[Berlin] The German Federal
Minister for Education and Research, Edelgard Bulmahn, has launched a
new gigabit network for scientific research called “G-WiN”, on Friday. The
new high speed network will put Germany at the top of the international
ladder of Internet technology used in the research sector, Bulmahn
commented. This German version of the American Internet2 program will be
used to drive new commercial networks, was the minister’s
prognosis.
The Deutsche Telekom AG
officially dedicated the platform to the Organization For The Support Of German Research Networks
(DFN Organization). Transmission rates of 2.5 to 10 gigabits per second will
make modern multimedia applications possible. Net-wide use of the capacities
of supercomputers as well as tele-medicine applications are among the
possibilities. Around 700 access routes to colleges and research facilities
are linked to the new G-WiN. By year 2004 the transfer volume will have
increased to over 6000 terabytes per month, it is estimated.
The DFN Organization will be able to handle not only IP connections, but
also Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), and point-to-point connections. The
G-WiN is based on the Wavelength Multiplex Technology (WDM), it was
reported. Over one single WDM system, operators can simultaneously handle 80
datastreams of 2.5 gigabits/sec each, or over 40 connections at 10
gigabits/sec. The 27 main network locations are each connected over two
seperate connections with the rest of the gigabit scientific network.
Therefore, even if one of the connections were to crash, a reliable
connection of almost the entire user bandwidth of the DFN Organization can
still be guaranteed.
The Research Ministry wants to make approximately 160 million Marks
(US $77.6 million) available by year 2003 for the extension of the gigabit
network. The G-WiN network replaces the old German broadband scientific
network B-WiN.
