Re: connectivity outside the US

[Arun Welch <awelch () awelch inhouse compuserve com>]

> I have been following this thread with some interest.  A few months ago a
> friend of mine from Fore Systems told me about the 'ACTS' project. NASA and
> Ohio-State and quite a few others were doing research into the Gigabit
> Satelite Network.

ACTS has been used for a bunch of stuff, but you're probably thinking of the
high data rate experiments. The home page for ACTS HDR is 
http://mrpink.lerc.nasa.gov/gsnhome.html

> There was a test between Sony in Japan and I 'BELIEVE'
> JPL in Pasadena of hight def video transmissions over an OC-3 circuit.

You'll find this on on the Experiments page, number 101. 

> Anybody heard anything about this? If enough birds like ACTS were
> sent up, this could be a boon for ISP's maybe.

Well, maybe. ACTS is a GEO satellite, and interactive use is painful. On the
other hand, it's enabled people to do interesting things with bulk data
transfer, and it was probably the first system that got you OC-12 across
any significant distance. There's an IETF WG working on the issues posed by
IP over satellites, whose home page is http://www.isr.umd.edu/CSHCN/Links/IPoS/

...arun
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Arun Welch                                      5000 Britton Rd
Lead Engineer, Internet R&D                     Hilliard, OH 43026
CompuServe Network Services                     awelch () compuserve net