[2534] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Trust and the T-3 Network
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (peter@goshawk.lanl.gov)
Sat Mar 14 08:07:04 1992
To: cook@tmn.com (Gordon Cook)
Cc: com-priv@psi.com
In-Reply-To: Your message of Sat, 14 Mar 92 02:16:35 -0500.
Date: Sat, 14 Mar 92 06:05:57 MST
From: peter@goshawk.lanl.gov
Gordon,
May I suggest you take Mark Knopper up on his offer to go out to
Ann Arbor and visit Merit and find out what is going on?
>From your comments to date, it appears to me that you consider
the operation of the NSFnet as a trivial undertaking and that it
can be switched to any technology base in no time. Unfortunately it
is not that simple, NSFnet plays a very special role inside the global
Internet and it is far more than simply a 16 node network.
I am sure the Merit staff can explain all of this to you while
you are out there.
>>> The committee was quite adament that the NSFnet should not be considered
>>>as "precompetitive" or a place for technology development.
Unfortunately, the NSFnet could not operate without Merit and their
partners being a place for technology development. This was
understood when they were awarded the cooperative agreement, and
they have done a pretty good job in pushing things ahead. They have
kept the global Internet wired together so far, and they are working
hard to make future growth and evolution possible. As far as building
routers go, I believe it IS the case that they can migrate away from using
proprietary routers, but there is that pesky software base to contend with.
I think if you go out to Merit you will discover that indeed, they are
migrating away from proprietary routers to commonly available hardware
technology.
Peter Ford
los alamos
P.S. May I make a small recommendation in the questions you ask? I
would like to see more of the old Gordon ("I would like to know more
about XYZ") and a little less of the new Gordon ("What internet don was
seen eating whose lunch at the ATT POP, more after my trip to XYZ").
I think you would be far more effective in getting answers to the
questions you ask. Your work in fleshing out COMBITS from the ANS crew
was quite well done. cheers, peter
