VISTAnet gigabit testbed

The VISTAnet gigabit testbed project features the deployment of a network connecting distant supercomputers and research programs in communications, advanced graphics techniques, and a medical application. It has been established to experiment with and evaluate techniques associated with gigabit networking. The testbed goals, infrastructure, and driving applications are described. Early insights from the testbed activities are presented to identify important problems associated with networked supercomputers and their impact on public broadband integrated services digital networks. The conflict between the performance needs of supercomputer communications and the constraints of cell-oriented communications are identified and discussed. The concepts of metacomputing are introduced along with their network implications. The metacomputing model is applied to the VISTAnet application to illustrate these points