Farber's New Years Editorial

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

Move It or Lose It


Professor David Farber
The Alfred Fitler Moore Professor of Telecommunication Systems
University of Pennsylvania
200 S. 33 rd Street
Philadelphia PA 19104-6389
farber () cis upenn edu




Four years ago the United States undertook a pioneering activity in the
exploration of gigabit technology.  This activity grew out
of a National Research Council study which suggested, as
part of the move towards the National Research and
Educational Network (NREN), research designed to explore
the impact of gigabit transmission speeds on networking,
applications, and computer
architecture.


The research program has been a great success. Not only have we gained a deeper
understanding of the impact of high speed technology on protocols, computer
architecture, applications, and system architecture, but our success has
motivated research establishments in Japan, Singapore, the European Union,
Sweden, Australia, and others to undertake similar explorations.


Ultra-high-speed networking is taking off around the world.


Unfortunately, just as we are developing a much better appreciation of the
problems as well as finding ourselves competing in an active international
research environment, our resolve is beginning to flag.  We are beginning to see
U.S. reactions to gigabit research ranging from, "we don't need a gigabit
network," to "we don't see the applications yet," to "can't
we get by funding 155 megabits?," as I have recently noted
in an editorial for the ERCIM newsletter. Were it not for
the fact that we have stirred up the juices of gigabit
research in other nations, this might not be completely
unreasonable -- although to my mind, it would be unwise.
If we cease to move forward at this critical time we stand
a very good chance of losing our technological leadership
in the next century. Our pioneering efforts will transfer
to Europe and Asia with them reaping the commercial
benefits of high speed technology.


I am reminded of the days leading up to the supercomputer
initiative, when people were saying, "why do you need such
big machines?  Why can't we experiment on slower, cheaper
machines?"  Our scientific and political leadership at that
time saw the advantage to the nation of leaping out in
front.  It would be unfortunate and inappropriate if our
leadership at this critical stage, having defined the
direction of the national and global information
infrastructure, does not have the courage to follow the
path we blazed for the supercomputer revolution.


We are at a critical point in gigabit networking.  Unless we continue and expand
ultra-high-speed activities we will lose the momentum of industry and academia.
We will lose the ability to train a new generation of communication engineers,
and, in my mind, we will have failed the next generation of U.S. scientists and
entrepreneurs.  If the U.S. isn't going to be ready for the 21st century, the
rest of the world will be.