The Brain
behind
the Backbone

One of the four computer screens aglow on Dave Meyer's desktop flickers with a live video image of the earth, mostly blue with a splash of white clouds, turning slowly a hundred miles beneath the space shuttle's wing. The technology that brings this image over the Internet was a blue-sky dream only ten years ago; now, it's what Meyer­the architect and builder of Oregon's high-speed, high-bandwidth, fiber-optic computer network­deals with every day.
The Network for Engineering and Research in Oregon (NERO), originally funded by NASA and in operation since 1994, is capable of carrying vast amounts of data at lightning speeds both within Oregon and, by connecting to major Internet "backbones," around the globe. If most Internet connections carry a stream of data, NERO carries a river.
Currently, NERO's function is twofold: first, to facilitate collaborative research and teaching among the engineering and computer science faculties of Oregon's major public universities, and second, to enable academia to carry on network-based collaborations with high-technology firms, and with such information-dependent industries as producers of software and computers. Intel, Hewlett-Packard, and Tektronix are all using NERO.
"The industrial as well as the academic world is increasingly oriented toward digital information transfer and we need to keep up," states Meyer, director of the Advanced Network Technology Center on the University of Oregon campus. "The Internet is expanding at a phenomenal rate of 1,000 percent per year. It is absolutely vital that Oregon's industries, students, and academic researchers are equipped for future success by having access to the kind of first-rate networking that NERO delivers."
For the uninitiated, the network's technology­an acronym-strewn jumble of routers and relays, FIFO buffers, and clock-synthesis functions­gets very confusing very quickly. However, one comparison makes clear the magnitude of NERO's capabilities even for the techno-novice. While most of the Internet operates at a rate of 1.5 megabits of digital information per second, the NERO upgrade Meyer is developing will handle 45 megabits per second. He calls this "world-class connectivity."
How is the system being used? In dozens of ways­live video teleconferencing, developing and testing next-generation multimedia workstations, experiments in distance education. NERO has even allowed groups of scientists from various Northwest universities to join together electronically­forming "virtual" academic communities that seek out, and win, federal support for specialized research. When connected by so powerful a link as NERO, there is little difference between being located next door to a collaborating colleague or being in the next state.
In coming years, expanded access to NERO is planned for Oregon's K-12 schools, communities, small businesses, and the community college system.
"The world is changing very fast in the field of telecommunications," Meyer explains. "In the next few years many dramatic opportunities will be opening up, ones we haven't even imagined at this time. NERO will give some of Oregon's most creative people an incredibly powerful tool to wield. It should be a lot of fun."

Back to INQUIRY, Spring 1996

©1996 University of Oregon