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Building the open road: The NREN as test-bed for the national public network
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
Network Working Group M. Kapor
Request for Comments: 1259 Electronic Frontier Foundation
September 1991
Building The Open Road:
The NREN As Test-Bed For The National Public Network
Status of this Memo
This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does
not specify an Internet standard. Distribution of this memo is
unlimited.
Introduction
A debate has begun about the future of America's communications
infrastructure. At stake is the future of the web of information
links organically evolving from computer and telephone systems. By
the end of the next decade, these links will connect nearly all homes
and businesses in the U.S. They will serve as the main channels for
commerce, learning, education, and entertainment in our society. The
new information infrastructure will not be created in a single step:
neither by a massive infusion of public funds, nor with the private
capital of a few tycoons, such as those who built the railroads.
Rather the national, public broadband digital network will emerge
from the "convergence" of the public telephone network, the cable
television distribution system, and other networks such as the
Internet.
The United States Congress is now taking a critical step toward what
I call the National Public Network, with its authorization of the
National Research and Education Network (NREN, pronounced "en-ren").
Not only will the NREN meet the computer and communication needs of
scientists, researchers, and educators, but also, if properly
implemented, it could demonstrate how a broadband network can be used
in the future. As policy makers debate the role of the public
telephone and other existing information networks in the nation's
information infrastructure, the NREN can serve as a working test-bed
for new technologies, applications, and governing policies that will
ultimately shape the larger national network. Congress has indicated
its intention that the NREN
would provide American researchers and educators with the computer
and information resources they need, while demonstrating how
advanced computer, high speed networks, and electronic databases
can improve the national information infrastructure for use by all
Kapor