[11598] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: significant NSF policy made at FNC meeting? (fwd)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Hans-Werner Braun)
Sun Apr 10 16:55:18 1994
From: hwb@upeksa.sdsc.edu (Hans-Werner Braun)
To: com-priv@psi.com
Date: Sun, 10 Apr 94 11:47:45 PDT
>>I was told from someone who talked to someone who heard Steve Wolff at the FNC
>>meeting that Steve announced that network service providers wouldn't have
>>to connect to all four NAPs after all.
>I don't believe anything new was said. It was simply a report on the
>current status of the solicatation. Which if you have been reading com-priv
>or the trade press, you already know the status (limbo). The VBNS RFP
>required connection to only three of the NAPs. The NAP at Washington D.C.
>was only "desirable" in the RFP, and remains so.
May be there were more things discussed on this issue here, and may be
I am not saying anything new, but I really don't understand what the
fuzz about "connect to all NAPs" is about. NSF is trying to award four
things (vBNS, NAPs, RAs, and regional interconnectivity). Last time I
checked, the "connect to all NAPs" thing was only at issue if you are
an NSP that wants to receive (declining over time) NSF money for
current regional networks to connect to the larger infrastructure.
I.e., the part trying to keep the operational Internet stable at the
time where the NSFNET backbone is no more and the vBNS is experimental,
as the NSF has to heavily count on regional networks to connect the R&E
community. Unless you want to receive money from NSF to interconect
NSF supported regional network interconnections, "connect to all NAPs"
is a non issue.
Hans-Werner
