Network Requirements for 3-D Flying in a Zoomable Brain Database

In laboratories around the world, neuroscientists from diverse disciplines are exploring various aspects of brain structure. Because of the size of the domain, neuroscientists must specialize, making it difficult to fit results together, causing some research efforts to be duplicated because of lack of sharing of information. We have begun a long-term project to build a neuroscience research database for brain structure. One aspect of the database is the ability to visualize high-quality, high-resolution micrographs montaged together into 3-D structures as they were in the living brain. As demonstrated in this paper's analysis, realistic presentation of these visualizations across computer networks will stress current and proposed gigabit networks. Image compression can reduce network loads, but wide-spread use of the visualizations will still require networks capable of sustaining terabits per second of throughput.