Transforming the Decade: 10 Critical Technologies; Fiber Optics New Networks For the Nation
By JOHN MARKOFF
Published: January 1, 1991
The "gigabit network" would make it possible to transmit computer data and video images among the nation's supercomputer centers, research laboratories and universities, as well as to businesses and homes. This network of fiber-optic cables, which would completely replace existing copper lines, is viewed by many scientists and executives as both a vital research tool and an essential part of the country's "information infrastructure" for the next century.
Despite vocal support from both Democratic and Republican legislators and from the Bush Administration, Federal financing to develop a high-speed nationwide computer network failed in Congress this fall. But this setback is probably temporary.
A gigabit network would permit researchers to share vast amounts of scientific and technical data. Doctors in their offices could view medical imaging animations produced by advanced diagnostic equipment in hospitals. A huge array of information, entertainment and business services would be created.
For example, a high-speed digital network could make the materials stored in the nation's best libraries instantly available to readers in thousands of community libraries around the country.
Or a home television viewer could choose to view whatever movie he or she wanted by selecting from a library of thousands of possible choices. In businesses, holding conferences by video, now expensive and inconvenient, would become commonplace, making it possible to minimize business travel. A National Data Highway
"It will unleash a tremendous amount of creativity and innovation which will lead to capabilities we can't even imagine today," said Robert E. Kahn, a scientist at the Corporation for National Research Initiatives, a Reston, Va., research organization that is coordinating consortiums of corporations, research laboratories and universities developing extremely fast computer networks.
For example, one of the high-speed network projects now being coordinated by scientists at the California Institute of Technology would use the network to link different types of supercomputers separated by thousands of miles into a single machine many times more powerful.
Replacing the nation's copper telephone wiring with a network of fiber-optic cables would also have a dramatic impact on the nation's economy, say advocates like Senator Al Gore, Democrat of Tennessee. Just as the national highway system, constructed in the 1950's, brought about unexpected new economic activity all over the country, a national data highway could spawn dozens of research services and businesses. Both in Europe and Japan large efforts are under way to modernize older telecommunications networks to permit them to carry high-speed computer communications.
Researchers estimate that to install a similar network reaching into all of the homes and businesses that now have telephone service in the United States might ultimately cost $200 billion.