Graph of global Internet connectivity (see inside front cover for
details). Image courtesy of CAIDA.
Representative FY 2002 agency activities
NSF: Network-centric middleware, high-performance connections,
and strategic Internet technologies such as network monitoring, problem
detection and resolution, automated advanced tools for active and
intelligent networks, and innovative access methods such as wireless
DARPA: Active networks, adaptive, reflective middleware, and composable
high-assurance trusted systems for highly secure distributed defense
applications; network modeling and simulation
NIH: Projects to develop telemedical applications using advanced network
capabilities such as quality of service, data privacy and security,
nomadic computing, and network management
NASA: Enable ubiquitous networking by developing interoperable heterogeneous
access technologies including broadband wireless, mobile wireless,
satellite, and landline
DOE Office of Science: Network technologies to enable high end-to-end
performance for applications such as distributed visualization and
petabyte-scale data transfers
NIST: Measurement technologies to support specification, standardization,
and testing of protocols and software for agile networking infrastructures
NOAA: Early adoption of scalable network capabilities and applications
in support of severe weather forecasting and warning, and hazardous
materials response |
The Internet is at the heart of the IT
revolution, and Federally sponsored networking research plays a pivotal
role in generating the technological advances critical to the Net's
growth and evolution. Though the focus of Federal work is exploration
of technologies and tools to support critical agency missions, the
Federal research emphases on long-range needs - including such vital
emerging areas as smart, active networking, automated resource discovery,
and online resource access - not surprisingly turn out to be the core
research problems that must be solved to transition the Internet into
a secure, reliable, expandable, very-high-speed knowledge and communications
infrastructure for the Nation in the new century.
Smart, active networks, for example, will be aware of changing demands
for network resources and able to adjust to meet those demands. Automated
resource discovery technologies will enable such networks to "see"
where network-intensive applications are running and supply the necessary
bandwidth; likewise, large-scale applications will seek out the network
resources they need. Active networks will also be able to adjust when
wireless devices move from place to place.
Today a new generation of these and other enabling technologies is
needed to "modernize" the Internet for rapidly growing traffic
volumes, expanded e-commerce, and the advanced applications that will
be possible only when next-generation networks are widely available.
More than a third of a billion people worldwide - 6 percent of the
global population - now use the Internet, including about 60 percent
of all North Americans, according to recent Internet surveys. With
the advent of connectivity for wireless devices and a predictable
rise in users globally, the number of Internet nodes is expected to
grow to a billion or more within a few years. An Internet of that
scale will be vastly larger than architects of today's network protocols
ever anticipated. Its operability presents many research unknowns
since there is no way to prototype a network of that size.
With the goal of assuring the Internet's capacity for growth and improved
capabilities, the NITRD agencies have developed an ambitious coordinated
research program to:
- Understand how to extend, or scale up, the network infrastructure
so that it is available anytime and anywhere, and so that
it includes ubiquitous networking that extends the network
to millions and potentially billions of new devices and
chips embedded in larger devices such as appliances, automobiles,
and transportation systems
- Provide needed network services, such as management, reliability,
security, and high-speed transmission rates
|
In FY 2002, research sponsored by the NITRD agencies will focus on
middleware; access from the edges of the network (mobile wireless
connectivity); environments with dense arrays of sensors (sensornets)
and of embedded devices; trust, security, and privacy; and tools and
infrastructure for collaboratories. The agencies are also developing
an integrated plan that encompasses the long-range research it will
take to realize the potential of 21st century networks. The following
list suggests the R&D areas in which fundamental, not just incremental,
advances are required before pervasive high speeds, security, flexible
access, and reliability are standard features of the Nation's digital
communications systems.
- Fundamental network research, including:
|
- Optical networking (flow, burst, and packet switching;
access technologies; gigabit per second interfaces; protocol
layering)
- Network dynamics and simulation (automated management,
automated resource recovery, network modeling)
- Fault tolerance and autonomous management
- Resource management (discovery and brokering, advance
reservation, co-scheduling, policy-driven allocation mechanisms)
- Wireless technologies (technical standards for discovery,
co-existence, and configuration)
- Increasing capability to support bandwidth requirements
- Enhancing and scaling networks to improve robustness
and handling of transient interactions among billions
of devices and to maximize access from the edges of the
network, such as methods for ubiquitous broadband access,
tether-free networking, security and privacy, and network
management
- Understanding global-scale networks and information
infrastructure (end-to-end performance, backbone structures,
applications)
|
- Enabling new classes of applications (distributed data-intensive
computing; collaboration; computational steering of scientific
simulations; distance visualization; operation of remote
instruments; large-scale, distributed systems)
|
|
