The EC Fourth Framework Development Program has given a significant budget to enhance the existing pan-European research networking infrastructure to 34 Mbps and higher speeds. Although in a global context this is not particularly advanced technology-wise, nevertheless from an operational perspective such high speeds are not used by commercial customers. There is much practical operational experience to be gained from implementing a high speed service in advance of such a service commercially being available. There are currently technology developments in telecommunications and an accompanying liberalisation of infrastructure in Europe that could significantly change the provision of telecommunication services to allow access to a far ranging set of information sources. A major issue is the choice of technology to be used in developing the next generation, high speed service which will constitute a real 'Superhighway'.
Transmission is about moving the bits of data around.
Switching is about the connection together of the different parties that wish to communicate. The choice of technology for switching and transmission can be independent, but this is not necessarily the case. IP is the favourite of the technically literate research networking community. Because of this a very high level of technical expertise is required to operate IP networks. IP does have a major advantage in as much as it is simple to connect.