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- CURRENT_MEETING_REPORT_
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- Reported by Laura Breeden/FARNET
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- Minutes of the Perspectives on the Next Generation of the NSFnet BOF
-
- At this BOF, Laura Breeden of FARNET reviewed the results of a meeting
- held the previous week to discuss and analyze the NSF's Draft
- Solicitation for the next generation of the NSFNET/IINREN. The meeting
- (on July 9-10) included FARNET members, NSF representatives, other
- Federal agency representatives, and interested members of the networking
- community. The purpose was to understand better the goals and
- intentions of the NSF and to provide commentary to them by August 3.
-
- A full report of the two-day workshop is available on host farnet.org,
- in the farnet/iinren directory.
-
- Participants in the BOF were able to ask clarifying questions about
- NSF's plans as expressed in the FARNET workshop. Peter Ford, one of the
- architects of the plan, and Laura Breeden, who had extensive notes based
- on a tape of the NSF presentation, fielded most of the questions. Other
- workshop attendees also contributed.
-
- Key items of interest were the number, location and operating policies
- of the proposed Network Access Points (NAPs), the NSF requirement for
- support of video conferencing on the Very High Speed Backbone, and the
- transition from the current NSFNET to the planned follow-on.
-
- The highlights of FARNET's recommendations are:
-
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- 1. NSF should place the new solicitation more clearly within the NREN
- context.
- The introduction to the solicitation should be enhanced or expanded
- to address the NREN context and to place the NSFNET in that
- context.... We believe that it is critically important to clarify
- this relationship, because just as the NSFNET backbone forms the
- architectural core of the current Internet, the communities
- attached to the NSFNET provide a strong foundation for continued
- growth.
- We hope that the solicitation will include a recognition that the
- community of scientific scholars has diverse needs, from electronic
- mail to high-bandwidth applications such as visualization. NSF has
- a mission and a responsibility to support the entire community.
-
- 2. The plans for governance and management of the new infrastructure,
- and the process for achieving them, should be stronger and more
- explicit.
-
- 3. Transition planning must begin early and must include the provider
- community -- the organizations and institutions that furnish
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- network services today.
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- 4. Separate the Routing Arbiter function from that of the NAP Manager.
- The solicitation should separate the Routing Arbiter from the NAP
- Manager.
- A majority of the Group, but not the entire Group, felt that it
- should be mandatory to bid separately on vBNS and NAP provision,
- but that a bidder should be permitted to show combined (lower)
- costs as part of the bid if desired. (The Routing Arbiter should
- remain separate.)
-
- 5. Enforcement of ``appropriate use'' policies will continue to be an
- issue under the new plan.
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- 6. NSF's leadership role in extending networking to all of research
- and education should be reaffirmed and continued.
-
- 7. Criteria for attachment to NAPs and to the vBNS are critical and
- should be described by NSF in the solicitation.
- NSF should specify the criteria for attachment to the vBNS and the
- NAPs in the solicitation. Not doing so invites a bidding war for
- access, which could destabilize the NSFNET, create unhealthy
- competition among user institutions, and "skim the cream" from the
- current set of network service providers.
-
- 8. We recommend the following priorities in setting evaluation
- criteria for the review of responses to the final solicitation..
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- GOAL PRIORITY
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- Promotion of broad infrastructure Very High
- Interaction with community, including technology transfer Very High
- Continuity and stability of services High
- QOS* measurement, accountability High
- Advancement of technology High/Medium
- Commercialization Medium
- Cost-effectiveness Medium
- CLNP availability Medium
- Facilitation of new applications Medium
- Provision of video services Low/Medium
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- *Quality of service
-
-
- 9. NAP parameters should be based on multiple dimensions and should
- not be set solely on the basis of cost, which is only one component
- of the total NSFnet system.
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- 10. We strongly recommend that the following technical requirements be
- included in the solicitation.
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- The vBNS provider should be required to provide restoration
- capability among NAPs using proven technology.
- NSF should require in the solicitation that a plan be developed to
- connect the current T3 network to the NAPs, as part of the
- transition from the current backbone to the next generation.
- The vBNS provider should be able to carry full routing information
- (given the limitations of route server technology).
- The vBNS provider should have a publicly available and appropriate
- MIB (network Management Information Base).
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- Attendees
-
- Bill Manning bmanning@rice.edu
- John Curran jcurran@bbn.com
- Donald Morris morris@ucar.edu
- Jane Wojcik jwojcik@bbn.com
- Patricia Smith psmith@merit.edu
- Mark Knopper mak@merit.edu
- Kraig Owen tko@merit.edu
- John Labbe labbe@merit.edu
- Evan Wetstone evan@rice.edu
- Susan Estrada estradas@cerf.net
- Tony Hain hain@nersc.gov
- Guy Almes almes@ans.net
- Peter Ford peter@lanl.gov
- Padma Krishnaswamy kri@sabre.bellcore.com
- Dan Jordt danj@nwnet.net
- E. Paul Love loveep@sdsc.edu
- Eugene Hastings hastings@a.psc.edu
- Matt Mathis mathis@a.psc.edu
- Carol Ward cward@westnet.net
- Ari Ollikainen ari@es.net
- Ross Veach rrv@uiuc.edu
- Marsha Perrott mlp+@andrew.cmu.edu
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