Abstract

This article describes two demonstrations at the NTT Group Communication EXPO held at the Tokyo International Forum in December 2005. These showed visitors two of our trials on the feasibility of remotely operating instruments in Chile from Japan: an optical telescope and rock hammers in an underground copper mine. These applications use a relatively high bandwidth of around 100 Mbit/s and require short delay times for smooth interactive operation. To satisfy these requirements we used NTT's experimental research network GEMnet2 in collaboration with partner R&E (research and education) networks in North and South America. The demonstrations showed that Internet-based networks can handle interactive network applications with sufficient quality between two sites separated by almost the maximum possible distance on the Earth as long as the bandwidth and the route are carefully managed.