The Lambda Network Project is a glimpse into the future when everything is tied over a network that zips bits at speeds of 10 gigabits per second. I wrote about this back when I worked at Red Herring. Like the first generation educational networks led to the formation of what we call Internet, this could be the next evolutionary step…

> The University of California, San Diego and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center have conducted the first successful system test of a new 10-Gigabit per second (Gbps) Ethernet optical path connecting the two institutions roughly 3,000 miles apart. The dedicated bandwidth is so broad that it allowed scientists to work with each other via high-definition video while also collaborating in real time on visualizing massive amounts of remote land and weather data. The bandwidth allowed scientists to study distant data objects and visualizations up to 1,000 times larger than is feasible using the World Wide Web.

Larry Smarr, director of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) and former chair of NASA’s Earth Systems Science Advisory Committee says, “It really is like the two research centers are just next door to each other!”