From: technews <technews@ou.edu>
To: "'it-fyi@listserv.ou.edu'" <it-fyi@lists.ou.edu>
Subject: it-fyi: NSF Award for Next Phase of STAR TAP (Internet2)
Date: Tue, 9 Nov 1999 13:26:30 -0600
NSF Award Paves the Way for the Next Phase of STAR TAP
Having successfully linked more than 100 U.S. universities and national
laboratories to most of the world's premier international networks in just
over two years, the University of Illinois at Chicago Electronic
Visualization Laboratory (EVL) will use a second National Science Foundation
(NSF) grant to enhance the network services of its STAR TAP(SM) program.
This summer, the NSF announced that, through this new award, it is extending
its original three-year grant of $2 million, to $5 million through 2003,
securing STAR TAP as the focal point of next-generation internet providers.
"We were extremely pleased that STAR TAP had achieved the goals set forth in
the 1997 award, and we wanted to let the research community know that they
could count on STAR TAP's continued presence for at least another three
calendar years--a long time in 'internet years,'" said Steve Goldstein, NSF
Program Director for International Networking. "That's why we made the
second award well before the term of the first one had expired. We have
learned that persistence is important, because crucial international
scientific collaborations need to have confidence in the staying power of
the infrastructure on which they depend."
The Science, Technology And Research Transit Access Point, or STAR TAP, is a
proving ground for long-term interconnection and interoperability of
advanced international networking. Launched in 1997, it provides a universal
peering point in the U.S. where international networks have formal
agreements to exchange data traffic with the NSF's vBNS and other advanced
networks, such as Internet2's Abilene, and those of the U.S. Dept. of
Energy, U.S. Dept. of Defense and NASA.
"STAR TAP has persistence, many U.S. and international peers, value-added
services and enough critical mass to attract the contributions of many
members of the networking and scientific research communities," said EVL
director Tom DeFanti, "Our goal is to generate higher level services to
decrease latency and improve bandwidth performance. These services include
the newest protocols and technologies to simplify connectivity and
facilitate digital media broadcasts. We are particularly pleased that this
new award makes possible the addition of John Jamison, STAR TAP senior
research scientist, to our team."
International research networking organizations that peer at STAR TAP are:
CANARIE (Canada), CERN, IUCC (Israel's Inter-University Computation Center),
MIRnet (Russia), NORDUnet (Nordic countries), SURFnet (The Netherlands),
RENATER2 (France), SingAREN (Singapore), APAN (Asia-Pacific), and TANet
(Taiwan). Israel has linked via satellite--important technology for
countries without sufficient optic cable access.
EVL manages STAR TAP in collaboration with the Mathematics and Computer
Science Division of Argonne National Laboratory, Chicago's Metropolitan
Research and Education Network (MREN), Northwestern University's
International Center for Advanced Internet Research (iCAIR), Indiana
University, and Ameritech Advanced Data Services (AADS).
About EVL
UIC's EVL is a graduate research laboratory specializing in networked
virtual reality and real-time interactive computer graphics. It is a joint
effort of the UIC's College of Engineering and School of Art and Design, and
represents the oldest formal collaboration between engineering and art in
the country offering graduate degrees to those specializing in
visualization. EVL receives major funding from the NSF and is a partner in
the National Computational Science Alliance. For more information, see
<http://www.evl.uic.edu>
About STAR TAP
STAR TAP is the crossroads that supports the long-term interconnection and
interoperability of advanced international networking in support of
applications, performance measuring, and technology evaluations. The STAR
TAP anchors the international vBNS connections program. STAR TAP is made
possible by major funding from the NSF, awards ANI-9712283 and ANI-9980480,
to the University of Illinois at Chicago. For more information, see
<http://www.startap.net>
STAR TAP is a service mark of the Board of Trustees of the University of
Illinois.