VBN was determined according to the Conway micropipette diffusion method modified by Pearson (1976) and expressed as mg VBN/100 g of sample.
As a temporary measure, research groups can apply for links to NSF's experimental, high-performance
vBNS system, which connects its five supercomputer centers.
In the January 1998 column I wrote on the government-funded effort to create a very high-speed Backbone Network Service (
vBNS) that would form the basis of the Internet2.
Using such high-performance networks as the NSF's
vBNS, the Grid will link the Supernodes to dozens of visualization and virtual reality displays, massive data stores, and remote instruments.
The National Science Foundation has its own high-speed network called the
vBNS (very high-speed Backbone Network Service).
The necessary increase in bandwidth is coming from federal agency high-speed backbones, such as the NSF's
vBNS, the Department of Defense's Defense Research and Education Network (DREN), and the Department of Energy's ESnet; grass-roots programs, such as Internet2 (www.Internet2.edu); and such federal initiatives as the President's Next-Generation Internet (www.ngi.gov).