Upgrade Begins on National Network

By KAREN KAPLAN

Feb. 19, 1999 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

MCI WorldCom Inc. said Thursday that it has begun a major upgrade of the National Science Foundation’s nationwide network for testing next-generation Internet technologies that will quadruple the network’s data-carrying capacity.

The Los Angeles-to-San Francisco leg of the very-high-speed Backbone Network Service, or vBNS, is the first to get the upgrade and can now carry 2.5 gigabits of data per second. That’s more data than 1,600 high-speed T-1 lines can carry.

Government and academic researchers will put that bandwidth to use by making more precise models of things ranging from weather systems to molecular structures, said Vint Cerf, MCI WorldCom’s senior vice president for Internet architecture and technology. The network will also enable people in different locations to share a three-dimensional virtual space, he said.

MCI WorldCom engineers--who operate the vBNS under a five-year contract with the National Science Foundation--will be able to upgrade the network’s capacity without laying any new fiber-optic lines.

Technology and the Internet

Karen Kaplan

Karen Kaplan covers science and medical research for the Los Angeles Times. She has been a member of the science team since 2005, including 13 years as an editor. Her first decade at The Times was spent covering technology in the Business section as both a reporter and editor. She grew up in San Diego and is a graduate of MIT and Columbia University.

Upgrade Begins on National Network

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