RFC 1259 (rfc1259) - Page 2 of 23
Building the open road: The NREN as test-bed for the national public network
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
RFC 1259 Building The Open Road September 1991
Americans. (1)
As currently envisioned, the NREN
would connect more than one million people at more than one
thousand colleges, universities, laboratories, and hospitals
throughout the country, giving them access to computing power and
information -- resources unavailable anywhere today -- and making
possible the rapid proliferation of a truly nationwide, ubiquitous
network... (2)
The combined demand of these users would develop innovative new
services and further stimulate demand for existing network
applications. Library information services, for example, have
already grown dramatically on the NREN's predecessor, the Internet,
because the
enhanced connectivity permits scholars and researchers to
communicate in new and different ways.... Clearly, to be
successful, effective, and of use to the academic and research
communities, the NREN must be designed to nurture and accommodate
both the current as will as future yet unknown uses of valuable
information resources. (3)
So as the NREN implementation process progresses, it is vital that
the opportunities to stimulate innovative new information
technologies be kept in mind, along with the specific needs of the
mission agencies which will come to depend on the network.
Far from evolving into the whole of the National Public Network
itself, the NREN is best thought of as a prototype for the NPN, which
will emerge over time from the phone system, cable television, and
many computer networks. But the NREN is a growth site which, unlike
privately controlled systems, can be consciously shaped to meet
public needs. For a wide variety of services, some of which might
not be commercially viable at the outset, the NREN can
provide selective access that proves feasibility and leads to the
creation of a commercial infrastructure that can support universal
services.... If we fully focus on ...[current] goals and work our
way through a multitude of technical and operational issues in the
process, then the success of the NREN will fully support its
extension to broader uses in the years to follow. (4)
In order to function as an effective test-bed, one that promotes
broad access to a range of innovative, developing services, the NREN
must be built so that it is easy for developers to offer new kinds of
applications, and is accessible to a diversity of users. For
Kapor