RFC 1259 (rfc1259) - Page 2 of 23

Building the open road: The NREN as test-bed for the national public network

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