Do we need more bandwidth -- your Editors comments

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Way back when I was planning what became the Gigabit Testbed program,  
many people I talked with said "who would ever need gigabit paths  
between organizations let alone desks. " But there were those like  
Erich Bloch at the NSF and others including Bob Kahn and Jon Smith,  
who saw the future and supported the idea. That initiative bought  
gigabit capacity to the national internet a good 3-4 years before it  
might have happened otherwise.

During the planning I went over to my colleagues at Wharton and asked  
what their community could do with gigabit capacities. After 15  
minutes I had to stop them and say that we were not yet capable of  
supplying the bandwidth they wanted. They were visualizing real  
business application that if successful could save enough money and  
give enough flexibility that the cost would be irrelevant.

What they need is 100 gig or more  channels and systems that can  
generate and absorb data at those rates.  Saddly I don't see the same  
commitment to doing the research that will yield that environment as  
eventually we saw in the Gigabit testbeds.

Dave


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