From gnu@toad.com Fri Apr 2 13:20:46 1993 Received: from toad.com by fido.wps.com (5.67/1.34) id AA02786; Fri, 2 Apr 93 13:20:40 -0800 Received: from localhost by toad.com id AA00302; Fri, 2 Apr 93 13:22:32 PST Message-Id: <9304022122.AA00302@toad.com> To: tomj@fido.wps.com, gnu@toad.com Subject: [Dave Farber: Re: PacBell & Gigabit networking: fuller story] Date: Fri, 02 Apr 93 13:22:31 -0800 From: gnu@toad.com Status: OR I called the person listed at the bottom to see if I could get whatever info they have released about this, mentioning the Little Garden to see if there is any synergy. John ------- Forwarded Message Return-Path: interesting-people-request@eff.org Return-Path: Received: from eff.org by toad.com id AA11575; Thu, 1 Apr 93 11:16:37 PST Received: by eff.org id AA18706 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4/pen-ident for interesting-people-exploder); Thu, 1 Apr 1993 16:47:32 -0500 Posted-Date: Fri, 2 Apr 1993 06:47:26 +0900 X-Mailer: InterCon TCP/Connect II 1.1 Message-Id: <9304020647.AA26211@pcpond.cis.upenn.edu> Date: Fri, 2 Apr 1993 06:47:26 +0900 From: Dave Farber Subject: Re: PacBell & Gigabit networking: fuller story To: interesting-people@eff.org (interesting-people mailing list) [from a Pacific Bell press release] Pacific Bell has announced plans to build a communications super highway connecting participating California universities, research labs, major hospitals and leading high-tech firms in the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles. Many users hooked up to the developmental portion of the full spectrum super highway will receive free access through a nonprofit organization. In exchange, these users will help develop innovative applications in education, healthcare, business, government and research. "We're bringing together some of the brightest minds in California to develop applications that will bolster California's economy and quality of life," said Phil Quigley, president of Pacific Bell. "With this project, we're taking a major first step to ensure that broadband technology will be practical from the first day customers get access to it." Known as the California Research and Education Network (CalREN), the project will use new communications switching and transmission technologies in an advanced telecommunications network capable of transmitting voice, data, video and images concurrently. CalREN will make these capabilities available to public, educational and business participants. "California's telecommunications infrastructure will play a pivotal role in boosting business productivity, creating jobs, enhancing education, improving health care and reducing traffic congestion," Quigley said. "We're jump-starting the applications development process in hopes that the innovative services resulting from this effort will help jump-start the California economy." While a major objective of this project is to serve as a testbed for network applications development, Quigley said an advanced telecommunications system would also make possible: teleseminars, in which two-way video, electronic "white-boards" and simultaneous data exchange allow participants to take part in educational programs from their offices; "virtual" consortiums, where business people, students, professors or scientists from geographically dispersed organizations work together to solve complex problems; electronic medical records processing, remote patient monitoring and remote specialist consultations. Eventually, applications could evolve to include multimedia patient records that include digital voice annotations, diagnostic images and video in a single "file" and allow doctors to exchange those files over the high-speed network; interactive editing of feature film footage via computer, ending the current time-consuming process of physically shipping film; interconnecting high-speed data networks; and access to a wealth of existing databases. "The vision for this project takes full advantage of revolutionary advancements emerging from the telecommunications industry and provides a model for an infrastructure that can grow rapidly with future developments," Quigley said. CalREN will bring together as many as 80 educational, medical and high-tech industrial organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area, and a like number in Los Angeles. The participants agree over the next two years to develop and pilot advanced telecommunications, information technologies and applications to improve the quality of life for all Californians. In addition to applications development, business participants in the CalREN project will be asked to help nonprofit organizations, particularly schools, participate in the project. This assistance may include sponsorship, funds, applications or equipment. The network can be envisioned as three tiers. At the top is an ultra-high-speed switching and transmission fabric based on new digital technology, ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode). It can simultaneously route voice, data and video communications over fiber-optic lines with equal ease at speeds eventually reaching billions of bits per seconds, a so-called "gigabit network." This will be the foundation for such applications as teleseminars and high-definition imaging. The second layer is composed of emerging high-speed "fast packet" data services that operate at millions of bits per second. Typical applications for these services include interconnection of data networks, high-speed telecommuting and medical imaging. Within the bottom tier are services that transmit at tens of thousands of bits per second, providing transport for such services as telecommuting, exchanging health-care records and accessing sophisticated computerized information sources, such as library data bases. Plans are for CalREN to begin offering the full set of services by year's end in the Bay Area, and in early 1994 in Los Angeles. Many of the CalREN services are commercially available on a limited basis from Pacific Bell today. The full cost of the project will be paid by commercial users and through funding by the nonprofit organization. CalREN is consistent with efforts by Governor Wilson, the state legislature and the Clinton/Gore Administration to promote an electronic superhighway, Quigley said, adding that government should serve as a catalyst for increased investment of this sort. Some aspects of the CalREN project will require approval from governmental authorities, Quigley noted. CONTACT: Pacific Bell Telephone, Linda Healey, 415/542-4719 ------- End of Forwarded Message