It occurs to me that it would be good if people sent in some non-governmental/hierarchial solutions to this problem, such as ones using digital cash as "postage" for prioritized mail. -Allen From: Phil Agre <pagre@weber.ucsd.edu> =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= This message was forwarded through the Red Rock Eater News Service (RRE). Send any replies to the original author, listed in the From: field below. You are welcome to send the message along to others but please do not use the "redirect" command. For information on RRE, including instructions for (un)subscribing, send an empty message to rre-help@weber.ucsd.edu =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Date: Fri, 15 Mar 1996 05:34:50 -0500 (EST) From: Automated Mailer <stsful-l-prog@x.nsf.gov> To: STSFUL-L Mailing List <stsful-l@x.nsf.gov> Subject: [Press Release] TRAFFIC JAMS ON THE INTERNET The file "pr968.txt" has been added to the STIS system. This file is a NEW file. Reference material is located at the end of this message. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Title : TRAFFIC JAMS ON THE INTERNET Type : Press Release NSF Org: OD / LPA Date : March 14, 1996 File : pr968 Media only contact: Beth Gaston March 14, 1996 (703) 306-1070/egaston@nsf.gov NSF PR 96-8 All others contact: Mark Luker (703) 306-1950/mluker@nsf.gov TRAFFIC JAMS ON THE INTERNET: New Connections Program to force Internet Technology While the Internet grows in popularity, a related problem is growing: traffic jams. The increased demand of more people on-line using increasingly sophisticated tools has caused delays in transmission unacceptable for some scientific uses. The National Science Foundation has introduced a new twist to its connections program: emphasizing innovative solutions that may have broad implications for all Internet users. The program will look for meritorious applications that require high performance networking, and will then fund development by university and college campus network service providers. Technology developed for this program will likely affect future operation of the Internet. The technology will introduce the idea of prioritization to Internet traffic. For example, if planning to use the U.S. Postal Service to send a package, you have options: overnight mail, first-class service, or third-class service. The rate of the package delivery is contingent on how it is designated. Freeways around major cities often have either express toll roads or high-occupancy-vehicle lanes to bypass congested areas. Similarly, NSF's connections program is expected to spur the development of switches and routers to help alleviate bottlenecks of information. "There is no single solution. We hope this grant program will stimulate the development of a technological option for the Internet, to introduce prioritization and provide a new style of connection that gives a guaranteed level of service at a national level," said Mark Luker, manager of NSF's connections program. Currently on the Internet, all packets of information are treated alike. While this worked fine before the popularization of the Internet, it now interferes with some uses that require high performance service. One example is to use high performance connections of multiple small computers to create a large workstation cluster distributed across the nation. The Internet is currently too congested for such a system. Teleconferencing or videoconferencing also places too great a need on the current capacity. And, some scientific instrumentation requires specific fast connections, though not necessarily high bandwidth. Interruptions or delays caused by Internet congestion could be fatal to experiments. One solution might include prioritization of traffic on the Internet. Another solution might involve diverting specially coded traffic to high performance, special use networks, such as NSF's vBNS (very high speed Backbone Network Service). -end- NSF was created as an independent federal agency in 1950, uniquely charged with promoting the progress of all fields of science and engineering. Today, as a leader and steward of the nation's science research base, NSF supports both research and education through competitive grants to about 2,000 universities and other institutions. NSF receives some 60,000 research proposals each year and funds about one-third of them. ** News releases and tipsheets are available electronically on NSFnews. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to listmanager@nsf.gov. In the body of the message, type "subscribe nsfnews" and then type your name. For more guidance, send a "help" message to listmanager@nsf.gov. Also see the NSF Home Page (http:// www.nsf.gov), under News of Interest. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- End of pr968.txt ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ** FOR YOUR REFERENCE ** This message was mailed to the STIS mailing list "STSFUL-L". To get off the list, send the following message to "ListProc@stis.nsf.gov": unsubscribe STSFUL-L If you receive an error message, send the following message for more information: help unsubscribe If, after 24 hours, you haven't received *any* response from ListProc send a message to "stis@nsf.gov". A human will read your message. ------- End of forwarded message -------