NSFNET TRANSITION
                        towards the
                      PUBLIC INTERNET

                       Presented by

                       Peter S. Ford
               Los Alamos National Laboratory
                       On loan to the 
                National Science Foundation

                  peter@goshawk.lanl.gov

                           IETF
                       26 July 1994
                   Toronto, Ontario, CA

========

An Old Slogan

 "One policy, one system, and universal service"

Theodore Vail, AT&T Annual Report, 1910

 "...comprehensive, universal, interdependent, intercommunicating like
 the highway system..."


How we got started...

========

NSF award to Merit in 1987 (partnered with IBM, MCI, ANS)

  o  Explicit partnership with Regionals and Supercomputing Centers

  o  T-1 Backbone on-line July 1988

  o  Spectacular growth

  o  T-3 BB (now up to DS-3 rates)

  o  Great example of public, research and commercial partnership and 
     tech transfer

  o  IETF and NSFNET grew together

  o  "...unloving critics and uncritical lovers"

========

NSFNET diagram

(see pre.ford.figure1.gif)

========

New NSFNET "architecture"

  o  Competitive provisioning of service => Cost effective Internet
     connectivity for R&E community

  o  Requires a well interconnected Internet

  o  NSFNET community acts as a "single customer" in that they desire
     interconnectedness

========

Features of NSFNET recompetition

  o  Regional networks: nap attachment awards with sunset
  o  Network access points, aup-free, attachment fee
  o  Routing arbiter (RA)
  o  Pre-competitive (155 mbps) R&E backbone services
  o  Private network service providers

========

NSFNET as part of the Public Internet 

(see pre.ford.figure2.gif)

========

New architecture

  o  "Commodity" and "experimental" backbone services sundered

  o  Sunset provision for NSF support of commodity services

  o  Network access points to facilitate emergence of robust private
     sector internetworks

  o  Routing arbiter to facilitate interconnectivity

========

(see pre.ford.figure3.gif)

========

Transition is Underway

  o  Regionals have selected NSPs

  o  NAPs are coming up

  o  Merit is in charge of transition from the current NSFNET project:
     -  Elise Gerich (epg@merit.edu) is the point of contact
     -  Transition paper: http://rrdb.merit.edu

  o  Goal: most regionals to move by 31 October 1994

  o  NSFNET BB service ends: 30 April 95 (ANS continues as network service
     provider)

  o  ANS network will be the foundation of the transition, NO FLASH CUTS

========

What does this mean

  o  Your traceroutes will change...
  o  If you depend on the current NSFNET backbone for transit you need
     to coordinate your transition with Merit

     This is a significant issue for many non-U.S. networks

========

NAPs - Network Access Points

NAPs are for NSP to NSP Interconnectivity and Interoperability (NNI).

US R&E community that is covered by RNP funding will be made available
at the NAPs to all others.

Good place for working on interconnectivity and interoperability.

Located in:
   San Francisco (PacBell/Bellcore)
   Chicago (Ameritech/Bellcore)
   NYC (Sprint)
   Washington, DC (MFS)

Routing Arbiter will locate Route Servers at the NAPs.

========

Routing Arbiter

Awards to ISI+IBM and Merit.

Is both a technology and an operational project.  (Learn by doing)

Register and disseminate Internet routing and addressing information.

Parallel/cooperative efforts by Europeans (RIPE), CANet, and Asian
Pacific (APEPG).

Development/evolution of routing system for the Internet. (provider 
selection, navigation of Internet mesh, IP to ATM mapping, resource
management, multicast, routing configuration and stability, etc.)

Route servers at NAPs

Recognize distributed nature of the Internet (RA is not a "central 
control" function).