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[Point-to-Point] Supernetworks: Feeling is Believing
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Australia's first supernetwork, successfully demonstrated recently by the CSIRO, Nortel Networks and Agilent Technologies Inc, can carry an enormous amount of visual, aural and haptic (touch) data between two locations.
This high-speed networking environment represents a revolutionary combination of technologies, enabling two people in different locations to simultaneously work together on a virtual 3D object, with each being able to feel the object and see what the other person is doing to it. A studio quality video link enables the users to talk to each other, while the network technology can compete against a volume of network traffic equivalent to a large city's telephone system at peak periods.
Data Transport
The network is based on Nortel Networks 10Gbps Ethernet equipment, which can comfortably handle the bandwidth-hungry applications. Running at speeds 10 to 100 times faster than existing networks, 10-Gbit Ethernet is a high-speed networking technology being developed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) as IEEE 802.3ae.
Steve Wood, president, Nortel Networks Australia and New Zealand, said that this was the first demonstration of 10Gbps Ethernet over a metropolitan optical network in Asia.
"10Gbps Ethernet technology effectively enables a network to transport data equivalent to 3,000 DVD movies simultaneously," he said. "Where the current high-speed networks can only handle the equivalent of 300."
The Agilent RouterTester test equipment generated simulated traffic to fully saturate and stress the network under a variety of realistic trial scenarios. Agilent's 1Gbps and 10Gbps packet test equipment, developed and built in Melbourne, was critical in testing the demonstration scenario.
"This trial represented the first of what will be three years of demonstrations coming out of a project that is being funded by Australia's Commonwealth IT Strengths initiative," said Duncan Stevenson, research group leader at CSIRO, part of the Federally-funded Center for Networking Technologies for the Information Economy (CeNTIE) project in Australia. "The idea behind this first demonstration is to simulate what networks will look like in five years time. That is, take high bandwidth, low latency, quality of service scenarios and explore what we might do with them."
Haptic Interaction
The networked virtual environment was created by CSIRO scientists and combines 3D images with an artificial sense of touch -- known as "haptics" -- which uses a specially-developed robotic arm.
Haptic interaction allows users to physically touch and manipulate virtual objects. By networking virtual environments, people in different locations --health professionals, for example-- can see, feel and hear the same things, and interact as though they were in the same room.
Within medicine, this technology makes it possible to simulate different medical procedures realistically. In the future, doctors and nurses will be able to receive education and training for performing various operations aided by advanced computer programs which create very accurate simulations of reality, incorporating sight, sound and touch.
"This demonstration shows us what the combination of our network and advanced applications will be capable of," said Dr Dean Economou (Fig), chief technologist for CeNTIE. The demonstration involved networking a virtual environment from two separate CSIRO sites: its virtual environments laboratory at the Australian National University, and its corporate headquarters several kilometers away.
"The performance of the haptic system and studio quality video were perfectly preserved despite the system being over-loaded with other traffic," said Dr Economou.
The Haptic Workbench used in the demonstration integrated the Virtual Workbench from the National University of Singapore's Institute of Systems Science with the Phantom haptic device from SensAble Technologies Inc of the US.
CSIRO is one of a handful of organizations worldwide pioneering the networking of this technology and is a leader in applying it to surgical training. However, it also intends to expand its supernetwork research into commercial areas.
Website:
CSIRO: http://www.csiro.au
by Neil Munro
(April 2002 Issue, Nikkei Electronics Asia)
This high-speed networking environment represents a revolutionary combination of technologies, enabling two people in different locations to simultaneously work together on a virtual 3D object, with each being able to feel the object and see what the other person is doing to it. A studio quality video link enables the users to talk to each other, while the network technology can compete against a volume of network traffic equivalent to a large city's telephone system at peak periods.
Data Transport
The network is based on Nortel Networks 10Gbps Ethernet equipment, which can comfortably handle the bandwidth-hungry applications. Running at speeds 10 to 100 times faster than existing networks, 10-Gbit Ethernet is a high-speed networking technology being developed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) as IEEE 802.3ae.
Steve Wood, president, Nortel Networks Australia and New Zealand, said that this was the first demonstration of 10Gbps Ethernet over a metropolitan optical network in Asia.
"10Gbps Ethernet technology effectively enables a network to transport data equivalent to 3,000 DVD movies simultaneously," he said. "Where the current high-speed networks can only handle the equivalent of 300."
The Agilent RouterTester test equipment generated simulated traffic to fully saturate and stress the network under a variety of realistic trial scenarios. Agilent's 1Gbps and 10Gbps packet test equipment, developed and built in Melbourne, was critical in testing the demonstration scenario.
"This trial represented the first of what will be three years of demonstrations coming out of a project that is being funded by Australia's Commonwealth IT Strengths initiative," said Duncan Stevenson, research group leader at CSIRO, part of the Federally-funded Center for Networking Technologies for the Information Economy (CeNTIE) project in Australia. "The idea behind this first demonstration is to simulate what networks will look like in five years time. That is, take high bandwidth, low latency, quality of service scenarios and explore what we might do with them."
Haptic Interaction
The networked virtual environment was created by CSIRO scientists and combines 3D images with an artificial sense of touch -- known as "haptics" -- which uses a specially-developed robotic arm.
Haptic interaction allows users to physically touch and manipulate virtual objects. By networking virtual environments, people in different locations --health professionals, for example-- can see, feel and hear the same things, and interact as though they were in the same room.
Within medicine, this technology makes it possible to simulate different medical procedures realistically. In the future, doctors and nurses will be able to receive education and training for performing various operations aided by advanced computer programs which create very accurate simulations of reality, incorporating sight, sound and touch.
"This demonstration shows us what the combination of our network and advanced applications will be capable of," said Dr Dean Economou (Fig), chief technologist for CeNTIE. The demonstration involved networking a virtual environment from two separate CSIRO sites: its virtual environments laboratory at the Australian National University, and its corporate headquarters several kilometers away.
"The performance of the haptic system and studio quality video were perfectly preserved despite the system being over-loaded with other traffic," said Dr Economou.
The Haptic Workbench used in the demonstration integrated the Virtual Workbench from the National University of Singapore's Institute of Systems Science with the Phantom haptic device from SensAble Technologies Inc of the US.
CSIRO is one of a handful of organizations worldwide pioneering the networking of this technology and is a leader in applying it to surgical training. However, it also intends to expand its supernetwork research into commercial areas.
Website:
CSIRO: http://www.csiro.au
by Neil Munro
(April 2002 Issue, Nikkei Electronics Asia)
