July 19, 2000

Contacts:
Susan Andrews
Northwestern University
s-andrews@northwestern.edu
+1-847-467-5930

Joel Mambretti
Northwestern University
j-mambretti@northwestern.edu
+1-847-467-3911

World's First Prototype Global Internet Digital Video Network (GiDVN)

CHICAGO (July 19, 2000) --Today, the world's first prototype Global Internet Digital Video Network (GiDVN) was showcased as part of the International GRID (iGRID) at the INET2000 Conference in Yokohama Japan. The GiDVN demonstrations include a broad range of Internet-based advanced media technologies being developed by major research organizations world-wide.

The GiDVN, a media network spanning ten countries on three continents, demonstrates the transition from today's analog media networks to more powerful digital capabilities enabled by advanced Internet technologies. These collaborations are necessary so that societies around the world can benefit from enhanced interaction and communications for broad-based education, healthcare, environmental and economic development.

The iGRID demonstrates how scientific collaborators are taking optimal advantage of global connectivity to empower collaborative solutions to complex problems. Among the GiDVN technologies demonstrated were high performance intercontinental streaming media, new techniques based on architectures developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF.org), including specialized multicasting, which optimizes the Internet for media, and "Differentiated Services" (DiffServ), which can provide for the prioritizing of Internet traffic for media and other applications.

The GiDVN is a collaborative effort involving 35 research scientists in Canada, CERN (Switzerland), Japan, Korea, Netherlands, Mexico, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, and the US (www.icair.org/inet2000). The demonstrations were supported by 15 major advanced national and regional networks. The project was motivated by the Digital Video Working group of the Coordination Committee for Intercontinental Research Networks (www.ccirn.org), as a sequel to a GiDVN event at Supercomputing98.

This demonstration was organized by the International Center for Advanced Internet Research at Northwestern University (iCAIR), the Science, Technology and Research Transit Access Point (STAR TAP www.startap.net), the iGRID, and participating researchers from the Canadian Network for the Advancement of Research Industry and Education, CANARIE (www.canarie.ca), CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, the world's largest particle physics center (http://cern.web.cern.ch/), the Asia Pacific Advanced Network (www.apan.net), APAN-Japan, KDD labs (a major Japanese telecommunications corporation, www.kddlabs.co.jp), APAN-Korea, Seoul National University (www.snu.ac.kr), Korea University, SURFnet (www.surfnet.nl), Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (www.unam.mx), Singapore's advanced research network SingAREN (www.singaren.sg), I2-CAT, an experimental advanced Internet in Catalonya, Spain (www.i2-net), and the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden (www.it.kth.se).

About iCAIR
iCAIR, established with IBM, Cisco and Ameritech, is engaged in projects with research partners throughout the world to accelerate the development and implementation of advanced Internet technologies and services (www.icair.org). Northwestern University, established in 1851, is a leading private research and teaching institution with 17,700 undergraduate, graduate and professional students enrolled in 12 schools and colleges. It is considered one of the top ranked institutions for effective use of technology. For more information about Northwestern University, (www.northwestern.edu).

About STAR TAP
The Science, Technology and Research Transit Access Point (STAR TAP) is the National Science Foundation (NSF sponsored international connection point managed by the Electronic Visualization Lab at the University of Illinois and Ameritech Advanced Data Services in Chicago, Illinois (startap.net).

Last Updated: