the showroom floor via an O2 running teleffect. Additional live feeds came from NRL as MPEG2 compressed 720/60p HDTV and from several pre-recorded/live 720/60p HDTV cameras. NSA’s LTS also provided a live camera feed of 720/60p HDTV into the show floor. A variety of IP and direct ATM applications were aggregated simultaneously on the ATM portion of the connectivity. These included voice, video and data from NRL, NSA and other ATDNet locations at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA).

Additional information regarding the OFC 2000 demonstration including technical descriptions and photos

Baltimore Sun article

This demonstration recently (5/23/2000) prompted a local ABC affiliate station (WJLA) to feature the imagery and SGI computer systems on a segment showing the possibilities that the next generation internet (NGI) program will provide.

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