The network, called the National Transparent Optical Network or NTON, can transmit data at speeds hundreds of times faster than most current Internet connections. The link will allow rapid sharing of information between JPL and NASAs Ames Research Center, among other locations.

Currently, the network can operate at speeds between 10 gigabits and 20 gigabits per second. However, it may eventually operate even faster as fast as 40 gigabits per second, notes Larry Bergman, JPLs manager of information and computing research technologies.

NTON is sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which pioneered the original Internet in the 1960s. It is part of DARPAs broader SuperNet project.

Bergman evokes an image of "users with fire hoses" to explain how much data will be available to workers at JPL. This is in sharp contrast to many current networks, where the end-users computer can handle only a small fraction of the data transmitted at more central points.

One of the new networks uses is the display of information on JPLs "power wall," a 7-foot-by-16-foot video display. Several demo projects already have been run, with images of Earth or space transferred over the network and displayed on the wall.

The power wall allows users to pan in or zoom over such images, using a mouse or joystick. "In that kind of environment, the moment you move your mouse, a huge amount of data are thrown into motion," says Bergman. Moreover, there is a need to fuse together different types of data, such as infrared and visible light readings. NTON will enable such displays to be constructed using input from different NASA centers.