RFC 1167 (rfc1167) - Page 3 of 8
Thoughts on the National Research and Education Network
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
RFC 1167 NREN July 1990 application level gateways are two possibilities). 8. Provision must be made for experimental research in networking to support the continued technical evolution of the system. The NREN can no more be a static, rigid system than the Internet has been since its inception. Interconnection of experimental facilities with the operational NREN must be supported. 9. The architecture must accommodate the use of commercial services, private and Government-sponsored networks in the NREN system. Apart from the considerations listed above, it is also helpful to consider the constituencies and stakeholders who have a role to play in the use of, provision of and evolution of NREN services. Their interests will affect the architecture of the NREN and the course of its creation and evolution. NREN CONSTITUENTS The Users Extrapolating from the present Internet, the users of the system will be diverse. By legislative intent, it will include colleges and universities, government research organizations (e.g., research laboratories of the Departments of Defense, Energy, Health and Human Services, National Aeronautics and Space Administration), non-profit and for-profit research and development organizations, federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs), R&D activities of private enterprise, library facilities of all kinds, and primary and secondary schools. The system is not intended to be discipline- specific. It is critical to recognize that even in the present Internet, it has been possible to accommodate a remarkable amalgam of private enterprise, academic institutions, government and military facilities. Indeed, the very ability to accept such a diverse constituency turns on the increasing freedom of the so-called intermediate-level networks to accept an unrestricted set of users. The growth in the size and diversity of Internet users, if it can be said to have been constrained at all, has been limited in part by usage constraints placed on the federally-sponsored national agency networks (e.g., NSFNET, NASA Science Internet, Energy Sciences Net, High Energy Physics Net, the recently deceased ARPANET, Defense Research Internet, etc.). Given the purposes of these networks and the fiduciary responsibilities of the agencies that have created them, such usage constraints seem highly appropriate. It may be beneficial to search for less Cerf
