Electronic Race Track at CWI

by Henk Nieland

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Recently CWI realised a major upgrading of its internal electronic communication. A brand-new glass fibre network, in combination with ATM junctions, enables CWI researchers to exchange information across the network with initial speeds of 155 Mb/sec. The project received generous financial support from the Dutch Research Council NWO.

This network environment anticipates the 'lego' principle, which is becoming in fashion among computer manufacturers as a basis for experiments. By coupling individual workstations with large servers, 'virtual' computers can be composed enabling researchers to tackle problems which are still beyond the reach of 'ordinary' computers. Traditional copper cable networks can not keep up with this development, caused by the ongoing increase in power and number of computers.

The glass fibre network, covering 200 working rooms, is built from fibres with a total length of 228 kilometres. At present there are two network connections per person. The theoretical maximum network capacity is several hundred Gb/sec.

The ATM part of the network contains more than hundred ports distributed over, inter alia, two switches coupled through 622 Mb/sec connections. Crucial servers are provided with multiple network connections. Compared with the previous (ethernet) network the present capacity is about a thousand times larger. This is mainly due to the fact that each user of an ATM connection has the full network capacity at his disposal, instead of sharing it with other network users.

Please contact:
Aad van der Klaauw - CWI
Tel: +31 20 592 4071
E-mail: avdk@cwi.nl