Broadband from above Satellite delivery is playing a key role in two major ATM research projects >BY VERYL OAKLAND

From Aries to Canarie, it's a veritable North American asynchronous transfer mode menagerie. ATM is an international standard, today's only solution for carrying simultaneous voice, data and video information-from megabit to gigabit speeds. Recent and ongoing projects using high-speed satellite and terrestrial ATM networks conducted in both the United States and Canada continue to prove why there is such an unprecedented level of acceptance for its worldwide deployment.

ATM projects include Aries in the U.S. and Canarie in Canada. Planning and initial testing of both ATM network projects began between 1993 and 1994 and will likely continue through the end of this century. Aries and Canarie achieved what they set out to do and more; the findings and breakthroughs they've realized have created new opportunities and vision in a multitude of study fields. Moreover, the successes of both have set the stage for commercially viable ATM applications in the years ahead.

The new oil rush Aries, a project of the American Petroleum Institute directed by Amoco Corp. telecom analyst David Beering, first gained recognition after a successful December 1994 interactive seismic exploration demonstration using a NASA high-speed satellite and terrestrial ATM networks. Soon after, the project achieved widespread approval and participation from a number of oil companies, plus support from carriers, ATM suppliers and several government groups within the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the U.S. Department of Energy.

In September 1995, a satellite link between Aries' Houston network center and the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., was used to test an operation, which involved transmitting data from a vessel at sea, then processing and delivering key findings. A connection of this type ultimately could allow participants to make more timely decisions about potential acquisitions.

In 10 minutes, using a high data rate terminal in Boulder to simulate a seismic vessel, participants performed an operation that would have taken months using conventional means. Data rates of more than 10 Mb/s were achieved over the satellite link.

In February 1996, Aries conducted a full-scale interactive shipboard exploration scenario with a seismic survey vessel at sea. To coincide with the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics convention in Washington, the participants used the American Petroleum Institute's Washington headquarters as the staging site with an audio-visual demonstration at the National Press Club (Figure 1).

NASA's advanced communications technology satellite was used in both demonstrations.

To maximize the scope and significance of the trial, Aries added the West Coast, establishing a network center in Oakland, Calif., with connections to Chevron's San Ramon base, the Sandia and Lawrence Livermore laboratories, as well as NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., where the shipboard broadband mobile antenna was developed.

Participation increased substantially, and connections were added to the Minnesota Supercomputer Center computational site and from the Houston network center to the Texas Medical Center's Institute for Biosciences and Technology.

In addition to scripting a live video tour of the vessel and an interactive seismic scenario, an on-board medical emergency was simulated between the vessel's medical staff and renowned surgeon Michael DeBakey in Houston. The remote consultation, using video, audio and medical imaging, and the seismic section transmittal, time slice and computations required less than 30 minutes.

Flying high Aries has achieved a number of industry firsts. It represents the largest multicarrier ATM network ever built, encompassing more than 4 million square miles, literally spanning the continental United States. And it reached the highest sustained data rate ever achieved from a moving vessel at sea. Data rates were measured at more than 2 Mb/s with full duplex operation.

"Our work in the satellite arena has been fueled and inspired by NASA's work to move satellite technology forward and by their substantial commitment to govern- ment/industry partnerships," says Amoco's Beering.

"This is extremely important to our industry and to our partners in the health care industry," he says. "Both communities have substantial operations in very remote places. All the challenges we face can be met by the turn of the century, provided we stay our course and continue to leverage the best of each participating organization.

Findings from the Aries trials to date prove that a number of commercially viable applications can be implemented today by using a terrestrial infrastructure. Full commercialization using satellite transmission is promising but will take longer.

One short-term application that could dramatically influence the oil industry is the development of a mechanism to support network-based access and delivery of very large seismic data sets. With the bandwidth that Aries achieved, geophysical data of a particular region could be interactively browsed over the network and massive survey data sent directly to an end user workstation overnight. Today, such activity primarily is done off-line.

In August 1996, Aries added New Orleans as its third network center, directly connected to Houston and Oakland. A pilot program channeled through the New Orleans center will allow end users to browse a large data inventory from the Gulf of Mexico, perform interactive interpretations and mappings, and then distribute the data to individual workstations or local file servers.

In addition to commercial oil industry applications, Aries created an expanded telemedicine test bed partnership between the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Texas Medical Center, based on the experiences gained from the interactive shipboard test.

Most recently, individual companies involved with Aries have been experimenting with in-house video and telephony operations over the network, as well as working jointly on networking security encryption and performance optimization. Meanwhile, NASA continues to explore applications in the area of seaworthy, high-bandwidth terminals that could be used with existing satellites.

From the outset, Aries has relied primarily on its project participants to supply the labor and expertise, as well as to donate equipment and services. While the actual cash outlay for the shipboard demonstration may have been only $50,000 or so, Beering estimates that the total value of the equipment and services for all involved approached $1 billion.

Interconnection, cross-company collaboration, network management and security are some of the challenges facing communications industry players aligned with Aries. Beering says these challenges must be addressed in a standards-based, multivendor and multicarrier environment for the Aries project vision of the "virtual corporation" to be realized.

"The result of the commitment we've established between industry and government will be the realization of a dream to be able to deliver any application to any point on the planet," he says.

The Canadian connection North of the border, Bill St. Arnaud directs Canarie, one of the world's largest broadband research networks. It links more than 200 ATM switches and routers in 13 regional test networks spanning more than 3700 miles, connecting all Canada's provinces from Victoria, British Columbia, to St. Johns, Newfoundland. In addition, it soon will connect some 2.5 million square miles of Canada's vast Northwest Territories and the Yukon, thanks to ATM satellite circuits provided by Telesat Canada in conjunction with the Communications Research Centre in Ottawa, Ontario.

The national test network is bridged with similar test networks in Europe using Canada's international carrier, Teleglobe, and connected to the United States via AT&T Canada Long Distance, formerly Unitel Communications Inc. The 11 telephone companies serving the vast north make up what is known as the Stentor Alliance and provide the communications backbone over the world's longest, fully digital fiber optic network.

The support from these organizations, along with others in private industry, universities and the Canadian government, represents a commitment of more than $500 million to the Canarie project through 1999.

Since November 1995, the official "project mode" launch date for the first national test network trial, participants have conducted distance learning and virtual classroom applications, proposed and evaluated multimedia technologies, done collaborative research and development projects, and promoted telemedicine demonstrations (see sidebar).

In the far, frozen north, an area that poses unique challenges in delivering telecommunications services, NorthwesTel will join with the Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Department, Baffin Regional Board of Health, Yukon College and Hughes Aircraft of Canada in a yearlong telemedicine trial with ties to the national test network. Originally set for November 1996 but now expected to begin next month, the trial consists of a T-1 circuit established from Iqaluit, Northwest Territories-via a C-band satellite circuit to the regional test network in Ottawa-and a constant-bit-rate ATM T-l connection to Montreal General Hospital.

Participants will demonstrate the potential for remote diagnosis using a stethoscope, film scanner, high-resolution document camera and real-time measurement of a patient's vital signs. They will also investigate the viability of ATM over satellite as a commercial service, examine the customer requirements for delivery of service and examine traffic patterns for potential sizing and circuit management.

Satellites are the only cost-effective way to transmit communications signals for a population of only 120,000 spread over some 2.5 million square miles covering northern British Columbia, the Northwest Territories and the Yukon, according to Marilyn Buller, implementation manager of data for NorthwesTel in Whitehorse, Northwest Territories. But satellites also pose a significant problem.

Noting that they are constantly moving closer or farther away from Earth, Buller says, "satellite circuits are not stable and require special attention on our parts. For example, with voice circuits, we use echo cancellers; with data, we use buffering. So now we add ATM to the picture-a technology designed for OC-3, OC-12 and OC-48 that is well-clocked and uses 100% fiber optics.

"We have a big challenge trying to move that standard," Buller continues. "We're faced with using a transmission circuit made of something other than fiber in order to deliver the kinds of communications services our customers demand at a reasonable price.

"Although we have demonstrated more than 50 broadband applications, I don't think we have been successful in deploying sustainable, marketable broadband applications," St. Arnaud says. "Partly, the reason is the technology itself-most broadband applications need 50 engineers hanging off the back-and partly, the reason is due to the lack of powerful enough computing resources to take advantage of the offered bandwidth.

However, while specific applications may be impractical, St. Arnaud is generally more optimistic about the importance of the research network to ATM technology: "There is no question that the Canarie national test network has helped accelerate the deployment of commercial ATM networks by about two years in Canada." Veryl Oakland is a freelance writer based in Sacramento.