What Is VLBI?

Very-Long-Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) is a technique for high-resolution imaging of distant radio sources in the universe and making accurate measurements of the motion of the earth in space; it uses multiple radio telescopes, located across the earth, simultaneously in a powerful array to record data from a radio source, such as a distant quasar, 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. The Internet2 VLBI Birds of a Feather (BOF) group focuses on the needs of the global VLBI community in the new era of high speed networks.


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t is a cakebox? It is a small, inexpensive PC running Linux. It is configured such that, when you plug it into a DHCP-enabled Ethernet port and give it power, it registers its presence with an LDAP server where it logs its current IP address so you can “find” it. You can then connect to it remotely and run a series of network utilities (like Iperf, traceroute, and pchar). Cakeboxes were developed by Internet2 to test H.323 video conferencing capabilities and have been used for a variety of other end-to-end performance tests. Instructions on “building” a cakebox are available to member institutions upon request.
DHCP-enabled Ethernet port and give it power, it registers its presence with an LDAP server where it logs its current IP address so you can “find” it. You can then connect to it remotely and run a series of network utilities (like Iperf, traceroute, and pchar). Cakeboxes were developed by Internet2 to test H.323 video conferencing capabilities and have been used for a variety of other end-to-end performance tests. Instructions on “building” a cakebox are available to member institutions upon request.