The Haystack Observatory at MIT is one of the pioneers in the field of Very-Long-Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) in radio astronomy. Very-Long-Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) is a high-resolution imaging technique used in radio astronomy. VLBI techniques involve using multiple radio telescopes simultaneously in an array to record data, which is then stored on magnetic tape and shipped to a central processing site for analysis. Using high-bandwidth networks, electronic transmission of VLBI data (known as “e-VLBI”) from this worldwide array of telescopes is now becoming a reality. Because the signal-to-noise ratio achieved by VLBI increases with the bandwidth of the observations, there has been a continual effort to increase the captured data rate. The advent of modern high-speed networks offers the possibility to transport VLBI data electronically with much higher data rates and lower costs to maximize the scientific potential of the observations. The electronic transmission of VLBI data (dubbed e-VLBI), though now in its infancy, is poised to become a reality as global network coverage and data-rates expand.

To do this, new protocols and strategies must be developed so these applications become efficient high-bandwidth ‘background’ users, while not significantly impacting other normal network traffic. Because many high-speed networks, such as Internet2, are not heavily loaded on an average basis, there is considerable potential for applications of this class to productively use background capacity, promoting better science for fewer dollars. MIT Haystack Observatory, in collaboration with the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science, was awarded a grant by NSF to develop new IP protocols specifically tailored to applications such as e-VLBI.

Alan Whitney, MIT Haystack Observatory, and Charles Yun, Internet2 Program Manager for Science and Engineering, will be among the presenters at the VLBI workshop, hosted by the Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe (JIVE) May 14-16, 2003 in Dwingeloo, the Netherlands. MIT Haystack hosted the first VLBI workshop held at Haystack Observatory in April 2002.

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