APCCIRN-028

The National Research and Education Network Program

A Report to Congress

December 1992

Submitted by the Director

Office of Science and Technology Policy

in response to a requirement of

The High Performance Computing Act of 1991

(P.L. 102-194)

Table of Contents

Section Page

Executive Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

1.1. Purpose of the NREN Program. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

1.2. Conceptual Architecture of NREN . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

1.3. Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

1.4. Current Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

2. Funding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

2.1. Federal Role . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

2.2. Communications Service Vendors . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

2.3. Information Service Vendors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

2.4. Network Service Providers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

2.5. Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

3. Transition. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

3.1. A Model for Evolution. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

3.2. Implementation of NREN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

3.2.1. NSF's Interagency Interim NREN

implementation plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

3.2.2. DOE's/NASA's Interagency Interim NREN

implementation plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

3.3. Commercial Use of the NREN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

3.3.1. Information products and services. . . . . . . . 20

4. Protection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

4.1. Principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

4.2. Protection of Copyrights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

4.3. Security and Privacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

4.4. Security of the NREN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

5. Constituencies and Concerns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

5.1. Broadening the Availability of Network Information

Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

5.2. Computer Industry Concerns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

5.3. Expanding the Vision for Education . . . . . . . . . . . 26

5.4. Plans and Mechanisms to Address Significant

Issues. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

5.4.1. Ownership. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

5.4.2. Operation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

5.4.3. Acceptable use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

5.4.4. Fair competition for network services. . . . . . 28

5.4.5. Interoperability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

5.4.6. Availability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

5.4.7. Copyright protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

5.4.8. User base. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Appendix A. Management/ Coordination of the HPCC Program . . . . . 32

A.1. Management/Coordination of the NREN Program. . . . . . . 33

A.2. Federal Networking Council . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

A.3. FNC Working and Ad Hoc Task Groups . . . . . . . . . . . 36

A.4. Agency NREN Program Management Responsibilities . . . . 37

A.5. Interagency Interim NREN Requirements and

Implementation: Coordination Process. . . . . . . . . . 42

A.6. Public Interaction and Advisory Bodies . . . . . . . . . 44

Appendix B. Current NREN Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

B.1. Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

B.2. Scope. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

B.3. Vision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

B.4. Current NREN Program Status. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Appendix C. Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

List of References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Executive Summary

This is a report on the National Research and Education Network

(NREN) Program required by the High Performance Computing Act of

1991 (P.L. 102-194). Six specific issues are to be addressed:

~ effective mechanisms for providing operating funds for the

maintenance and use of the Network, including user fees,

industry support, and continued Federal investment;

~ the future operation and evolution of the Network;

~ how commercial information service providers could be

charged for access to the Network, and how Network users

could be charged for such commercial information services;

~ the technological feasibility of allowing commercial

information service providers to use the Network and other

federally funded research networks;

~ how to protect copyrights of material distributed over the

Network; and

~ appropriate policies to ensure the security of resources

available on the Network and to protect the privacy of users

of networks.

It is useful to group these questions according to three themes:

funding, transition and protection, and the report is organized

along these lines. However, before these questions can be

addressed, the purpose and nature of NREN need to be explained

with clarity.

Purpose of the NREN Program

The NREN Program is one of the four principal components of the

interagency program on High Performance Computing and

Communications (HPCC). The primary purpose of the NREN Program

is to establish a gigabit communications infrastructure that will

dramatically enhance the ability to collaborate among members of

the research and education community. In order to establish such

an infrastructure, networking technologies have to be developed

and services from common carriers and other communications

service providers must be made available in this development

effort. Furthermore, the process of establishing the NREN Program

will provide an unprecedented opportunity to catalyze the

development of a general purpose high speed communications

infrastructure for the nation. Ultimately, the NREN Program

cannot be cost effective or realize its full potential without

such a development. Thus, the NREN Program has a series of

synergistic goals:

~ establishing a gigabit network for

the research and education

community and fostering its use;

~ developing advanced networking

technologies and accelerating their

deployment;

~ stimulating the availability, at a

reasonable cost, of the required

services from the private sector;

and

~ catalyzing the rapid deployment of

a high speed general purpose

digital communications

infrastructure for the nation.

To achieve these goals, the NREN Program is divided into two

parts:

~ the Gigabit Research and Development component;

and

~ the Interagency Interim NREN component.

As its name implies, the former is an R&D program designed to

develop needed technologies. The latter is a coordinated program

to support an operational network that will, in stages, realize

the primary goal of the NREN Program, viz., to establish a

gigabit network for the research and education community. Since

the questions that we are to address all pertain to the

operational network, we shall henceforth in this document use the

term NREN, when not followed by the word "program," as an

abbreviation for the Interagency Interim NREN.

Nature of NREN

To address the issues required of this report, it is necessary to

understand two important characteristics of NREN. First, it is a

logical, not physical, entity. It is best understood as a

collection of interlinked nodes operating under specific rules

for moving information along the links. The logical network is

realized by purchasing transport services from network service

vendors. How the vendors implement the services through hardware

using cable and switches or bulk purchase of transport services

from other vendors, should be transparent to the users and the

administrators of NREN. Thus, for example, whether non-NREN

traffic uses the same physical medium as NREN traffic is not an

NREN issue, unless such traffic affects the operational

characteristics of NREN as a logical entity.

A second important characteristic of NREN is that it is a

hierarchy of networks. At the top of the hierarchy, NREN's

components are backbone networks, each of which is itself a

network of networks (called midlevels and regionals) connected to

a common communications trunk (backbone). The major components of

NREN are national agency backbone networks: NSFnet of NSF; ESnet

of DOE; NSI of NASA; and TWBnet of DOD. The agencies' NREN

backbones are high speed networks that will eventually attain

gigabit speed. The backbones in NREN will be interconnected

through a set of nodes known as the network access points (NAPs).

Any backbone, whether or not serving research and education

purposes, can be connected to the NAPs. The backbone networks

have a high degree of autonomy and each can impose its own local

rules and restrictions. It is the policy of NREN, however, that

restrictions should be based on traffic characteristics and not

on the source or destination of such traffic. With this

formulation, we can define "NREN proper" as composed of a

collection of agency backbone networks plus a set of associated

NAPs. NREN-in-the-large will also include any backbone network

connected to one of the NAPs.

The architecture of NREN described above is designed to create a

synergy between the twin purposes of NREN: to establish a high

speed network for research and education while catalyzing and

accelerating the development and deployment of a national

communications infrastructure.

Funding

Establishing and maintaining a composite gigabit backbone made up

of the Federal agency backbones, including NAPs, are currently

the responsibility of the Federal Government. It does not mean,

however, that the Federal Government should bear the "full

freight" for either the initial backbone implementation or

ongoing backbone maintenance and operation. It is expected that

pricing of the initial establishment will reflect some shared

investment with industry and the ongoing operation will require a

charge for transport and connectivity services to the network

providers, who may then pass charges to the end-users.

Federal funds will pay for the operations of the agency networks

that make up NREN. These funds will also support users that serve

Federal missions whether or not they access NREN through the

agency networks.

Both common carriers and other service providers have provided

direct support for the development of network technologies, and

are expected to share the cost of the initial establishment of

the high speed backbone by providing services at a rate lower

than supporting NREN as the sole customer. Such cost-sharing

would represent an early investment by the communications

industry in the networking market.

Information service vendors will contribute to bearing the cost

of operating NREN through connectivity and transport fees mainly

through network providers, and in turn will charge the users

directly for the information services provided. The architecture

of NREN is intended to facilitate such funding arrangements.

End users of NREN must go through some network service provider,

either under contract with an agency or as a commercial service.

The network service vendor will charge a connectivity fee and a

subscription fee and possibly traffic dependent fees which will

then be used to pay connectivity (NAP and backbone) and transport

charges.

Transition

The architecture of NREN is designed to foster flexible

evolution. NREN is a federation of networks at different levels

of a hierarchy. At the top level of this hierarchy are the

backbone networks which will be interconnected through the NAPs.

Adding new backbone networks to NREN is readily accommodated,

subject only to the capacity of the NAPs and the cost of

connecting to them. Each backbone network is a network of

networks connected to a common backbone. A backbone network is

semi-autonomous and can impose its own restrictions. However,

such restrictions will be based on traffic characteristics, not

source or destination of network traffic.

NREN can grow indefinitely by adding new backbone networks and

additional NAPs. Furthermore, if the same architecture is adopted

for a national general purpose network, then NREN can be readily

integrated without change. What constitutes "NREN proper" will

then be a small sub-collection of the backbone networks plus a

subset of the NAPs which it shares with other backbone networks

or other "federations" of networks.

NREN, being a federation of networks, will have segments that

restrict use. Agency backbones are restricted to uses related to

agency missions. The NSFnet backbone is restricted to uses

related to research and education. Some regionals also have

similar restrictions. NREN restrictions only require that the

traffic support research and education. Commercial traffic,

whether for profit or not, that meets this condition is

unrestricted. Furthermore, even commercial traffic unrelated to

research and education could use the NREN NAPs to access backbone

networks of any variety that wish to connect to these NAPs.

Thus, NREN in its largest sense can indeed carry commercial

traffic, and the establishment of NREN will play a major role in

fostering the development of general purpose high speed networks.

Protection

Most of the protection issues concerning NREN are not new. They

exist for communications systems that are accessible to the

public in general. It is important that protection policies and

mechanisms developed for NREN be consistent with those that

already exist. Wherever possible, it is useful to seek models

that apply to NREN, or can be generalized to apply to NREN. For

example, the "common carriage" model fits the role of network

providers in many ways. The time tested rules and

responsibilities applied to common carriers may well be

appropriate to network providers.

With the exception of performance capabilities, high speed

digital networks are not inherently different from telephone

networks, or any other point-to-point switched communications

system. It may be a sound principle to adhere to the rules

applicable to such systems, unless it can be demonstrated that

the change in speed renders a particular rule ineffective or

inappropriate.

The technical mechanism appropriate to protect copyright of

material distributed over the Network is as yet unclear.

Electronic information is much easier to copy and transmit than

paper. Fewer identifying markings which show the source of the

information exist or are retained in electronic copies. In

addition, legal issues arise. For example, is the government, as

a supporter of the Network, liable for the improper use of

copyrighted material received via or transmitted over the

Network? Current legal precedent for access to and protection of

copyrights of material accessed via modems over telephone lines

does not assign legal responsibility to enforce copyrights to the

common carriers whose lines are used. The fair use of

copyrighted materials, a feature of the Copyright Act and

essential to scientific research, is an example of a concern that

combines technical and legal issues. So too, technical means to

ensure copyright protection on the NREN must provide for fair

use, as must any legal arrangement.

Appropriate policies to ensure the security of resources and the

privacy of users are addressed via four policy areas. First, the

Federal Networking Council (FNC) has coordinated the development

of a draft NREN security policy. A second aspect of security is

the responsible and proper use of Network resources. Thus, the

FNC also has been developing, in consultation with the non-

Federal communities, an Appropriate Use Policy. In addition,

P.L. 102-476 broadens the NSF's organic act and authorizes the

NSF to foster and support access by the research and education

communities to computer networks, which may be used substantially

for purposes in addition to research and education in the

sciences and engineering, if the additional uses will tend to

increase the overall capabilities of the networks to support such

research and education activities.

The Computer Security Act specifies a third policy requirement to

ensure security of resources and protection of privacy. That Act

requires each agency to create computer security plans for

Federal computer and telecommunications systems which process or

transmit sensitive, unclassified information. It also requires

security and awareness training of Federal employees and

contractors who use sensitive Federal computer and

telecommunications systems. These activities, while not presented

in this document, are separately reported by each agency through

its Information Resources Management activity.

Finally, protection of users' privacy is provided for, to some

extent, by the Privacy Act. That Act governs access to

information about individuals maintained by Federal agencies that

is contained in "systems of records," as defined by the Act. In

addition, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act protects

Network communications from unlawful interception.

Encryption is an effective means for providing basic data

security. As such, it is relevant to all the protection problems

related to NREN.

Management and Status

The NREN Program is one of the four principal components of the

interagency program on High Performance Computing and

Communications (HPCC). All eight participating agencies of HPCC

(DOC, DOD, DOE, ED, EPA, HHS, NASA, NSF) also participate in

NREN. USDA and DOI are also participants in NREN. Management of

NREN is distributed, with each agency implementing its own

portion of the overall program. Coordination of HPCC is through

the High Performance Computing, Communications, and Information

Technology (HPCCIT) Subcommittee of the Federal Coordinating

Council for Science, Engineering and Technology (FCCSET) and the

recently established National Coordination Office (NCO) for the

HPCC Program. Donald A. B. Lindberg, M.D., the Director of the

National Library of Medicine, is currently the Director of the

NCO and the Chairman of the HPCCIT subcommittee.

In addition to the coordination and management structure that

exists for HPCC as a whole, the operational aspects of NREN have

required special interagency coordination. This is done through

the Federal Networking Council (FNC) which was established by NSF

in its capacity as leader of the working group on networking

within HPCCIT.

A detailed description of the management and coordination

structure for NREN is given in Appendix A.

NREN is an evolving system that combines operational capabilities

with technology development in a dynamic environment. A detailed

description of its current operational status is given in

Appendix B.

1. Introduction

This report responds to the High Performance Computing (HPC) Act

of 1991 (P.L. 102-194) which, in Title I, Section 102, requires

that the Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy

(OSTP), within one year after enactment of the HPC Act of 1991,

report to Congress on the National Research and Education Network

(NREN, also referred to as the Network) regarding:

(1) effective mechanisms for providing operating funds for the

maintenance and use of the Network, including user fees,

industry support, and continued Federal investment;

(2) the future operation and evolution of the Network;

(3) how commercial information service providers could be

charged for access to the Network, and how Network users

could be charged for such commercial information services;

(4) the technological feasibility of allowing commercial

information service providers to use the Network and other

federally funded research networks;

(5) how to protect copyrights of material distributed over the

Network; and

(6) appropriate policies to ensure the security of resources

available on the Network and to protect the privacy of users

of networks.

It is useful to group these questions according to three themes:

funding, transition and protection, and our report will be

organized along these lines. However, before these questions can

be addressed, the purpose and nature of NREN need to be explained

with clarity. Therefore, we begin with a statement on the

purpose of the NREN and an explanation of its conceptual

architecture.

1.1. Purpose of the NREN Program

The NREN Program is one of the four principal components of the

interagency program on High Performance Computing and

Communications (HPCC). The primary purpose of the NREN Program

is to establish a gigabit communications infrastructure that will

dramatically enhance the ability to collaborate among members of

the research and education community.[1] In order to establish such

an infrastructure, networking technologies have to be developed

and services from common carriers and other communications

service providers must be made available in this development

effort. Furthermore, the process of establishing the NREN Program

will provide an unprecedented opportunity to catalyze the

development of a general purpose high speed communications

infrastructure for the nation.[2] Ultimately, the NREN Program

cannot be cost effective or realize its full potential without

being a part of a national infrastructure. Thus, the NREN Program

has a series of synergistic goals:

~ establishing a gigabit network for

the research and education

community and fostering its use;

~ developing advanced networking

technologies and accelerating their

deployment;

~ stimulating the availability, at a

reasonable cost, of the required

services from the private sector;

and

~ catalyzing the rapid deployment of

a high speed general purpose

digital communications

infrastructure for the nation.

To achieve these goals, the NREN project is divided into two

parts:

~ the Gigabit Research and

Development component, and

~ the Interagency Interim NREN

component.

As its name implies, the former is a research and development

program designed to develop needed technologies. Examples of

broad research problems that may be addressed in gigabit

networking include network stability (i.e. the behavior of

message traffic flow), network response, and network management.[3]

The latter goal is a coordinated program to support an

operational network that will, in stages, realize the primary

goal of the NREN Program, viz., to establish a gigabit network

for the research and education community. Since the questions

that we are to address all pertain to the operational network, we

shall henceforth in this document use the term NREN, when not

followed by the word "program," as an abbreviation for the

Interagency Interim NREN.

1.2. Conceptual Architecture of NREN

To address the issues required of this report, it is necessary to

understand two important characteristics of NREN. First, it is a

logical, not physical, entity. It is best understood as a

collection of interlinked nodes operating under specific rules

for moving information along the links. The logical network is

realized by purchasing transport services from network service

vendors. How the vendors implement the services through hardware

using cable and switches or bulk purchase of transport services

from other vendors, should be transparent to the users and the

administrators of NREN. Thus, for example, whether non-NREN

traffic uses the same physical medium as NREN traffic is not an

NREN issue, unless such traffic affects the operational

characteristics of NREN as a logical entity.

A second important characteristic of NREN is that it is a

hierarchy of networks. At the top of the hierarchy, NREN's

components are backbone networks, each of which is itself a

network of networks (called midlevels and regionals) connected to

a common communications trunk (backbone). The major components of

NREN are national agency backbone networks: NSFnet of the

National Science Foundation (NSF); ESnet of the Department of

Energy (DOE); NSI of the National Aeronautics and Space

Administration (NASA); and TWBnet of the Department of Defense

(DOD). The agency backbones are high speed networks that will

eventually attain gigabit speed. The backbones in NREN will be

interconnected through a set of nodes known as the network access

points (NAPs). Any backbone, whether or not serving research and

education purposes, can be connected to the NAPs. The backbone

networks have a high degree of autonomy and each can impose its

own local rules and restrictions. It is the policy of NREN,

however, that restrictions should be based on particular traffic

characteristics and not on the source or destination of such

traffic.

In contrast, subnets that connect strategically secure sites

and/or provide classified, agency mandated services will not be

connected to NAPs. Rather they will be connected only via a

Federal information interchange node.

1.3. Management

The NREN Program is one of the four principal components of the

interagency program on High Performance Computing and

Communications (HPCC). All eight participating agencies of HPCC

(Department of Commerce, DOD, DOE, Department of Education,

Environmental Protection Agency, Health and Human Services, NASA,

and NSF) also participate in NREN as agreed upon within the High

Performance Computing, Communications, and Information Technology

(HPCCIT) Subcommittee of the Federal Coordinating Council for

Science, Engineering and Technology (FCCSET) Committee on

Physical, Mathematical, and Engineering Sciences (PMES). In

addition to these agencies, the Department of Agriculture and the

Department of the Interior are also participants in NREN.

Coordination of the HPCC Program is provided through the chairman

of the HPCCIT Subcommittee and the staff of the recently

established National Coordination Office (NCO). Management of

NREN is distributed, with each agency implementing its own

portion of the overall program.

As cited in "A Report to Congress on Computer Networks to Support

Research in the United States," the various government networking

activities touch a significant segment of the U.S. academic

research community.[4] In addition to the coordination and

management structure that exists for HPCC as a whole, the

operational aspects of NREN have required special interagency

attention. This is done through the Federal Networking Council

(FNC) which was established by NSF in its capacity as leader of

the working group on networking within HPCCIT. These elements,

along with industry, are members of an Advisory Committee to the

FNC.

A detailed description of the management and coordination

structure for NREN is given in Appendix A.

1.4. Current Status

NREN is an evolving system that combines operational capabilities

with technology development in a dynamic environment. A detailed

description of its current operational status is given in

Appendix B.

2. Funding

2.1. Federal Role

As cited in the proceedings of the EDUCOM Workshop on the NREN by

the EDUCOM Networking and Telecommunications Task Force, "a

continued high level of Federal investment in the development and

pre-commercial use of advanced network facilities and services is

absolutely essential to a national strategy for

competitiveness."[5] Establishing and maintaining a composite

gigabit backbone, including NAPs, are currently the

responsibility of the Federal Government. It does not mean,

however, that the Federal Government should bear the "full

freight" for either the initial backbone implementation or

ongoing backbone maintenance and operation. It is expected that

pricing of the initial establishment will reflect some shared

investment with industry and the ongoing operation will require a

charge for transport and connectivity services to the network

providers, who may then pass charges on to the end-users.

Federal funds will pay for the operations of the agency networks

that make up "NREN-proper." Federal funds will also support

users that serve federal missions whether or not they directly

access NREN through the agency networks.

2.2. Communications Service Vendors

Both common carriers and service providers have provided direct

support for the development of network technologies, and are

expected to share the cost of the initial establishment of the

high speed backbone by providing services at a rate lower than

that which would be required if NREN were the sole customer. Such

cost-sharing would represent an early investment by the

communications industry in the networking market.

2.3. Information Service Vendors

Information service vendors will contribute to bearing the cost

of operating NREN through connectivity and transport fees charged

network providers, and in turn will charge the users directly for

the information services provided. The architecture of NREN is

intended to facilitate such funding arrangements.

2.4. Network Service Providers

End users of NREN must go through some network service provider,

either under contract with an agency or as a commercial service.

The network service vendor will charge a connectivity fee and a

subscription fee and possibly traffic-dependent fees which will

then be used to pay connectivity (NAP and backbone) and transport

charges.

2.5. Summary

Funding sources for the operation of NREN can be summarized as

follows:

Interagency: fund advanced network research

fund collaborative and shared

NREN operational activities

Individual Agencies: fund agency backbone networks

and their evolution to

gigabit speeds

fund NREN user serving agency

missions

Communications Industry: invest in underlying physical

plant

develop transport services

support technology development

invest in initial deployment

Information Service Vendors: develop information service

pay fee for connectivity and

transport

Users: pay network subscription

pay connectivity charge

pay user charge for

information service

3. Transition

3.1. A Model for Evolution

The architecture of NREN is designed to foster its flexible

evolution. NREN is a federation of networks at different levels

of a hierarchy. At the top level of this hierarchy are the

backbone networks which will be interconnected through the NAPs.

Adding new backbone networks to NREN is readily accommodated,

subject only to the capacity of the NAPs and the cost of

connecting to them. Each backbone network is a network of

networks connected to a common backbone. A backbone network is

semi-autonomous and can impose its own restrictions. However,

such restrictions will be based on traffic characteristics and

not the source or destination of such traffic.

NREN can grow indefinitely by adding new backbone networks and

additional NAPs. Furthermore, if the same architecture is

adopted for a national general purpose network, then NREN can be

readily integrated without change. What constitutes NREN will

then be a sub-collection of the backbone networks plus a subset

of the NAPs which it shares with other backbone networks or other

clusters of networks.

NREN, being a federation of networks, will have segments that

restrict use. Agency backbones are restricted to uses related to

agency missions. The NSFnet backbone is restricted to uses

related to research and education. Some regionals also have

similar restrictions. NREN restrictions only require that the

traffic support research and education. Commercial traffic,

whether for profit or not, that meets this condition is

unrestricted. Furthermore, even commercial traffic unrelated to

research and education could use the NAPs to traverse those

networks that are unrestricted. Thus, NREN in its largest sense

can indeed carry commercial traffic, and the establishment of

NREN will play a major role in fostering the development of

general purpose high speed networks.

3.2. Implementation of NREN

The CSPP Report, "Expanding the Vision of High Performance

Computing and Communications: Linking America for the Future,"

underscores the importance that government policies and programs

have on the protocols used in future networks, and that these

efforts must be coordinated to meet the goal of network

interoperability.[6] The Interagency Interim NREN Program is an

integrated program that combines the separate Federal agency

networks and related technology developments into a consolidated

multi-faceted national network system that builds on each

agency's strengths. The Interagency Interim NREN provides

interoperability between the agencies' separate networking

services in a seamless manner (e.g., via Federal Internet

eXchanges - "FIXes") in order to achieve end-to-end connectivity

for the Nation's researchers and educators. A joint DOE/NASA

project is aimed at accelerating the commercial availability of

high performance "cornerstone" technologies and services for more

focused applications, while a related NSF effort emphasizes the

scope of applicability of such services and infrastructure. It

is the coordinated integration of these two complementary

endeavors that will best serve the research and education

communities as a holistic program. Indeed these efforts were

endorsed by the President's Council of Advisors on Science and

Technology.[7] As such, major Interagency Interim NREN activities

and plans - the NSF's and the joint DOE/NASA's projects - are

outlined below.

3.2.1. NSF's Interagency Interim NREN implementation plans

The NSF implementation approach separates (1) the provision of

Network Access Points (NAPs); (2) the operation of the Routing

Arbiter (RA); and (3) organizations to provide very high speed

Backbone Network Services (vBNS). The NSF has made public a

draft version of its proposed solicitation and has requested and

received numerous comments on this document.[8] The NSF

architecture also takes into account major existing network

components such as regional networks and network service

providers for which NSF solicitations are not required. The two

NSF solicitations are due to be awarded in mid-1993.

The NSF has explicitly designed the next generation Interagency

Interim NREN architecture to allow increased access, greater

interoperability, and adherence to standards for all subscribers

to the NREN--requirements established by the HPCC Program and

recommended by the CSPP.[9] Service providers will have the

ability and experience to provide value-added services for both

the original TCP/IP protocol and the CLNP protocol as described

in the Government Open Systems Interconnection Profile (GOSIP),

which the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

has specified for government acquisitions in a Federal

Information Processing Standard (FIPS).

Network Access Point and Routing Arbiter

The "Network Access Point" (NAP) is a key feature of NSF's

Iagencies and commercial service providers to interconnect and

interoperate with networks of their choice, as well as the

NSFNET, ESNet and NSI. This enables commercial service providers

to offer competitively priced services to both commercial and R&E

customers and will engender a larger set of capable and

competitive service providers than could be developed under

Federal funding alone. The NAPs will also provide the capability

for interconnecting networks of dissimilar services (e.g. SMDS,

ATM, DS3, DS1), and dissimilar speeds (1.5 Mb/s, 45 Mb/s, 155

Mb/s, 622 Mb/s, etc.). This feature is crucial for addressing

the needs of scalable and evolutionary network architectures and

for providing the mechanism for smooth transition to a national

research and education gigabit network by 1996. These are timely

concerns as gigabit class technology will begin to be deployed in

prototype lower speed versions in 1993, with continuing

escalation of performance and qualitative services as it moves

towards production status. The NAPs, in conjunction with network

customers, will incorporate a minimal set of standard routing

protocols and use a standardized methodology for routing and

transit of packets in the NREN.

The stability of the network is ensured by the prudent and

careful maintenance and upkeep of the network-wide routing

databases. This function is currently performed by MERIT for the

NSFNET and in the new architecture will be the responsibility of

the Routing Arbiter. The Routing Arbiter, who is excluded from

serving as a network service provider, will initially be

centralized to ensure the stability of the network during its

transition phase. However, the Routing Arbiter function needs to

evolve into a distributed and delegated system as soon as

possible in order to realistically address the expected growth

and complexity of networks, and to enhance the opportunities for

commercial service providers to interoperate among themselves and

with the research and education community. The separation of the

administration and implementation of the routing database from

the actual switching of packets will make the introduction of

differing services easier while maintaining the stability of the

routing database.

Backbone Service Provider

The third element of the architecture of the next generation

NSFNET Backbone Services is a very high speed Backbone Network

Services (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 Acceptable Use Policy

(AUP). In the tradition of NSFNET, the vBNS Provider will be

expected to demonstrate leadership in the development and

deployment of high performance data communications networks.

Initially (Spring, 1994), it is expected that the vBNS will

operate at a speed of 155 Mb/s (OC-3). The vBNS provider will be

expected to raise the speed during the lifetime of the agreement

with the NSF to 622 Mb/s (OC-12) or higher as technology permits

and demand warrants. This component of the architecture will:

provide for high speed interregional connectivity; enable

distributed computing applications; enable multimedia

applications such as visualization, collaboration, and distant

learning; and, promote the development and deployment of advanced

routing technologies.

For reliability, all networks involved in NREN service

provisioning must adhere to and support a basic set of

operational and administrative capabilities. The NAPs will be

required to be as fault tolerant as possible and all networks

assisted by the NSF, including the R&E regional networks, will

need to enhance and extend their operational capabilities in

order to realize this goal.

3.2.2. DOE's/NASA's Interagency Interim NREN implementation plans

The joint DOE/NASA project is designed to address the HPCC/NREN

and other leading edge science requirements of both agencies.

The mission agencies have HPCC goals and objectives that require

high performance access to powerful supercomputers, huge data

repositories, and geographically distributed communities of

science investigators. Thus DOE and NASA focussed on an

Interagency Interim NREN architecture which will use commercial

cell-relay services to increase transmission speeds from the

current 1.5 Mb/s to 45 Mb/s, with initial deployment early in

1993. Transitions to higher speeds including 622 Mb/s second

will be made when such services become commercially available,

agency budgets permitting. Deployments of these high performance

technologies will be systematically engineered by DOE and NASA

networking experts in close collaboration with industry and the

research community. Through such collaborations with router

vendors and communications carriers, DOE and NASA can evaluate

cell relay technologies on an early availability basis and can

stimulate development and deployment of cell-relay products and

services, thereby providing strategic advantages for the U.S.

telecommunications industry in the world marketplace.

DOE and NASA will be spearheading the technology evaluation and

deployment of cell relay services and protocols at the Open

Systems Interconnect (OSI) Layer 2. These Layer 2 services and

virtual private networks (VPNs) allow for greater resource

management, accounting, and control than typically provided by

traditional Layer 3 networks. In addition, DOE and NASA's choice

of Layer 2 services is based on the Broadband ISDN standards

advocated by the telecommunications industry as establishing the

future direction for communications systems. Therefore, DOE and

NASA will be in full accord with the evolving worldwide

telecommunications infrastructure and will be able to

interoperate with the general research and education community as

new telecommunications products and services emerge and become

commercially available.

The DOE and NASA networks will initially interconnect at FIXes,

along with the next generation of the NSFNET backbone - which is

itself targeting advances in routing and peering technologies at

OSI Layer 3. These parallel advanced network deployments by NSF

and DOE/NASA are fully complementary, with each approach playing

a vital role in energizing the U.S. telecommunications and

networking industries and creating a seamless interoperable and

interconnected Interagency Interim NREN.

By choosing early availability service offerings and adopting

industry standards, DOE and NASA will satisfy their high speed

HPCC Grand Challenge requirements and also promote the deployment

of marketable products and services for nation-wide consumption.

3.3. Commercial Use of the NREN

Industry involvement in NREN use and development occurs in

several ways. Many U.S. industrial firms have contributed

significant resources to the NREN research program activities.

Some of these firms and others have also provided grants and/or

subsidies to various universities or other research and

educational institutions to support Interagency Interim NREN

connectivity. In addition, many commercial firms now also

participate in the Interagency Interim NREN and thus provide some

funding for NREN connectivity as participants.

There are no NREN restrictions on traffic whose purpose is to

engage in or support R&E consonant with NREN Program goals,

irrespective of whether the source or target of that traffic is

public or private, for-profit or not-for-profit, a commercial or

noncommercial enterprise. Many vendors routinely use the network

to support their R&E customers, and the number of commercial

(for-fee) information providers offering their services over the

network is increasing. On the other hand, use for purposes not

in support of R&E is in general prohibited. Federal NREN funds

are for the support of R&E, not to provide a network for traffic

in support of unrestricted commercial purposes, whether the

source or target of that traffic is public or private, for-profit

or not-for-profit, a commercial or noncommercial enterprise.

There is, however, an administrative issue since commercial

traffic is not entirely excluded from the Internet. In contrast

with Federal agency networks (such as ESnet, NSI, and the NSFNET

Backbone), many regional networks such as NEARNET, SURANET,

WESTNET and others - which collectively provide the vital second

tier (or mid-level) infrastructure to the NREN Program - allow

unrestricted commercial traffic. They offer these unrestricted

commercial services because NSF funding, together with the fees

collected from their R&E clients, is insufficient to support

their service offering to the R&E community. Their commercial

customers allow them to serve economically the R&E community. In

fact, although some regional networks have fee structures that do

not distinguish between commercial and R&E customers, others

deliberately subsidize R&E customers with their commercial

revenues.

Although connectivity between the regional networks for

unrestricted commercial purposes is prohibited over the NREN

backbone network components of the Federal agencies, this

connectivity is already provided for the private sector -

primarily by members of the Commercial Internet Exchange, (CIX),

a 501c(6) trade association of private providers of Internet

access and carriage. Fair and equal access of private providers

to regional networks and their customers is offered today at

NSFNET Backbone nodes. In the upcoming competitive solicitation

for NSFNET Backbone facilities, the Backbone architecture has

been specifically designed to achieve full symmetry and equal

access among all backbone networks through "Network Access

Points" (NAPs) open to all.

Private network providers (e.g., CIX members) have an

expectation, which currently is largely realized, of being able

to reach non-R&E customers at low cost using the facilities of

the regional networks via NSFNET Backbone nodes (now) or NAPs

(later). However, some regional networks (e.g., CONCERT, the

network serving the State of North Carolina) are prohibited by

their primary funding agencies (for CONCERT, the state

government) from carrying non-R&E traffic. Reaching non-R&E

customers in regions such as North Carolina where the regional

network prohibits non-R&E traffic is thus more expensive for the

private providers, since they must duplicate at their own expense

existing facilities of the regional network.

The NREN Program policy position on this issue is that such

issues must be worked out between the affected private providers

and those regional networks that prohibit non-R&E traffic.

Federal agencies that provide partial funding for regional

networks (primarily the NSF, but also DARPA and indirectly DOE

and NASA through institution and Principle Investigator funding)

do not interfere in local decisions, and specifically do not

mandate that the regional network restrict traffic.

A basic problem is that the determination as to whether network

traffic is "commercial" or not depends not on the network user,

nor the user's employer, nor on the user's employer's tax exempt

status, but rather on the particular and instantaneous use in

progress. "Labeling" traffic to allow the traffic to be routed

in accord with criteria of acceptable use is one feature of

so-called "Type of Service" (ToS) routing which is not available

in current off the shelf technology, although it is under

vigorous development within the vendor community. Labeling will

also make cost accounting easier. Several proposals offering

different ways to label traffic are currently being considered by

the Federal Engineering Planning Group (FEPG) and the Internet

Architecture Board (IAB - the relevant standards setting body),

but a solution may not be generally deployable in the network for

a year or more.

The FNC and its Advisory Committee have deliberated on the issue

of commercialization of the NREN and have agreed to a policy in

this area. The intent is to promote the creation of new,

commercially viable data communications products and services, to

promote the growth of private sector sources, and to encourage

the acquisition of services, as they become generally available,

from private sector sources.

3.3.1. Information products and services

Among the network's constituents, there are a variety of views

about what information products and services should be accessible

over the Internet. Private providers, naturally, wish for no

restrictions on traffic. The NREN Program policy has been that

at least certain federally funded segments should be restricted:

the NSFNET Backbone should be limited to R&E traffic and the

mission agency networks should be limited to traffic in support

of their respective missions. It is important to understand that

these restrictions are neither on content nor on source, but

rather relate to the intent of the agency mission. Although such

restrictions may be difficult to enforce, it has the salutary

implication that from the point of view of those who desire

broader access to information products and services, that no

information provider (public or private, for free or for fee)

should be denied a connection to the net a priori unless it can

be demonstrated that the information and/or service to be

provided cannot possibly be used for mission support or in

support of R&E. There is the further implication that, in

accessing such providers, the onus is on the end user to use the

information/service only for appropriate purposes.

There is a potential conflict between "carrier" constituents

(e.g., FARNET, CIX) who wish neither responsibility nor liability

for the content of the information on the network and wish to be

treated in this regard as common carriers, and the "provider"

constituents, such as the library and database communities, who

are concerned about preventing copyright violation and the

protection of intellectual property generally. These issues and

views are not unique to the NREN Program. The agencies plan to

participate in and support workshops in this area during FY 1992

and 1993. Technical work will continue as well, primarily as

part of work to ensure the security of Network information.

4. Protection

4.1. Principles

Most of the protection issues concerning the NREN are not new.

They exist for communications systems that are accessible to the

public in general. It is important that protection policies and

mechanisms developed for the NREN be consistent with those that

already exist. Wherever possible, it is useful to seek models

that apply to the NREN, or can be generalized to apply to the

NREN. For example, the "common carriage" model fits the role of

NREN network providers in many ways. The time tested rules and

responsibilities applied to common carriers may well be

appropriate to network providers.

With the exception of performance capabilities, high speed

digital networks are not inherently different from digital

telephone networks, or any other point-to-point switched

communications system. It may be a sound principle to adhere to

the rules applicable to such systems, unless it can be

demonstrated that the change in speed renders a particular rule

ineffective or inappropriate.

4.2. Protection of Copyrights

The technical mechanism appropriate to protect copyright of

material distributed over the Network is as yet unclear.

Electronic information is much easier to copy and transmit than

that recorded on paper. Fewer identifying markings that show the

source of the information exist or are retained in electronic

copies. As cited in an Office of Technology Assessment (OTA)

report, "Finding a Balance: Computer Software, Intellectual

Property, and the Challenge of Technological Change," the rapid

pace of technological change in computer hardware and software

contributes to the complexity of this topic.[10] Further, another

OTA report, "Intellectual Property Rights in an Age of

Electronics and Information" states that this technological

paradigm is "outpacing the legal structure that governs the

system, and is creating pressures on Congress to modify the law

to accommodate these changes."[11]

For example, the current legal precedent for access to and

protection of copyrights of material accessed via modems over

telephone lines does not assign legal responsibility to enforce

use of copyrighted materials, a feature of the Copyright Act and

essential to scientific research, is an example of a concern that

combines technical and legal issues. There must be a balance

between the rights of copyright proprietors and the rights of the

public. The courts or other legal proceedings will hopefully

recognize that "arguments that equate copyright with royalty

income run counter to this principle and might be inconsistent

with the intent of the framers of the Constitution."[12] Any

technical means to assure copyright protection on the NREN must

provide for fair use, as must any legal arrangement.

The agencies plan to participate in and support workshops in this

area during FY 1993. Technical work will continue as well,

primarily as part of work to ensure the security of Network

information. Because consensus has not been reached in this

complex area, implementation of technical measures on the Network

has not yet been scheduled.

4.3. Security and Privacy

A report, "Mathematical Foundations of High Performance Computing

and Communications" to the National Research Council, clearly

recognizes that the security of any national network is of major

concern. Issues of valid user access to the Network and the

information resources, authentication, and integrity of network

connections among collaborating users all require a high level of

security.[13]

Appropriate policies to ensure the security of resources and the

privacy of users are addressed via four policy areas. First, the

FNC has coordinated the development of a draft NREN security

policy. A second aspect of security is the responsible and

proper use of Network resources. Thus, the FNC also has been

developing, in consultation with the non-Federal communities, an

Appropriate Use Policy. In addition, P.L. 102-476 broadens the

NSF's organic act and authorizes the NSF to foster and support

access by the research and education communities to computer

networks, which may be used substantially for purposes in

addition to research and education in the sciences and

engineering, if the additional uses will tend to increase the

overall capabilities of the networks to support such research and

education activities.

The Computer Security Act specifies a third policy requirement to

ensure security of resources and protection of privacy. That Act

requires each agency to create computer security plans for

Federal computer and telecommunications systems which process or

transmit sensitive, unclassified information. It also requires

security and awareness training of Federal employees and

contractors who use sensitive Federal computer and

telecommunications systems. These activities, while not presented

in this document, are separately reported by each agency through

its Information Resources Management activity.

Finally, the privacy protection of users is provided for, to some

extent, by the Privacy Act. That Act governs access to

information about individuals maintained by Federal agencies that

is contained in "systems of records," as defined by the Act. In

addition, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act protects

Network communications from unlawful interception. Both these

Acts may need to be updated given the rapid advances in and

proliferation of networking technology.

Information and system security and user privacy can be enhanced

by technical security measures. Tools are available today that

can protect information travelling across the Network.

Encryption may be one approach to securing information that is

transmitted via the NREN and other public networks.

4.4. Security of the NREN

The Federal Networking Council (FNC) is actively investigating

methods for enhancing the security of the NREN. The NSF, in

conjunction with NIST, has sponsored a security workshop on

methods for enhancing the network access and site security for

the NSF supercomputer centers. The results of this workshop are

expected to be applicable to all supercomputer centers and the

sites, scientists, and educators accessing them via the NREN.

These results and techniques are expected to provide a "proof of

concept" and act as a basis for enhancing security for the NREN

and the Internet at large. Other workshops on network security

were held during 1992 by the Department of Energy and by DARPA's

Software Engineering Institute in its role as coordinator for

Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) nationwide. NIST

coordinates and contributes to the development of security

technology, guidelines, and standards that are related to the

NREN component of the HPCC Program. NSA, in its capacity as an

advisor on national security systems, participates in identifying

potential security issues that may arise due to the development

of the NREN Program and conducts research and develops

information security products used to secure and protect national

security systems.

The Federal Networking Council has chartered the Security Working

Group to develop a Security Policy for NREN sponsored networks.

Its charge is to develop a high level policy which; establishes

a common foundation for the development and use of security

services and mechanisms to be used in the NREN Program; defines

the responsibility for security among the users, managers,

administrators, vendors, service providers and overseers of the

NREN; and provides the basis for refining the high level policy

as experience is gained in NREN operation. Public input will be

sought prior to adoption by the FNC and final publication. As

recommended by the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI), the

full suite of laws, policies, memorandum of agreements, and

current schema, etc., will be reviewed and evaluated for

potential applicability to implementing an effective NREN

security program.[14]

5. Constituencies and Concerns

The ARPANET, the ancestor of the current Internet system and of

NREN, was a continental U.S. network operated on DARPA funding

for a small and relatively homogeneous group of academic and

industrial researchers in the area of information processing

technology. In little more than two decades, the network has

spread beyond the borders of the United States to 39 or more

countries worldwide with usage by - and financial support from -

national governments (including several U.S. Federal Agencies),

supranational entities such as the European Commission and the

United Nations, regional and local governments; small, medium,

large and multinational commercial and industrial businesses;

educational institutions at every level; and private citizens.

Internet's suppliers of network access and carriage have

increased from DARPA's single contractor for the ARPANET, to a

variegated collection of private businesses, both for-profit and

not-for-profit, large (e.g., US Sprint) and small (e.g.,

Performance Systems International), and even the post, telephone,

and telegraph agencies of some foreign governments.

Although the amount of network traffic has grown phenomenally,

even more astonishing is the growth in type and variety of the

traffic. Segments of the Internet with substantial support from

the U.S. Federal Government are subject to restrictions,

typically to usage consistent with the mission of the funding

agency (e.g., "Research and Education", in the case of the NSF).

As noted in section 3.3, some state networks have similar

restrictions, but others recognize the network as a potentially

vital adjunct to commercial activity and industrial development,

and not only allow but encourage network use by business,

commerce, and industry. In Europe, restrictions on the use of

even government funded networks are the exception, rather than

the rule, and use by the commercial sector is substantial.

With the growth in number and type of suppliers, number of users,

and variety of usage, it is not surprising that the unity of

intent and custom that characterized the early and homogeneous

ARPANET has to a degree dissipated, leading to the emergence of a

number of distinct constituencies. Below are discussed several

of the concerns they frequently express with the federally funded

part of the network - particularly the NSFNET Backbone.

Section 5.4 will briefly describe how the newly adopted NSFNET

architecture provides a framework for dealing with the concerns

of these various constituencies in a constructive and equitable

manner.

These concerns cut across the three issue categories introduced

in Section 1 of this report -- Funding, Transition, and

Protection -- and the six HPC Act topics. As such they give a

flavor of the complexity of the issues that the evolution of the

Network raises.

5.1. Broadening the Availability of Network Information Sources

The library community is concerned that the libraries function as

channels for users to access information service vendors and

individual agencies providing information from diverse sources at

predictable, economical, and equitable costs.[15] Nearly all

research libraries and some college, public, school, special, and

state libraries are already connected, but no NREN funding has

been targeted specifically for library connectivity. However,

the Department of Education has targeted the nation's public

libraries as access points to its network, SMARTLINE. This is an

example of opportunities that exist to enhance library

connectivity through research and education objectives.

The number and diversity of network accessible information

resources continues to grow rapidly. Many are available without

charge but most undoubtedly will not be. An intermediate

position is that the offerors of for-fee resources make indices

and possibly summaries accessible without fee; this would allow

such automatic search programs as WAIS and others to find the

resources, which should result in increased volume and lowered

cost for all. Other concerns expressed by the information

services industry and specifically by the Information Industry

Association (IIA) include: a) stable pricing mechanisms to access

the network; b) network reliability; c) comprehensive user

directory services; and d) clear mechanisms for settling policy

disagreements.[16]

5.2. Computer Industry Concerns

The Computer Systems Policy Project (CSPP) and other industry

groups cite the need to address interoperability, privacy and

security, standards, the need for an industry voice in policy

setting, and the desirability of wide access. Privacy and

security are being vigorously developed in both the private and

public sectors. Examples include: federally sponsored workshops;

a workshop at Carnegie Mellon University entitled, ~The Fourth

Workshop on Computer Security Incident Handling~; and an industry

led initiative on privacy enhanced electronic mail sanctioned by

the Internet Architecture Board. Internet standards are adopted

by a formal procedure after community comment and demonstrated

interworking among independent implementations. The standards

setting process is the most open in the telecommunications

industry. The resulting standards are open and nonproprietary,

and they are in widespread use, insuring interoperability the

world over. The NREN will acquire, as appropriate and when

viable, the ISO protocol standards as identified by the GOSIP

Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS), and provisions

for interworking the GOSIP and TCP/IP protocol suites are being

made.

The Federal Networking Council Advisory Committee (FNCAC),

provides a channel for industry inputs into NREN policy.

Representatives of the telecommunications and computer industries

are members of the FNCAC. All meetings of the FNCAC have been

open to the public, and special interest groups (including

industry representatives) have participated.

5.3. Expanding the Vision for Education

EDUCOM members and others wish assurances that the higher

education community have a voice in policy, advocating that the

network support services for higher education and research. They

are concerned about the lack of apparent incentives for the

participating Federal Agencies to invest in common network

infrastructure rather than mission specific facilities. They

feel there is also a need to examine a vision of the NREN beyond

HPCC. Just as in the case of the CSPP, the formal channel for

EDUCOM's influence on policy is the FNCAC. Currently, higher

education is represented on the FNCAC both institutionally by

EDUCOM staff and other members. The NSF supported a September

1992 workshop in Monterey on NREN Policy sponsored by the

Computer Research Association, EDUCOM, and the IEEE to help

develop a consensus on major NREN policy issues.

In addition, the FNC has created an Ad Hoc Task Group (see

Appendix A.3 (5)) to develop a report on the issues and to

prepare a plan to support educational requirements within the

constraints of the HPCC budgets and capabilities.

5.4. Plans and Mechanisms to Address Significant Issues

This section summarizes plans and mechanisms for addressing

several significant issues related to the NREN Program. These

policy issues cut across many constituencies and are discussed

here as separate topics. Many of these topics have no final

solution yet, but progress is being made on all of them. The FNC

invites public comment on many of these through its FNCAC as well

as through public forums such as the NREN Policy workshop in

Monterey sponsored by EDUCOM, Computing Research Association

(CRA), and the IEEE-USA Committee on Communications and

Information Policy. In many instances, the Federal networking

coordination has proven to be an effective means to advance

experimental services while progressing towards a fairer

resolution of various policy issues. This section illustrates

the policy issues and details the progress being made. In

addition, public meetings and workshops will continue to be held

to clarify these issues and to build consensus for approach or

coordination.

5.4.1. Ownership

All networks in the NREN Program are value-added overlays on the

nation's privately owned telephone network's fabric of switches,

fibre optic and copper lines, and microwave links. Mission

agency participants in NREN such as DOE and NASA own a small

amount of networking hardware, such as routers and network

monitoring workstations. The NSF does not own any network

hardware or systems as it obtains network services through

assistance grants. The grant holder or their subcontractors, if

any, hold title to any equipment. DoD operates TWBnet and

DARTnet through subcontractors. that are part of the NREN

Program. These ownership and operational relationships allow the

mission agencies to maintain access to advanced network services

in order to satisfy critical mission requirements. The FNC is

developing a policy statement regarding "Transition to Commercial

Services" which deals with the ongoing evolution of the

networking infrastructure and ownership.

5.4.2. Operation

There is important ongoing cooperation between several agency

members of the Federal Internet community in the FNC Engineering

and Operations Working Group. The ESNET (DOE) and NSI (NASA)

networks are operated by government and contractor staffs at DOE

and NASA facilities, respectively, with policy and programmatic

oversight provided by agency headquarters in Washington, D.C.

The NSF, in Washington, provides overall policy and guidance for

the NSFNET (Backbone + regionals) project, but does not operate

any networks. The regional networks are operated by independent

business entities, some of which receive assistance grants for

their purposes from the Foundation. The NSFNET Backbone network

is provisioned by Merit, Inc., through a Cooperative Agreement

with the NSF. Merit subcontracts operations to Advanced Network

and Services, Inc. (ANS) a nonprofit corporation. The five year

Cooperative Agreement was awarded in November, 1987 after

competitive solicitation and panel review. Under this Agreement,

Merit deployed 1.5 megabit per second (T1) services and is in the

process of deploying 45 megabit per second (T3) services which

will be accessible to all NSFNET Backbone clients by the end of

1993. The T3 development entails design, implementation and

experimentation with hardware and software for storing, routing

and dispatching traffic. In 1991, the National Science Board

authorized the Foundation to seek an extension of the Cooperative

Agreement for a period not to exceed eighteen months, in order to

allow time for another competitive solicitation for a follow-on

Agreement, and for "overlap" time to allow an orderly transition

if needed. This subsequent NSF solicitation involves a process

that includes a period of months for public comment on a draft

solicitation; approval of a final solicitation by the National

Science Board of NSF; issuance of the solicitation in early 1993;

competitive peer review of an award by the Summer of 1993; and

start of operations of a new Backbone by Spring 1994.

5.4.3. Acceptable use

An NREN services Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) policy is now in

draft for comment from Federal and external parties. It is

anticipated that an NREN AUP will be finalized within a year.

Each Federal agency will also implement an AUP policy on their

own networks that is in line with their mission and objectives.

There is also P.L. 102-476 that broadens the NSF's organic act

and authorizes the NSF to foster and support access by the

research and education communities to computer networks which may

be used substantially for purposes in addition to research and

education in the sciences and engineering, if the additional uses

will tend to increase the overall capabilities of the networks to

support such research and education activities.

Apart from such a legal broadening of the NSF charter, the NSF

solicitation for the next phase in network technology development

and deployment ("Request for Public Comment: Solicitation

Concept", NSF, June, 1992) calls for an industrial partner to

provide Network Access Points (NAPs) which will be AUP-free. The

existing backbones, ESNet, NSI and NSFNET, will have no

privileged access to the NAPs, but they are expected to continue

interconnecting via the FIXes. Each interested vendor (network

service provider or regional network) may connect to one or more

NAPs (for a fee) and provide whatever network services are deemed

profitable and useful. However, as before, commercial traffic on

the new incarnation of the NSFNET backbone will be limited to

services that enhance R&E.

5.4.4. Fair competition for network services

The Backbone Network System of the Interagency Interim NREN is

emerging as a set of technology driving and precompetitive

service offerings including the advanced ATM services being

acquired by DOE for use of ESnet and the NSI, and the OC-3

service that is the subject of the NSF solicitation. Although

mission agencies may for a time continue directly to operate

critical portions of the Interagency Interim NREN, direct Federal

funding of commodity services is minimized. As such the

marketplace for competitive offerings by the private sector will

not be distorted by Federal involvement. In particular, future

NSF funding of mid-level networks will not in general be for the

purpose of subsidizing the provision of commodity services in

competition with private businesses.Such funding will be for

enhanced services such as white and yellow pages directories, and

outreach to K-12 schools and other nontraditional communities

(e.g., Public Health Service clinics on reservations). In the

solicitation for NSFNET Backbone Services, the proposed

restriction that the Routing Arbiter and NAP Operator may not

also be a network service provider ensures that the NAPs provide

a "level playing field" for the private sector.

Moreover, in the new competitive solicitation for the NSFNET

Backbone, the NSF will centrally fund only a precompetitive 155

(or greater) Mb/s national Backbone. The Backbone will be

accessible through several "Network Access Points" (NAPs) which

will be implemented as Acceptable Use policy-free facilities to

which regional networks and private network providers may, for a

fee, attach and exchange both routing information and packet

traffic. Regional networks will be given grants to attach by

acquiring NAP-connectivity competitively from private network

providers, or by leasing circuits and equipment (and paying the

NAP attachment fee) to manage NAP connectivity themselves.

The NAP-based architecture guarantees equal access to all

"retail" providers of network service (i.e., private providers

and regional networks) to each provider's customers in full

competition for unrestricted traffic exchanges. Equal access to

the high speed NSFNET Backbone for R&E traffic is available to

all networks attached to the NAPs. The NAPs provide a consistent

and symmetric view of the networking world to both the high speed

backbone and to a private provider who attaches to all the NAPs.

5.4.5. Interoperability

The FNC Engineering and Operations Working Group has proven to be

an effective mechanism to insure interoperability. The agencies

have worked together following DARPA~s introduction of important

standards for network protocols and routing procedures. The NSF

and other Federal Agencies have followed this lead and have

aggressively promoted the use of these methods as de facto

standards. The de facto standards originally developed by DARPA

(embodied in documents known as "Requests for Comment", or

"RFCs") are openly accessible at no charge electronically over

the Internet or on paper for the cost of reproduction and

postage. This policy of ready availability has encouraged small

and medium sized businesses in the U.S. and abroad to enter the

networking business. The effort has been largely successful in

this respect and has had a major impact not only domestically,

but also internationally.

In those cases where different protocols are used by networks

that must meet and exchange traffic, "application layer gateways"

are used to perform the necessary conversions. The benefits and

limitations of this technology are well understood and the

necessary hardware and software are available from commercial

vendors. For example, gateways between the two open standards

based electronic mail systems (CCITT's X.400 and the Internet

standard RFC822) are maintained at the Universities of Michigan

and Wisconsin, and in several countries in Europe, and the high

energy physics laboratory CERN in Geneva maintains gateways

between the file transfer protocols of the Internet (ftp), the

International Standards Organization (ftam), and the German

national research network (dfn file transfer).

The Interagency Interim NREN must provide seamless

interoperability to a diverse research and education community

while evolving continuously to achieve its infrastructure

enhancement and technology development goals. In planning NREN's

evolution, the FNC Engineering and Operations Working Group

(EOWG) will need to strike a balance between common carrier

developed telecommunications technologies documented in voluntary

industry standards and more experimental computer network

technologies that may be documented in de facto NREN standards.

Use of voluntary standards is mandated in the FNC's NREN

Transition Policy and in OMB Circular No. A-119, and is a

powerful means of accelerating the deployment of advanced

technologies, such as SONET and ATM, in public networks.

Selective implementation of more experimental technologies is

required to achieve NREN research objectives, and the

documentation of such technologies in de facto standards can

expedite their commercialization and acceptance in public

standards forums.

Aggressive liaison between the EOWG and voluntary

telecommunications standards forums will be required to balance

common carrier and computer network perspectives in shaping the

NREN and its public network counterparts. Liaison with Committee

T1 and CCITT is particularly important because of the strong role

these organizations play in public telecommunications planning.

The EOWG should integrate public network technologies specified

in emerging T1 standards and CCITT Recommendations in NREN when

such initiatives will accelerate their deployment in public

networks or substantially enhance the services provided to NREN

users. The EOWG should provide NREN research results to

voluntary standards organizations whenever such contributions

will substantially benefit public network providers and their

users.

5.4.6. Availability

Network access at 1.5 Mb/s per second or greater is currently

available to all National Laboratories, major DOE academic

contractors, NASA centers and contractors/grantees, and (through

the NSFNET infrastructure) to nearly all universities in the top

four categories of the Carnegie classification. Availability is

being extended both in depth as well as breadth. Service over

the NSFNET Backbone and that specified in the recent DOE award is

increasing to 45 Mb/s per second with planned upgrades to higher

speeds only if funding permits. The NSF Connections Program, and

similar programs sponsored by other Federal Agencies, are

extending basic network service to an additional hundred or more

institutions each year. Institutions being connected in the

latter category include medical school campuses (under NIH

sponsorship), and agricultural extension services.

5.4.7. Copyright protection

The problems in protecting and granting fair usage of information

in electronic form are not unique to the NREN. These problems

exist in all forms of electronic exchange of information. The

rights of the creators of information, and the rights of the

library and users of this information need to be balanced. The

FNC will be looking to the legal community to aid in developing

appropriate guidelines.

The fair use of copyrighted materials, a feature of the Copyright

Act essential to scientific research, is an example of a concern

that combines technical and legal issues. Any technical means to

ensure copyright protection must provide for fair use, as must

any legal arrangement.

The agencies plan to participate in and support workshops in this

area during FY 1993. Technical work will continue as well,

primarily as part of work to ensure the security of Network

information. Because consensus has not been reached in this

complex area, implementation of technical measures on the Network

has not yet been scheduled.

5.4.8. User base

The user base, although intended to be limited to the R&E

communities, is extensive and rapidly growing. U.S. efforts also

play an important role in developing network technology world

wide. The Internet can reach a user community estimated to be

between 5 and 10 million, using more than 1 million computers on

7,500 interconnected networks worldwide. The U.S. user community

is easily 1 to 2 million, and has 80% of the host computers. It

should be noted that the R&E communities include commercial and

industrial users and information suppliers, not just users from

the academic and government sectors. Moreover, the Internet's

commercial sector, which includes many U.S. corporations, both

large and small, represents the most rapidly growing segment of

the Internet.

Traffic on the NSFNET Backbone network, in addition to DOE's

ESnet and NASA's NSI network, which together form the principal

large-scale structure of the domestic Internet, is growing at an

exponential rate of 10% per month. The number of accessible

networks is also growing, though not quite as rapidly. Thus,

both the number of users per network and the traffic per user are

growing dramatically.

Appendix A. Management/ Coordination of the HPCC Program

This section summarizes the HPCC management and coordination

processes that help implement the NREN activities. Section A.4

and A.5 were developed by the participating agencies and

represent their agreed upon roles and responsibilities in

implementing the NREN Program.

The principal management mechanism of the overall HPCC Program is

coordination. The NREN Program is implemented in the model of

the HPCC Program as a partnership among Federal Agencies and

other organizations. Major portions of the HPCC Program are

cost-shared and leveraged by the participation of industry and

universities. Leadership for the HPCC Program is provided by the

Office of Science and Technology Policy, through the Federal

Coordinating Council on Science, Engineering, and Technology

(FCCSET) Committee on Physical, Mathematical, and Engineering

Sciences (PMES). The membership of PMES includes senior

executives of many Federal Agencies. Planning for the HPCC

Program is coordinated by the PMES High Performance Computing,

Communications, and Information Technology (HPCCIT) Subcommittee.

This process provides for agency participation through agency

proposal development and review, budget crosscut development and

review, and interagency program coordination. Agency programs

are reviewed against a set of evaluation criteria for merit,

contribution, readiness, linkages to industry, and other factors.

The schedules, roles, and responsibilities of the agencies

participating in the U.S. HPCC Program for the planning and

budget process for each fiscal year are outlined in Section A.4.

In accordance with the Federal Budget Process for the HPCC

Program and other crosscut budget activities, member agencies of

PMES must submit to OMB their HPCC budget requests and

supporting documentation, as reviewed by senior agency officials

and the PMES committee. These requests must be described and

justified relative to the goals, objectives, and research

priorities of the HPCC Program. The PMES then develops and

submits to the OMB and PMES member agencies a combined,

integrated, multi-agency budget recommendation that reflects the

goals, objectives, and integrating priorities of the HPCC. PMES

members then submit to OMB their resulting HPCC Program requests

as part of their total fiscal year budget submission.

Under the HPCCIT there are currently four special groups which

coordinate activities in specific areas including; Applications,

Networking, Research, and Education. From time to time,

individual agencies are assigned responsibility to lead the

coordination of the HPCCIT and these groups.

The coordinating methods that evolved among the agencies

participating in the HPCC Program produced a consistent and

effective set of managerial mechanisms. In addition, HPCCIT

explored and considered several options for strengthening the

interagency coordination while retaining the strengths of the

current management structure, namely:

~ effective multi-agency budget advocacy;

~ tight coupling with agency programs and missions; and

~ diverse applications, requirements, and technical approaches

to ensure accomplishment of HPCC objectives and technology

transfer.

In response to these needs, HPCCIT has established a permanent

National Coordination Office for the HPCC Program that will

combine the functions of the current HPCCIT Chairman with the

necessary supporting functions of a permanent staff office.

A.1. Management/Coordination of the NREN Program

During 1990, in order to provide for broader and more inclusive

coordination of research and education communities, the NSF, as

part of its HPCCIT network task group activities, created the

Federal Networking Council (FNC) and initiated the creation of an

FNC Advisory Committee (FNCAC) consisting of non-Federal

scientists and network users to serve as an NSF advisory

committee. The FNC is based on the successful model of the

Federal Research Internet Coordinating Committee (FRICC) - an

informal body established by core Federal Agencies in 1987 to

coordinate their networking activities and expenditures. The FNC

consists of representatives from Federal Agencies that have

requirements for operating and using networking facilities,

mainly in support of research and education, and for advancing

the evolution of the Federal portion of the Internet.

First level management of the NREN Program is accomplished

through normal agency structures. Multi-agency NREN coordination

is achieved through the PMES and its HPCCIT subcommittee. The

HPCCIT Networking group, currently led by the NSF, coordinates

network integration activities and works closely with the FNC,

wHPCC participants and other Interagency Interim NREN governmental

constituents, in addition to providing a liaison to non-Federal

communities interested in the Federal program. The FNC and its

Executive Committee set policy and address operational and

management issues through its working groups and ad hoc task

forces. Currently, the chair of the HPCCIT Networking group also

serves as the chair of the FNC, thereby providing the liaison and

coordination necessary between the HPCCIT and the FNC.

Each of the participating agencies has enhanced their HPCC and

NREN management functions. DOE's NREN management is located

within the Energy Research (ER) Program's Scientific Computing

Staff, to which the ESnet network manager reports directly on

issues relating to the ESnet and its role in the NREN Program.

NASA's NREN Program management structure is derived from a matrix

organization, in which the Network manager for both NASA's

Scientific and HPCC networks, reports directly to both NASA's

HPCC (Code R) and Science Board (Code S) programs. The NSF has

instituted an HPCC coordinating committee with budget, planning,

and oversight responsibilities. The NSF's NREN Program works

with the NSF HPCC coordinating committee and the NSFNET Executive

Committee on NSFNET and NREN issues. The NSF has created a NREN

Program Director position to handle NREN and interagency issues.

DARPA has created a High Performance Computing Joint Program

Office to coordinate advanced technology development within the

DoD and cooperatively with other agencies. Efforts are clustered

together for more effective administration. For example, the

DARPA/NSF testbeds are jointly overseen by DARPA and NSF, with a

coordinating committee to insure inter-testbed exchanges, annual

jamborees, and the like. As gigabit technology becomes more

widely available and used by multiple agencies, Federal efforts

will be coordinated by working groups under the Research Working

Group of the FNC.

A.2. Federal Networking Council

The Federal Networking Council (FNC) consists of representatives

from Federal Agencies that have requirements for operating and

using networking facilities, mainly in support of research and

education, and for advancing the evolution of the federally

funded portion of the Internet. The FNC works closely with the

appropriate FCCSET committees to provide a broader forum for

discussion and resolution of networking plans, operations, and

issues.

Specifically, the FNC is responsible for establishing policies

and guidelines to promote coordination among its various

committees and agency program managers. The FNC also guides the

evolution of NREN services to promote U.S. competitiveness as

well as to broaden the community, including commercial

availability.

The FNC chairperson is appointed by the HPCCIT networking task

group chairperson. The duration of the term is normally 18

months. The FNC will operate through an Executive Committee that

will be responsible for decision making and implementation

(generally on a consensus basis), through working groups that

will address ongoing areas of interest or activity, and ad hoc

task groups established to work on specific tasks with set

deadlines.

(1) FNC Management and Committee Structure

The FNC structure is explained below.

(2) Federal Networking Council Advisory Committee (FNCAC)

The Federal Networking Council Advisory Committee shall provide

the FNC with technical, tactical, and strategic advice from the

constituencies involved in the NREN Program. Constituencies

include the following: the research and scholarly communities

who are the end users of the networks; organizations that need

connectivity to the NREN; transmission and other facilities

providers; industrial organizations that develop and provide

relevant technology and services; and experts in networking and

computer science who provide technical guidance.

The FNCAC is advisory in nature and shall work on areas of policy

and technical direction and user/program needs and requirements,

excluding budgets and funding. Membership is limited and

meetings of the FNCAC occur at least two times per year. The

FNCAC must draft a charter to be approved by the FNC. FNCAC

members are appointed by the FNC chairperson in response to

recommendations by the FNC. The FNCAC can, with FNC approval,

create subcommittees with open membership to provide assistance

to the FNC on appropriate issues.

(3) FNC Executive Committee

The FNC's Executive Committee comprises representatives of the

participating HPCC agencies with major network initiatives and

others as designated by the FNC chairperson. The Executive

Committee provides support to the FNC chairperson and serves as

primary decision making and implementing body of the FNC to

coordinate with the FCCSET HPCCIT Subcommittee on HPCC crosscut

budgets, plans, and activities. It will also perform annual

reviews of FNC working groups and task groups with regard to

membership, purpose, and continuing need in order to make changes

as appropriate.

The FNC Executive Committee may charge any of the working groups

to perform specific tasks or studies, or create a focused ad hoc

task group with a specific deadline and lifetime to do so, as

deemed necessary to accomplish FNC goals. The FNC Executive

Committee may also request working groups or task groups to

produce or to present reports on specific topics to the FNC

Executive Committee or to the FNC within two weeks of such

requests.

A.3. FNC Working and Ad Hoc Task Groups

Working and ad hoc task groups of the FNC address issues that

require interagency coordination or have policy implications.

The working groups are: (1) Engineering and Operations; (2)

Security; (3) Research; and (4) Policy. One ad hoc task group

currently exists for Education. These groups meet as appropriate

to carry out their responsibilities and report regularly to the

FNC. Group membership may include non-Federal employees as

appropriate to provide technical expertise or other required

consultation or coordination. By January 1 of each year, each

working or task group will submit to the FNC a summary document

outlining the accomplishments during the previous year and the

goals for the coming year for activities within their purview.

(1) Engineering and Operations Working Group (EOWG)

The Engineering and Operations Working Group is responsible for

integrating new network technologies into the Interagency Interim

NREN and providing support to the Federal HPCC Program. The EOWG

oversees the ongoing operation of the Federal research and

education portion of the Internet and has overall responsibility

for coordinating the requirements, engineering, and operational

activities, for both domestic and international research and

education requirements, for implementing the Interagency Interim

NREN.

(2) Security Working Group (SWG)

The Security Working Group is responsible for addressing network

security technology, management, and administration issues

related to maintaining and improving the availability, integrity,

and confidentiality of Interagency Interim NREN resources. The

SWG will develop, coordinate, and propose to the FNC a security

policy for use of the Interagency Interim NREN. It will also

review security requirements of the evolving NREN and propose

technical developments, operational guidelines, and

administrative procedures needed to meet them. It will prepare

input to the FNC, as needed, on security related matters. The

SWG will work closely with other organizations developing or

defining security policies, standards, services, and mechanisms

in fulfilling these duties.

(3) Research Working Group (RWG)

The Research Working Group is responsible for coordinating

research and development activities in network technologies. The

Research Working Group will coordinate federally sponsored

research required for the development of the NREN. The RWG

defines and prioritizes gigabit research areas, develops research

plans, and coordinates these plans with the FCCSET task group on

High Performance Communications.

(4) Policy Working Group (PWG)

The Policy Working Group is responsible, in conjunction with the

other FNC working groups and the FNC at large, for identifying,

documenting, and reviewing policy issues affecting the

development of the NREN. The PWG develops plans and proposals

for managing the NREN and for the operation of the FNC, and

identifies policy issues associated with the operation and

evolution of the NREN and develops policies and plans to address

these issues. The PWG responds similarly to issues referred to

it by other FNC Working Groups. The PWG is then responsible for

presenting its results as recommendations to the FNC.

(5) Education Ad Hoc Task Group

The FNC ad hoc Education Task Group will prepare a report on

issues, requirements, and recommended FNC activities with regard

to educational networking support needs and benefits.

A.4. Agency NREN Program Management Responsibilities

The agencies participating in the FNC have established a Charter

and worked to define their respective roles. The FNC has approved

the following set of agency responsibilities:

(1) Agencies participating in the FNC who have requirements for

the use or development of NREN facilities (i.e., federally

funded equipment, software, services, etc., which are part

of the Interagency Interim NREN or NREN funded testbeds) or

who have approved budgets for the HPCC, should, as

appropriate, in coordination with the HPCCIT Subcommittee:

~ provide representation to and actively participate in

the FNC;

~ use the NREN Program facilities;

~ coordinate their NREN Program development as part of

the interagency NREN Program;

~ coordinate their research and education data network

installations, upgrades, modifications, and activities,

both national and international, through the FNC and as

part of the coordinated interagency NREN Program;

~ coordinate the development of plans and budgets for

NREN activities through the FCCSET crosscut budget

process for each fiscal year budget submission;

~ coordinate their network research activities through

the FNC and as part of the interagency NREN Program;

~ submit an implementation plan for NREN activities for

FNC interagency coordination prior to the start of each

fiscal year; and

~ participate in the development of annual NREN

implementation and gigabit research plans.

(See Section A.5 for an explanation of the process for

coordination of requirements and implementation.)

(2) The Department of Defense through:

(2.1) Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) shall

~ be the lead agency for gigabit technology development

and coordination for research on gigabit networks;

~ carry out a gigabit technology research program;

~ provide for basic and applied research in gigabit and

other advanced communications technologies; and

~ for NREN budgets and activities, develop a gigabit

network research plan as part of the interagency NREN

Program for coordination by the FCCSET/PMES and the

FNC. The plan shall include all proposed gigabit

research activities of participating agencies and is

submitted to the FNC for review and approval.

(2.2) National Security Agency (NSA) shall

~ in its capacity as an advisor on national security

systems, participate in identifying potential security

issues that may arise due to the development of the

NREN Program and assist the FNC in identifying the

appropriate bodies to resolve such issue; and

~ conduct research and develop information security

products used to secure and protect national security

systems.

(2.3) Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) shall

~ be the lead agency in planning and providing the

Command, Control, Communications, Computers, and

Intelligence (C4I) mission requirements for the DoD

Military Departments and Agencies in the NREN Program;

~ conduct research for the development of applications of

high speed networking for the DoD C4I community;

~ support and contribute to the development of open

architecture and standards that affect the DoD C4I

networks as impacted by the NREN; and

~ upgrade and enhance The Wide Band network (TWBnet) and

the Defense Information System Network (DISN) testbeds

networking infrastructure for the DoD C4I related

mission activities.

(3) National Science Foundation (NSF) shall

~ coordinate the Interagency Interim NREN activities,

including coordinating the development, deployment, and

operations of the Interagency Interim NREN facilities

and services;

~ upgrade the NSF funded network as part of the

coordinated Interagency Interim NREN Program;

~ assist regional networks to upgrade their capabilities

as appropriate and as part of the coordinated

Interagency Interim NREN Program;

~ serve as the primary source for information or access

to and use of the Interagency Interim NREN;

~ assist colleges, universities, and libraries, where

appropriate, to connect to the Interagency Interim

NREN;

~ provide for basic research and development in gigabit

and other network technologies; and

~ develop an Interagency Interim NREN implementation

plan, for review and approval of the FNC, as part of

the interagency NREN Program, for coordination of the

broad deployment of the Interagency Interim NREN

working with universities, industry, and agencies

having mission specific requirements. The plan shall

be the basis for coordination of all participating

agency NREN activities subsequent to FNC approval.

(4) Department of Energy (DOE) shall

~ provide for applications based gigabit research;

~ provide for energy related mission Interagency Interim

NREN facilities deployment;

~ upgrade and enhance the DOE Energy Sciences Network as

part of the coordinated Interagency Interim NREN

Program to provide quality networking infrastructure

support for energy related mission activities; and

~ participate in basic and applied research and

development of gigabit technology.

(5) National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) shall

~ provide for applications based gigabit research;

~ provide for Interagency Interim NREN facilities

deployment for aeronautics and earth and space science

missions;

~ participate in Interagency Interim NREN architecture

development;

~ participate in the research and development of gigabit

technology; and

~ upgrade the NASA Science Internet and AEROnet as part

of the coordinated Interagency Interim NREN Program.

(6) The Department of Commerce through

(6.1) National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

shall

~ coordinate, research, and develop instrumentation and

methodology for performance measurement of high

performance networks and computer systems;

~ conduct research and development on new high

performance communications protocols;

~ promote "Open Systems" standards to aid industry to

commercialize the products of research and development,

with the aid of other agencies;

~ support, coordinate, and promote the development of

standards within the Federal Government to provide

interoperability, common user interfaces to systems,

and enhanced security for the Interagency Interim NREN;

and

~ coordinate and contribute to the development of

security technology, guidelines and standards for

unclassified systems.

(6.2) National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

shall

~ provide access to oceanic and atmospheric research and

education facilities to meet mission needs in keeping

with the coordinated Interagency Interim NREN Program.

(6.3) National Telecommunications and Information Administration

(NTIA) shall

~ in its capacity as Executive Branch adviser on

telecommunications policy issues, participate in

identifying potential legal and regulatory policy

issues affecting the national telecommunications

infrastructure that may arise due to the development of

the NREN Program and assist the FNC in identifying the

appropriate bodies to resolve such issues;

~ contribute to the planning and conduct of research and

development of quality of service measurements on the

NREN in support of network optimization and management

for the public switched network; and

~ support, promote, and contribute to the development of

commercial communications standards that affect the

public switched network, as impacted by NREN related

research and development, and with the aid of other

agencies.

(7) Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shall

~ provide for states environmental mission assimilation

into the Interagency Interim NREN;

~ develop a facility and campus-wide environmental

modeling research capability and network based on

Interagency Interim NREN-compatible technologies,

including ethernet, FDDI, and ATM/SONET, and to include

in these activities cooperative efforts with local

"telephone company" communications service providers

for planning and installing local and metro-area high

speed interconnects compatible with the NREN; and

~ begin planning with state environmental agency research

and education groups for assimilation into the

Interagency Interim NREN. Initial contacts and

specific plans will be developed for at least five

states. Relationships will be established to begin the

process of technology transfer from the EPA research

network to the states' environmental research and

education environments.

(8) Health and Human Services (HHS) through the National

Institutes of Health (NIH) shall

~ provide for medical mission NREN facilities deployment

as part of the coordinated Interagency Interim NREN

Program; and

~ provide for applications based gigabit research.

(9) Department of Education shall

~ support, coordinate, and promote where appropriate, the

use of the Interagency Interim NREN in the K-12

community; and

~ conduct research on the applications of networking with

an emphasis on the coordination of activities with

libraries, school facilities, educational research

groups and the general education community with respect

to the advancement and dissemination of educational

information to improve teaching and learning.

(10) Department of Agriculture, through its Science and Education

Agencies (the Agricultural Research Service, Cooperative

Extension Service, National Agricultural Library, and

Cooperative State Research Service), shall

~ provide for agricultural research and education mission

assimilation into the Interagency Interim NREN

involving the agencies named in this section and the

land grant university community including local

Extension and research offices.

(11) Department of Interior, through its U.S. Geological Survey,

shall

~ participate in the gigabit technology research program

through the EROS (Earth Resources Observatory System)

Data Center; and

~ provide for earth science mission assimilation into the

Interagency Interim NREN Program.

A.5. Interagency Interim NREN Requirements and Implementation:

Coordination Process

The coordination of the multi-agency HPCC networking requirements

and of their implementation is a critical activity for the

Interagency Interim NREN Program. This is so because the

Interagency Interim NREN is an evolving, operating system of

networks that is broad both in technological scope and in

communities served, yet also serves as a proving ground for

innovative networking technologies whose introduction pose

certain elements of risk. This risk, however, is offset by the

demanding network requirements of leading edge grand challenge

research endeavors.

Coordination involves three formal activities which must be

synchronized with normal agency budget processes: requirements

definition, requirements analysis, and implementation and

execution. Coordination is also a continuing process for the

Executive Committee and the EOWG, since the treatment of de novo

and ad hoc situations should not be deferred.

(1) Requirements Definition

The initial definition of networking requirements for the

federally funded portion of the Interagency Interim NREN will be

done separately by the participating FNC agencies, and should be

submitted to the Executive Committee by the fourth quarter of the

fiscal year. This requirements definition will include planned

activities for the next fiscal year as well as identified

requirements for the following budget year. Requirements will be

identified as to type (e.g., information services, connectivity

to locations and institutions, network capabilities, etc.), and

will be described in enough detail to support a technical and

administrative interagency coordination.

(2) Requirements Analysis

The EOWG, under the auspices of the FNC, will perform a technical

analysis of the agency requirements documents and present a

written summary of technically feasible solutions, including cost

estimates, to the Executive Committee who will present it to the

FNC. This process will be completed prior to the submission of

the President's budget for the following budget year, and will

allow the FNC to ensure that Federal Interagency Interim NREN

requirements are coordinated and well planned.

(3) Implementation and Execution

Based upon the requirements analysis, cost estimates, and balance

of infrastructural and mission specific impact, the Executive

Committee will prepare a plan of action for the next fiscal year

and an implementation plan, as part of the Federal Budget Process

for the HPCC Program, for the following budget year. The final

plan will be reviewed by the FNC and submitted as an

informational item by the FNC Chairperson to the FCCSET HPCCIT

Subcommittee.

A.6. Public Interaction and Advisory Bodies

All HPCC agencies receive advisory input from their sister

agencies via the FNC in addition to the FNC Advisory Council

(FNCAC), which is a formally chartered Federal advisory committee

comprised of computer vendors, telecommunications providers,

representatives of the library community, and researchers and

senior managers from universities, supercomputer centers, and

national laboratories. In addition, each agency maintains

various mechanisms for incorporating advice and information from

interested parties. Involvement by the communication and

computer industries is always a goal. Every gigabit testbed

involves at least one common carrier, a computer manufacturer,

and a university. Mutual interest guarantees technology

transfer. Gigabit testbeds are always in the service of gigabit

applications, so systems are evaluated both by its authors and by

its users.

In order to increase end user input into the planning of NREN

services, the NSF is planning to establish and charter a Users

Advisory Group made up of scientists, engineers, and educators

who use NSFNET and NREN services.

In the planning and conduct of its NSFNET and NREN activities,

the NSF regularly consults a variety of private sector R&E

networking entities, such as:

~ The Federation of American Research Networks (FARNET) that

includes private sector IP service providers (e.g. PSI,

Sprint), State networks, and both independent and NSF

subsidized regional R&E networks;

~ EDUCOM, a nonprofit educational consortium;

~ The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI), a nonprofit

education and library consortium; and

~ The Internet Architecture Board (IAB), an informal association

of technical experts who have guided the technical evolution

of R&E networking since the early 1980's.

Appendix B. Current NREN Program

B.1. Background

No single agency has hierarchical authority to direct and manage

the HPCC Program, however, the HPCC Program and, in particular,

the NREN activity is characterized by close coordination between

the participating Federal agencies. The NREN Program is an

integral component of the HPCC Program and is executed through

the activities of several independent agencies coordinating their

efforts and plans developed through the HPCC budget planning and

other related program planning processes described in Appendix A.

In 1985 the Federal Coordinating Council on Science, Engineering

and Technology (FCCSET) established a Network Working Group

comprised of Federal agency representatives from the National

Science Foundation (NSF), Defense Advanced Research Projects

Agency (DARPA), Department of Energy (DOE), National Institute of

Standards and Technology (NIST), and the National Aeronautics and

Space Administration (NASA), to coordinate Federal agency

research networking activities. The Network Working Group

generated a FCCSET report, "Interagency Networking for Research

Programs," which was published in February 1986, recommending the

interconnection of existing federally supported data

communications networks for research programs and the formation

of an Interagency Research Internet Organization.

Subsequently, network managers from NSF, DARPA, DOE, NIST, NASA,

and other agencies worked together to oversee, coordinate, and

manage the evolution of the Federal portion of the Internet. The

results of this collaboration are stable operational

relationships that now serve as the basis for interagency

oversight, management, and focus for the federally funded portion

of the Internet. In addition, this collaboration led to

large-scale interconnectivity between the mission agencies'

research data networks, the NSFNET (NSF Computer Network), and

the remainder of the Internet, primarily based on the Federal

Internet eXchanges (FIXs), as well as coordinated multi-agency

international links.

As participation in the Federal research networking program grew,

agencies recognized the need to more closely coordinate Federal

research networking activities with those of industry, academia,

and, in general, with other interested groups. Accordingly, the

original vision of this interagency activity was extended to

include additional Federal and non-Federal components.

The National Research and Education Network (NREN) Program is a

multi-agency activity that will provide for the evolution from

the current federally funded research and education (R&E)

networks, to a gigabit network system that allows for both the

interconnectivity and interoperability of federally funded R&E

networks with each other and with private sector networks by the

mid-1990~s to support the increasing demands in R&E. As its name

indicates, the NREN activity is primarily for research and

education, not general purpose communication. Nonetheless, the

NREN Program incorporates vital connections to industrial and

governmental sectors and develops general testbeds for new

communications technologies.

The principal goals of the NREN Program are to;

~ advance the leading edge of networking technology and

services,

~ widen network access within the research and education

community to high performance computing systems and other

research facilities, and to electronic information resources

and libraries, and

~ accelerate the development and deployment of networking

technology by the telecommunications industry and by the

private sector generally.

The program has two principal components: the Interagency Interim

NREN, and Gigabit Research and Development. The Interagency

Interim NREN activity is an evolving operating network system.

Near term (1992-1996) communications and networking research and

development activities will provide for the smooth evolution of

this networking infrastructure into the future gigabit network

supporting research and education. The Gigabit Research and

Development is a comprehensive program of gigabit-per-second

network hardware and software technology that embodies the goal

of the NREN Program evolution by the mid-1990~s. This activity

also develops technologies and demonstrates applications.

B.2. Scope

The Interagency Interim NREN is an evolving operational system of

networks. Near term (1992-1996) research and development

activities will provide for the smooth evolution of this

networking infrastructure into the future gigabit NREN.

Interagency Interim NREN activities will achieve this goal by

expanding the connectivity and enhancing the capabilities of the

federally funded portion of today's research and education

networks, and by deploying advanced technologies and services as

they mature. The Interagency Interim NREN, which is primarily

based on DARPA's Internet technology, builds on the NSF's NSFNET,

DOE's Energy Sciences Network (ESnet), NASA's Science Internet

(NSI) and other networks supporting research and education.

Today's Interagency Interim NREN is used to support collaboration

among people through electronic mail and bulletin boards, access

to information sources through file transfer, and access to

remote computers and other laboratory facilities through remote

log-in. It is anticipated that the next generation of

applications will require a radical extension of not just the

speed of the network, but of the capabilities. For example,

collaboration among people through real-time digital multimedia

conferencing or remote access to visualize supercomputer

experimental results requires new capabilities, not just a faster

version of today's capabilities. The NREN Program for the

federally funded portion of the NREN is intended to provide a

radical extension beyond existing capabilities of current

hardware and software. The goal is to spur the deployment of the

most advanced networking services that support the ever-

increasing networking demands of high performance computing to

the extent feasible, while assuring a stable and consistent level

of services for the advanced HPCC R&E community.

The underlying strategy of the HPCC Program has been to support

the solution of important scientific and technical problems of

broad national significance in collaboration with all interested

sectors in government, industry and universities. In the

networking area this strategy has led to a unique collaboration

in both the research and operational aspects of the NREN

activity.

At each stage of its evolution, the Interagency Interim NREN

activity consists of an infrastructure of multi-protocol

value-added services carried on the nation's existing underlying

telecommunications fabric. Both components of the NREN Program

are designed for participation of the private sector to maximize

the leverage of Federal funds. It is intended that Federal

operation and ownership of network facilities and services,

already minimal, be continuously reduced even further as the

program develops.

Although the NREN is an R&E network program, a deliberate

consequence of including substantial private sector activity is

that the technology and services developed, and even the

facilities themselves, may be the model for a more ubiquitous

network offering developed under private, or other public

efforts. In fact, many industrial research organizations and

commercial establishments that support the nation's scholarly

enterprise are connected. The commercial networks are the

fastest growing segment. Nevertheless, HPCC Program priorities

remain the central focus of the NREN Program. While other

Federal and private sector participants are encouraged, the

degree of their participation must be contingent on several

factors, such as, program focus, cost sharing, and technology

leverage.

DARPA has the HPCC lead role for developing gigabit class

technology for the NREN activity. This work is complementary to

Interagency Interim NREN work done elsewhere and DARPA's own

defense related research in network technology.

The NSF coordinates the broad deployment of the Interagency

Interim NREN Programs and systems, and supports the HPCC Program

by: coordinating interagency network activities; providing

backbone services to the general R&E community; providing

information services on access and use of the network; assisting

regional R&E networks to upgrade and enhance their own services;

and supporting the development and deployment of gigabit

technologies.

Currently, and at the end stage of this development, the

Interagency Interim NREN Program activity will result in a

comprehensive service offering to the nation's community of

researchers and scholars at all levels. It will interconnect

them to one another and to the facilities and other resources

they use in their scholarly endeavor, such as, databases and

libraries, laboratories, scientific instruments, and computation

centers. As a facilitator and enabler of intellectual activity,

the Interagency Interim NREN system will include connectivity to

supporting organizations, such as, publishers and hardware and

software vendors. International connections that serve the

national interest are also included.

Important features of the NREN Program are:

~ use of existing telephone company facilities, and not the

laying of fiber or building a physical network; and

~ driving technology and broadly seeding the market, while

avoiding competition with the private sector.

Because of this latter aspect, success of this part of the

program inevitably leads to tension and concerns that government

services not remain in place once a technology offering has been

demonstrated and seeded. It is the policy of the NREN Program to

seek to accelerate this transition to the private sector, while

not compromising the need for stable and consistent services by

the R&E community.

B.3. Vision

The NREN is both a goal of the HPCC Program and a key enabling

technology for success in the other components. As used in this

report, the NREN is the future realization of an interconnected

gigabit computer network system supporting HPCC. The NREN is

intended to revolutionize the ability of U.S. researchers and

educators to carry out collaborative research and education

activities, regardless of the physical location of the

participants or the computational resources to be used. As its

name implies, NREN is a network for research and education, not

general purpose communication. Nonetheless, its use as a testbed

for new communications technologies is vital. A fundamental goal

of the HPCC Program is to develop and transfer advanced computing

and communications technologies to the private sector of the U.S.

as rapidly as possible, and to enhance the nation's research and

education enterprise. The development and deployment of advanced

applications, such as image visualization and distributed

computing, will be applied to problems such as medical diagnosis,

aerodynamics, advanced materials, and global change, and will

provide the impetus necessary for transferring the supporting

technologies and capabilities throughout the U.S. science,

technology, and education infrastructure. These capabilities and

technologies will be developed through the cooperative effort of

U.S. industry, the Federal Government, and the educational

community.

The interagency High Performance Computing and Communications

(HPCC) Program has undertaken the Interagency Interim NREN

activity, not solely as support for the HPCC Program including

the solution of Grand Challenge problems, but also as an

infrastructure for community wide connectivity for broad support

of the Nation's intellectual activity. In doing this, the focus

remains on providing advanced, leading edge, and in some cases,

prototype network services to the Nation's R&E community, rather

than attempting to serve as a general public computer network.

For the long term, DARPA is developing technology today which

will be the foundation of the NREN from 1995-2000. It is not

simply a matter of more of today's technology; this will not do

the job. The NREN research program, under DARPA coordination,

includes a broad effort to develop a set of complementary gigabit

networks based on common carrier standards (e.g. ATM), satellite,

wireless, optical and others. New internetwork architectures use

these as building blocks for new sets of coherent services such

as global file systems, multicast delivery, and other services.

There are issues involving: smooth scaling to multi-gigabit

speeds, universal access, multimedia, real time, policy controls,

and other services which do not exist in today's Interagency

Interim NREN that need to be addressed. This technology

development will track Interagency Interim NREN developments, and

early use of new commercial technologies, to insure that there is

a clear technical and policy roadmap to smooth transition from

today's systems to those of the future.

In summary, the NREN Program comprises a spectrum of coordinated

networking activities by the several Federal Agencies that ranges

from providing a framework for commodity offerings by the private

sector, through the funding of an infrastructure of

precompetitive networking technologies. The program is designed

to serve the most advanced scientific and educational demands,

and foster an aggressive collaboration with private industry in

the development of next generation network systems that will

operate in the gigabit-per-second, and beyond, range of speeds by

the mid-1990~s.

B.4. Current NREN Program Status

As mentioned above, the NREN component of the HPCC Program is

comprised of two related and complementary subprograms, the

Interagency Interim NREN subcomponent, and the Gigabit Research

and Development subcomponent.

The Gigabit Research and Development subcomponent is aimed at

providing the research and technology base needed to achieve, at

a minimum, gigabit speeds and advanced capabilities in the NREN

Program. Gigabit network development already underway includes

the joint DARPA/NSF gigabit testbed program and gigabit network

exploitation of the ACTS satellite with National Aeronautics and

Space Administration (NASA), and programs to foster development

of low cost gigabit LANs for workstation environments. These

development efforts are complemented by research efforts in less

developed areas, such as, all optical networks. Advanced

Internet technology will tie these networks together. The DARPA

Advanced Research Testbed Network (DARTNET) is the testing ground

for new capabilities developed at over a dozen research sites.

Multimedia, and resource allocation work is nearing the maturity

necessary for wide use, while multicast and policy routing are

already transitioning into the Interagency interim NREN. Future

efforts will develop gigabit LAN interoperability agreements.

The Interagency Interim NREN Program is an evolving operational

network system that supports early deployment of networking

technologies and systems for the high performance computing R&E

community. It is this part of the NREN Program that is

attracting the widest interest from various constituencies as

they become aware of the potential use of this developing

technology base. This in turn has led to serious concerns

regarding various issues such as, ownership, funding, operation,

commercialization, etc. The main purpose of this report is to

present the context for the discussion of these issues and the

Federal agency plans for dealing with them.

Appendix C. Glossary

ANS

Advanced Network and Services, Inc., a nonprofit corporation

ANSI

American National Standards Institute

ARPANET

primarily a continental U.S. computer network that preceded

the Internet and was operated by DARPA

ATM

Asynchronous Transfer Mode, a new telecommunications

technology, also known as cell switching, which is based on 53

byte cells

AUP

Acceptable Use Policy

Backbone Network

a high capacity electronic trunk connecting lower capacity

networks, e.g., NSFNET backbone

CCITT

International Consultative Committee for Telegraphy and

Telephony

CERTs

Computer Emergency Response Teams

CIA

Central Intelligence Agency

CIX

Commercial Internet eXchange

CLNP

ConnectionLess Network Protocol

CNI

Coalition for Networked Information, a nonprofit education and

library consortium

CONCERT

regional network serving the State of North Carolina

CRA

Computing Research Association

CSPP

Computer Systems Policy Project

C4I

Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence

DARPA

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

DARTNET

DARPA Advanced Research Testbed Network

DISA

Defense Information Systems Agency, formerly the Defense

Communications Agency

DISN

Defense Information Systems Network

DOC

Department of Commerce

DOD

Department of Defense

DOE

Department of Energy

DS1

a multiplexed channel of 24 DS0 channels (i.e., one DS0

channel carries one voice grade channel equivalent of data at

64 Kb/s)

DS3

a multiplexed channel of 28 DS1 channels

Department of Education

EDUCOM

a non-profit, primarily academic consortium for information

technology

EOWG

Engineering and Operations Working Group of the Federal

Networking Council

EPA

Environmental Protection Agency

ESnet

Energy Sciences Network

FARNET

Federation of American Research Networks

FBI

Federal Bureau of Investigation

FCCSET

Federal Coordinating Council for Science, Engineering, and

Technology

FEPG

Federal Engineering Planning Group, operational arm of the

Federal Networking Council's Engineering and Operations

Working Group

FIPS

Federal Information Processing Standard

FIX

Federal Internet eXchange

FNC

Federal Networking Council

FNCAC

Federal Networking Council Advisory Committee

GOSIP

Government Open Systems Interconnection Profile

HHS

Health and Human Services

HPC

High Performance Computing

HPCC

High Performance Computing and Communications

HPCCIT

High Performance Computing, Communications, and Information

Technology subcommittee

IAB

Internet Architecture Board, an Internet group originally

chartered by DARPA for the ARPANET

IEEE

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

Internet

the global set of interconnected computer networks of which

NSFNET, ESnet, and NSI are components

Internet Protocol

ISDN

Integrated Services Digital Network

ISO

International Standards Organization

Mb/s

Megabits per second or millions of bits per second

NAP

Network Access Point, a set of nodes interconnecting NREN

backbone networks

NASA

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NCO

National Coordination Office for the High Performance

Computing and Communications Program

NEARNET, SURANET, WESTNET

regional computer networks in New England, the Southeast, and

Western parts of the U.S.

NIH

National Institutes of Health

NIST

National Institute of Standards and Technology

NOAA

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

NREN

National Research and Education Network, consisting of the

Interagency Interim NREN component and the Gigabit Research

and Development component

NSA

National Security Agency

NSF

National Science Foundation

NSFNET

NSF Computer Network

NSI

NASA Science Internet

NTIA

National Telecommunications and Information Administration

OC-3

network transmission speed of 155 Mb/s

OC-12

network transmission speed of 622 Mb/s

OMB

Office of Management and Budget

OSI

Open Systems Interconnection, a protocol suite of the ISO

OSTP

Office of Science and Technology Policy

PMES

FCCSET Committee on Physical, Mathematical, and Engineering

Sciences of the Office of Science and Technology Policy

PWG

Policy Working Group of the Federal Networking Council

Routing Arbiter, entity that will be selected under new NSF

Backbone cooperative agreements to stabilize the network

R&E

Research and Education

RFCs

Requests for Comments

RWG

Research Working Group of the Federal Networking Council

SMDS

Switched Multimegabit Data Service, a new networking

technology being deployed by the telephone companies

SWG

Security Working Group of the Federal Networking Council

network transmission of a DS1 formatted digital signal at a

rate of 1.5 Mb/s

network transmission of a DS3 formatted digital signal at a

rate of 45 Mb/s

TCP/IP

Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, the

communications protocols currently being used on the Internet

ToS

Type of Service

TWBnet

DARPA's Terrestrial Wideband Network

vBNS

very high speed Backbone Network Services

VPNs

Virtual Private Networks

WAIS

Wide Area Information Service

List of References

1. The summary of findings identified network technology as

essential to support scientific collaboration and access to

scientific resources. Executive Office of the President (U.S),

Office of Science and Technology Policy. "A Research and

Development Strategy for High Performance Computing."

Washington: 1987 Nov 20, p. 1.

2. Executive Office of the President (U.S.), Office of Science

and Technology Policy. "The Federal High Performance Computing

Program." Washington: 1989 Sep 8, p. 32.

3. A brief discussion of gigabit network research problems is

provided on pp. 102-103. Harmanis, Juris, and Herbert Lin,

editors. "Computing the Future: A Broader Agenda for Computer

Science and Engineering." Washington: National Academy Press;

1992.

4. Federal Coordinating Council on Science, Engineering and

Technology (U.S.). "A Report to the Congress on Computer

Networks to Support Research in the United States: A Study of

Critical Problems and Future Options." Vol. 2, "Reports from the

Workshop on Computer Networks; 1987 Feb 17-19; San Diego, CA."

Los Alamos (NM): Los Alamos National Laboratory, Computing and

Communications Division; 1987 Jun, p. 34.

5. EDUCOM; IEEE. "Proceedings of the NREN Workshop; 1992 Sep 16-

18; Monterey, CA." Washington: EDUCOM; 1992, Tab 9, p. 3.

6. Computer Systems Policy Project. "Expanding the Vision of

High Performance Computing and Communications: Linking America

for the Future." Washington: 1991 Dec 3, p. 12.

7. President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology

(U.S.) "High Performance Computing and Communications Panel

Report." Washington: 1992, p. 2.

8. "Federal Register," 1992 Jun 15; 57 (15): 26692. "Request

for Public Comment: Solicitation Concept. National Science

Foundation (U.S.), Division of Networking and Communications

Research and Infrastructure." "Responses to NSF's Request for

Public Comment on the Draft Solicitation Network Access Point

Manager/Routing Authority and Very High Speed Backbone Network

Services Provider for NSFnet and the NREN Program." Washington:

1992.

9. Computer Systems Policy Project. "The Federal HPCCI Budget

for FY '92: Achieving Better Balance." Washington: 1991 Dec 3,

p. 12.

10. Congress of the United States, Office of Technology

Assessment, Congressional Board of the 102d Congress. "Finding a

Balance: Computer Software, Intellectual Property, and the

Challenge of Technological Change." Washington: 1992 May. OTA-

TCT-527, p. 4. Available from U.S. Government Printing Office,

Washington, D.C.

11. Congress of the United States, Office of Technology

Assessment. "Intellectual Property Rights in an Age of

Electronics and Information." Washington: 1986 Apr. OTA-CIT-

302, p. 3. Available from U.S. Government Printing Office,

Washington, D.C.

12. Congress of the United States, Office of Technology

Assessment. "Copyright and Home Copying: Technology Challenges

the Law." Washington: 1989 Oct. OTA-CIT-422, p. 5. Available

from U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.

13. National Research Council (U.S.), Panel on the Mathematical

Sciences in High-Performance Computing and Communications, Board

on Mathematical Sciences, Commission on Physical Sciences,

Mathematics, and Applications. "Mathematical Foundations of High

Performance Computing and Communications." Washington: National

Academy Press; 1991, p. 13.

14. EDUCOM; IEEE. "Proceedings of the NREN Workshop; 1992 Sep 16-

18; Monterey, CA." Washington: EDUCOM; 1992, p. A-69.

15. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science

(U.S.). "Report to the Office of Science and Technology Policy

on Library and Information Services' Roles in the National

Research and Education Network." Washington: 1992, pp. 13, 15.

16. Ibid., p. A-207