The first of these is the project's inherent research value. This is measured, as are most university studies, by the number and quality of publications generated, degrees granted, and patents approved. After supporting 40 full years of uninterrupted collaboration, the NSA has steadfastly been pleased with the results. Last year's Annual Technical Review of ongoing research, performed by Maryland faculty and students at LPS, took place on November 18 and 19. Regardless of how these collaborative projects are grouped, each focuses on pushing beyond the technological boundaries holding back progress in some aspect of the communications or computing fields.
Several examples follow.
LPS is pushing the technological boundaries presently throttling communication advances on a number of fronts. Directing packets between ever higher-speed WDM trunks may one day exceed the processing speed of electronics. This limit, however, may potentially be overcome by processing the signals through all-optical techniques. Communication rates through the atmosphere are limited by turbulence that distorts the wavefront of a transmitted signal. LPS is working on several methods of compensating for this distortion.