APCCIRN-014
APCCIRN-014
1992.12.12
NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
Request For Public Comment: Solicitation Concept
SUMMARY: NSF is requesting comments on a
proposed solicitation covering two separate projects:
a Network Access Point (NAP) Manager and
Routing Authority (RA) organization; and a provider
of very high speed Backbone Network Services
(vBNS). This draft solicitation is being released to
the public to solicit comments specifically on the
scope of NSF's concept on how the various services
can best be provided, including (but not limited to)
the methodology and feasibility of providing services
as proposed. It is anticipated that a new approach to
the provision of NSFNET Backbone Network
Services will help provide for the continued
development and growth of NSFNET and to
continue the transition to a more privatized network.
DATES: After consideration of comments received
by August 3, 1992, NSF intends to prepare and
release a final program solicitation for the NAP
Manager/RA and the vBNS Provider projects.
ADDRESSES: To become part of the official record
and to guarantee that issues are addressed through
this process, all comments regarding the concepts
contained in this draft solicitation must be submitted
to NSF in writing (paper, facsimile, or electronic
mail) and must be received by 3:00 P.M. Eastern
Standard Time, Monday, August 3, 1992, at:
National Science Foundation
Division of Networking and Communications
Research and Infrastructure
1800 G Street, N.W., Room 416
Washington, D.C. 20550
ATTN: G Strawn (NAP Manager/RA and vBNS
Provider Comment)
Facsimile: 202-357-0320
Electronic mail: gstrawn@nsf.gov
PUBLIC DRAFT
NETWORK ACCESS POINT MANAGER/ROUTING
AUTHORITY AND VERY HIGH SPEED BACKBONE
NETWORK SERVICES PROVIDER
FOR NSFNET AND THE NREN PROGRAM
PROGRAM SOLICITATION
I. PURPOSE OF THIS SOLICITATION
The NSFNET was designed to support the data
networking needs of the research and education
community. It has become an essential infrastructure
for that community used daily to facilitate
communication among researchers, educators, and
students and to provide them with remote access to
information and computing resources. The number
of users, the number of connected networks, and the
amount of network traffic continue to grow rapidly.
NSFNET also supports the goals of the High
Performance Computing and Communications
(HPCC) Program which was delineated in the
President's Fiscal 1992 and 1993 budgets and
became law with the passage of The High
Performance Computing Act of 1991 (PL 102-194).
One component of the HPCC Program is the
National Research and Education Network (NREN)
Program which calls for gigabit per second speed
networking for research and education by the mid
1990s.
Since the creation of the NSFNET in 1986, the data
networking industry itself has evolved considerably.
New companies have been created and a number of
existing companies have shown increasing interest in
data networking. These and other evolutionary
changes, together with the pending expiration of the
current Cooperative Agreement for NSFNET
Backbone Network Services, have prompted the
need for new arrangements for NSFNET Backbone
Network Services.
To provide for the continued development and
growth of NSFNET and to continue the transition to
a more privatized network, a new architecture to
provide for Backbone Network Services has been
formulated and is specified here. The architecture
includes two separate projects for which solicitations
are required: a Network Access Point (NAP)
Manager and Routing Authority (RA) organization;
and, a provider of very high speed Backbone
Network Services (vBNS). This architecture also
includes components such as regional networks and
network service providers for which NSF
solicitations are not required. (These components
are, however, discussed in Section III.D.)
The solicitation invites proposals for a NAP
Manager/RA organization to: arrange for and
oversee a specific number of NAPs where the vBNS
and other appropriate networks may interconnect;
establish and maintain a route server database at each
NAP which may be used by the NAP-attached
networks to obtain routing information with which to
construct routing tables. This component of the
backbone network services architecture will: provide
access for other networks to the U.S. Research and
Education community; provide for the
interconnection of appropriate networks in an
environment which is not subject to the NSF
Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) which, in essence,
limits traffic to that which is in support of research
and education; provide routing stability; provide for
advances in routing technology; and, provide for the
maintenance of a policy routing database.
The solicitation also invites proposals for a vBNS
Provider to establish and maintain a vBNS which
will be connected to all NAPs and all of whose
NSFNET vBNS traffic must be in compliance with
the NSF AUP. In the tradition of NSFNET and as
discussed below, the vBNS Provider will be
expected to demonstrate leadership in the
development and deployment of high performance
data communications networks. This component of
the architecture will: provide for high speed
interregional connectivity; enable distributed
computing applications; enable multimedia
applications such as visualization, collaboration, and
distance learning; and, promote the development and
deployment of advanced routing technologies.
It is anticipated that the solicitation will result in two
separate five-year cooperative agreements between
NSF and the organizations and/or consortia chosen
as NAP Manager/RA, and vBNS Provider. The two
anticipated awards will be made to different
organizations (or non-overlapping consortia of
organizations). Total NSF funding is expected to be
approximately $10,000,000 per year.
This solicitation is issued pursuant to the National
Science Foundation Act of 1950, as amended (42
U.S.C. 1861 et seq) and the Federal Cooperative
Agreement Act (31 U.S.C. 6305) and is not subject
to the Federal Acquisition Regulations.
II. BACKGROUND
The network of networks known as the Internet
includes more than 5,000 networks. These networks
link together hundreds of thousands of computers
and millions of users throughout the world. The
domestic portion of the Internet contains a number of
NSF?upported networks. These include: campus
network connections at educational institutions;
midlevel networks; and NSFNET backbone network
services. Broadly speaking, NSFNET consists of all
of these networks together with a number of other
networks at locations such as government
laboratories and private corporations.
The Internet also includes other federally-sponsored
networks such as NASA Science Internet (NSI),
DOE's Energy Sciences Network (ESnet), and
DARPA's DARTnet and TWBnet. These and other
networks and the NSFNET are expected to evolve
into a gigabit per second network that allows for both
the interconnection and interoperability of federally
funded research and education networks with each
other and with private sector networks. This multi-
agency program is referred to as the NREN.
During the evolution of the NREN Program, account
will have to be taken of the requirements of the
various network-sponsoring federal agencies. For
example, network traffic on NSI and ESnet normally
must be in support of the focused missions of NASA
and DOE, respectively. NSF, on the other hand, has
the broad mission to support science and engineering
research and education. As such, NSFNET will
carry traffic in support of general research and
education requirements.
Because of the breadth of the charter of the NSFNET
and because of its wide use by the research and
education community, it is projected that the
NSFNET user base will continue to grow and that its
users will continue to require new levels of network
services. The expansion in numbers of users and
levels of services make the provision of increasingly
high performance Backbone Network Services
necessary for the continued success and growth of
NSFNET. The new NSFNET Backbone Network
Services will also be important in the evolution of the
NREN Program.
After consultation with many segments of the
Internet community, the National Science Foundation
has developed this solicitation for a NAP
Manager/RA organization and a vBNS Provider. In
the manner specified below, it is anticipated that
NSFNET will: develop increasingly high
performance network services; accommodate the
anticipated growth in numbers of users and networks
and in network traffic; and, transition to a
networking infrastructure that is increasingly
provisioned by network service providers from the
private sector.
III. NETWORK ARCHITECTURE AND
PROJECT REQUIREMENTS
NSF intends to establish a vBNS for NSFNET in the
following manner. A number of NAPs will be
established where the vBNS and other appropriate
networks will be interconnected. (The number and
location of the NAPs will be specified in the final
solicitation.) A NAP Manager/RA organization will
arrange for and oversee the NAPs and will maintain
Route Servers with routing and policy databases for
networks attached to the NAPs. The NAP
Manager/RA will also provide certain routing
services for the Internet community. This section
gives more details on this approach to providing
backbone network services and gives specific
requirements for both providers.
A. Network Access Points
A NAP is defined as a high speed network or switch
to which a number of routers can be connected for
the purpose of traffic exchange and interoperation. It
must have capacity adequate to keep up with the
switching requirements of the attached networks. A
NAP Manager/RA Organization will be responsible
for oversight and coordination of the NAPs. The
NAPs will be a conceptual evolution of the Federal
Information eXchanges (FIX-East and FIX-West)
and the Commercial Information eXchange (CIX).
The FIXes are each built around a 100 mbps FDDI
ring with attached networks operating at speeds of up
to 45 megabits per second (but neither the FIXes nor
the CIX currently have dedicated route servers with
route databases).
Examples of NAP implementation include (but are
not limited to) a LAN (like the FIXes) or a MAN
(Metropolitan Area Network) using a service such as
Switched Multimegabit Data Service (SMDS). With
any implementation, it would be desirable to provide
an environment which attempts to equalize and lower
the cost of connecting to the NAPs for prospective
network services providers. For example, this might
be accomplished by locating each NAP "close" to a
Point of Presence (POP) of each of the major Inter-
eXchange Carriers (IXCs). ("Close" might mean
within the same Local Access and Transport Area
and, for a LAN implementation, also within a
specified number of air miles of the POP of each
major IXC.)
The vBNS will operate under the same Acceptable
Use Policy (AUP) as the current NSFNET BNS.
However, the NAPs will operate in an "AUP-free"
mode. This will permit, for example, two attached
networks to exchange traffic without violating the
AUPs of any other attached network.
B. NAP Manager/Routing Authority
Under the current cooperative agreement that
provides for backbone network services, the same
consortium which provides the BNS also acts as
routing authority. Under the new cooperative
agreements described here, the routing authority
function will be separated from the provision of the
BNS. The NAP Manager/RA will provide for
equitable treatment of the various network services
providers during routing administration and will
provide for a common database of route information
to promote stability of the network.
By the use of specified external gateway protocols
such as BGP and IDRP (Boarder Gateway Protocol
and Inter-Domain Routing Protocol), the NAP
Manager/RA will create a database of all announced
networks and their paths of accessibility. This
information will be maintained in route databases
which will be deployed at each NAP. Attached
networks will be able to utilize this information while
creating and modifying their own routing tables.
The NAP Manager/RA organization will also provide
certain other services which will facilitate the logical
interconnection of the attached networks. In
particular, it will assist in the development of new
routing technologies and the deployment of
simplified routing strategies for attached networks.
The specific anticipated duties of the NAP
Manager/RA organization are as follows:
?Establish and maintain, possibly with
subcontractors, the specified NAPs for the
purpose of connecting the vBNS and other
appropriate networks. NAPs are to be AUP-
free and can be proposed to be implemented as
LANs or MANs or other innovative
approaches. NAPs must operate at speeds of at
least 100 mbps and must be able to be
upgraded as required by demand and usage and
by Program goals
?Develop and establish attachment policies
(including attachment fee schedules) which
would apply to networks that connect to NAPs
?Specify reliability and security standards for the
NAPs and ensure that these standards are met
?Specify appropriate access procedures to the
NAPs for authorized personnel of connecting
networks and ensure that these procedures are
carried out
?Provide appropriate NAP accounting and
statistical capabilities
?Establish and maintain a Route Server database
at each NAP by exchanging routing
information with and dynamically updating
routing information from the attached
Autonomous Systems using BPG and IDRP.
NAPs must support the switching of IP and
CLNP packets (Internet Protocol and
ConnectionLess Networking Protocol)
?Work to ensure routing stability
?Develop advanced routing standards and
technologies in cooperation with the global
Internet community
?Provide for simplified routing strategies for
attached networks such as default routing
?Propose and establish procedures to work with
the vBNS Provider and personnel from other
attached networks to resolve problems and to
support end-to-end connectivity and quality of
service for network users
?Promote distributed operation of the Internet
C. Very High Speed Backbone Network
Services Provider
Since its inception, the NSFNET has been a leader in
providing for high speed networking services for the
research and education community. The vBNS will
continue this tradition and will provide for: high
speed interregional connectivity; multimedia traffic in
support of visualization, collaboration, and distance
learning; and, distributed computing capabilities.
The vBNS must be able to switch both IP and CLNP
packets and it must operate at speeds of at least 155
megabits per second. The vBNS Provider must
participate in the development of advanced routing
technologies such as type of service and precedence
routing.
The vBNS may have connections and customers
beyond those specified by NSF as long as the quality
and quantity of required services for NSF-specified
customers are not affected. In this regard, the vBNS
Provider must be able to distinguish between NSF
customer traffic and that of other customers and to
report traffic statistics based on these categories.
Figure 1 shows the network architecture from the
point of view of NSF.
The specific anticipated duties of the vBNS Provider
are as follows:
o Establish and maintain a 155 mbps or higher
transit network which switches IP and CLNP
packets and which connects to all NAPs in
order to provide NSFNET users with a vBNS.
o Propose and establish a set of quality of service
metrics which will be used to characterize the
proposed network services and to ascertain and
publicize network performance on an ongoing
basis
o Subscribe to the policies of the NAP
Manager/RA; implement BGP- and IDRP-
based procedures to interact with those of that
organization to assist in establishing and
maintaining the route database
o Provide for real-time multimedia services,
including multicasting and video
teleconferencing
o Propose and establish procedures to work with
the NAP Manager/RA and personnel from
other attached networks to resolve problems
and to support end-to-end connectivity and
quality of service for network users
o Participate in the development of advanced
routing technologies (such as type of service or
precedence routing) in cooperation with the
global Internet community
o Propose and establish a schedule to enhance
both the speed at which the network operates
and other quality of service measures and type
of service advances in line with NSF's broad
program goals and consistent with anticipated
NSF customer requirements and available
funding
D. Other Architectural and Policy Considerations
It is anticipated that networks other than the vBNS
will connect to the NAPs. Examples of such
networks include: other federally sponsored
networks; other service providers for research and
education; service providers for traffic which is not
limited to the support of research and education; and
international networks.
In each case, attachment of a network to one or more
NAPs will require the payment of both an initial and
an annual fee (which will depend on parameters such
as number of NAP connections and bandwidth of the
connections). Fees will be determined by the NAP
Manager/RA and NSF so as to recover the expenses
associated with the NAPs and with the NAP
Manager/RA.
To attach to a NAP, a network must also subscribe to
the policies of the NAP Manager/RA and implement
BGP- and IDRP-based procedures to interact with
those of the NAP Manager/RA to assist in
establishing and maintaining the route database.
Networks attaching to NAPs must operate at speeds
of 1.5 mbps or greater and must be able to switch
both IP and CLNP packets. Additionally, attached
networks must be able to support video
teleconferencing, either by packet video or by circuits
multiplexed from their total bandwidth.
As shown in Figure 2, when the network
architecture is viewed from the perspective of any
network service provider, the vBNS is just another
service provider. (This may even be the view for the
network which underlies the vBNS if that network
has customers beyond those specified by NSF.)
NSFNET midlevel networks may connect either to
network services providers which are connected to
NAPs or directly to NAPs. NSF will support for
one year a single such connection fee for midlevel
networks which are currently connected to the
NSFNET Backbone Network Service. In the
following years of the cooperative agreement, NSF
support for the connection fee will decrease and the
midlevel network will need to increase other sources
of support correspondingly. NSF support of this fee
will cease after the (first) term of the NAP
Manager/RA Cooperative Agreement.
It is anticipated that a number of research institutions
will want to take advantage of the advanced
capabilities of the vBNS as they access facilities such
as the NSF Supercomputing Centers and the NSF
Science and Technology Centers, especially for
multimedia-based and distributed computing-based
applications. Although the subject is not addressed
in this solicitation, NSF expects to support such
institutional requirements where feasible based on the
scientific merit of proposed applications.
Each network connected to the NAPs may be
required to provide access to the NAP Manager/RA
to certain network Management Information Base
(MIB) variables. (Specific MIB variables may be
listed in the final solicitation, but the list of variables
will be subject to change as conditions warrant.) The
use of these MIB variables will be to promote the
performance and stability of the network.