At INET 2000(*1), which will be held 18-21 July 2000 at the Pacifico Yokohama Conference
 Center, Osaka University will collaborate with the Communications Research Laboratory 
of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, Tokyo Telecommunication Network(TTNet), 
PNJ Communications, Osaka Media Port, KDD, and Hitachi in a test remote operation of the
world's largest electron microscopes. The test will involve the long-distance transmission, 
over a commercial high-speedInternet link, of high-resolution images recorded in D1(*2), 
the broadcast industry's standard video transmission format.

The test is expected to demonstrate the practical viability of D1 over IP (*3) technology 
and the ability of an IP network to handle broadcast content.  For this, video images will 
be remotely edited on a realtime basis, archived and manipulated in other ways that open up 
new possibilities in broadcasting systems.

In recent years, the Internet has grown into an infrastructure of society that encompasses 
corporations and communities.  Looking ahead, the Internet is expected to beincreasingly used 
to transmit multimedia information that includes groupware and image information.  
This is generating a need for communications technology that enables the transmission of image 
information at higher speeds and resolutions.  In 1998, trials on a next-generation Internet 
were started in the U.S., participated in by government agencies and research institutions.  
In Japan, too, industry, government and academia are cooperating in numerous trials toward 
the next-generation Internet, utilizing the gigabit network of the Ministry of Posts and 
Telecommunications. he test involves a demonstration environment that connects the ultra 
high-voltage electron microscope at Osaka University with INET 2000 site in Yokohama, using 
high-speedInternet backbone link. This will be used to conduct tests involving remote operation
of the electron microscope to transmit ultrahigh-resolution images of semiconductors samples 
between Osaka and Yokohama, a distance of roughly 500 kilometers. The test will be a leading 
demonstration of the use of ultrahigh-speed networks that are expected to be utilized in 
medical treatment, in the chemical products industry and in many more such fields in which 
it is necessary to use high-quality images.

The remote observation system using the electron microscope was developed jointly by Osaka 
University's Center for Ultrahigh-voltage Electron Microscopy and the Cybermedia Center. 
The demonstration at INET 2000 will utilize the D1 over IP technology developed by 
CommunicationsResearch Laboratory of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications.  
D1 over IP requires more than 260Mbps (mega bits per second) of network bandwidth; 
its transmission over the Internet has been made possible with next-generation IP network of 
Tokyo Telecommunication Network, PNJ Communications and Osaka Media Port, and Hitachi's 
GR2000 gigabit router. 


*1      D1 is an image format used by the broadcasting industry. 
        The D1 over IP used in the test refers to D1 format images transmitted over 
        the Internet.
*2      INET is held once a year and is the world's largest international conference 
        related to the Internet, and is also a forum for advanced Internet technologies.  
        This year INET 2000 is being staged in Yokohama, Japan.
*3      D1 over IP is a technology for transmitting images over the Internet.  Capable 
        of transmitting data at 300 Mbps, it can be used for realtime Internet 
        transmission of broadcast materials and other ultrahigh-resolution images.
*4      This will be launched in August as a network service for Powered-IP services.