Global high performance networking: connecting the vNBS and the Asia-Pacific Advanced Network for research and education applications

Recent developments in high speed networks on both sides of the Pacific including the vBNS, and the Abilene project in the US, and the Asia-Pacific Advanced Network (APAN) in the AP region, have been driven by the emergence of high speed networking as a central requirement for the support of basic science, engineering and other disciplines. The growth of international scientific collaborations in, for example, astronomy, high energy physics, medicine, and computational science leads to a requirement for a global data communications infrastructure on par with what is available domestically. This paper describes the establishment of a high bandwidth international Internet connection from the vBNS and other US networks to the Asia Pacific Advanced Network (APAN) and some of the applications driving this development.