In the Fastest Lane

Dartmouth researchers will get a huge boost this fall when the campus data network ties into a new, highspeed national computer network. Dartmouth is among 35 research institutions to receive National Science Foundation grants for connections to the NSF-funded very-high-speed Backbone Network Service (vBNS).

Although the grant is primarily intended for scientific work, other Dartmouth users will see data transfer rates this fall that are 30 times faster than those of this past summer. Within a year, according to Director of Computing Larry Levine, the capacity of the link will be boosted again up to 90 times current speeds. The two-year, $350,000 grant will allow Computing Services to help design, install, and manage such a connection between the campus and a connection point near Boston. The latest round of grants will bring to 64 the number of institutions connected to the vBNS, setting the stage for the f Clinton administration's Next Generation Internet (NGI) initiative, sometimes referred to as Internet 2, a $100-million-per-year, three-year project that will eventually connect 100 research institutions at speeds that are up to 1,000 times faster than today's Internet.

Among the researchers benefiting from the data boost are: • Physicists John Lyon and Mary Hudson, who will use the connection to assist in modeling the earth's magnetosphere. The high-speed connection allows them to send huge volumes of data for processing at the national super computer centers.

• George Cybenko, the Dorothy and Walter Gramm Professor of Engineering at the Thayer School of Engineering, who will use the network to advance research into software "agents" that can move from computer to computer as needed to perform a variety of tasks.

• Professor Joseph Henderson, director of the Interactive Media Lab at Dartmouth Medical School, who will use the link to explore the use of networked communications for a wide range of health-care related educational activities.

For more information regarding the Internet 2 project, check the Web pages at

Campus computers blast into hyperspeed.