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Encyclopedia > NSFNET

National Science Foundation Network (NSFNet) was a major part of early 1990s Internet backbone. The logo of the National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. ... The Internet backbone was the central network that linked all the parts of the Internet together. ...

Contents


History

Following the deployment of the CSNET, a network that linked academic computer science departments, in 1981, the NSF aimed to create an open network allowing academic researchers access to supercomputers. CSNET (the Computer Science Network) was created by the US National Science Foundation in the early 1980s. ... Computer science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and their implementation and application in computer systems. ... A supercomputer is a computer that leads the world in terms of processing capacity, particularly speed of calculation, at the time of its introduction. ...


In 1985, the NSF began funding the creation of five new supercomputer centers: the John von Neumann Center at Princeton University, the San Diego Supercomputer Center on the campus of the University of California at San Diego, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, the Cornell Theory Center at Cornell University and the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center. The NSFNet connected these five centers and allowed access to their supercomputers over the network at no cost. This article is about the year. ... Princeton University, incorporated as The Trustees of Princeton University, located in Princeton, New Jersey, is the fourth-oldest institution to conduct higher education in the United States. ... The San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) is an organized research unit of the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). ... The University of California, San Diego (popularly known as UCSD) is a public, coeducational university located in La Jolla, California. ... The Beckman Institute, current Headquarters of the NCSA The National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) is one of the five original centers in the National Science Foundations Supercomputer Centers Program and a unit of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. ... Learning & Labor The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, also known as UIUC and the U of I (the officially preferred abbreviation), is the largest campus in the University of Illinois system. ... Located at Cornell University, the Cornell Theory Center (CTC) is one of four supercomputing centers funded by the US National Science Foundation. ... Cornell University is a research university located on the East Hill of Ithaca, New York. ...


The NSFNet went online in 1986, using a TCP/IP-based protocol that was compatible with the military's ARPANET, as a backbone to which regional and academic networks would connect. It experienced exponential growth in its network traffic. The original 56- kbit/s links were upgraded to 1.5 Mbit/s in 1988 and again to 45 Mbit/s in 1991. 1986 (MCMLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Internet protocol suite is the set of communications protocols that implement the protocol stack on which the Internet runs. ... ARPANET logical map, March 1977. ... The exponential function is one of the most important functions in mathematics. ... ... A megabit per second (Mbps or Mbit/s or Mb/s) is a unit of data transmission equal to 1,024 kilobits per second or 1048576 bits per second. ...


Privatization

In the early 1990s, commercial organizations connecting to the Internet had to sign a usage agreement directly with NSFNet to gain access to large parts of the Public Internet, regardless of what Internet Service Provider they purchased Internet access from. The 1990s decade refers to the years from 1990 to 1999, inclusive. ... This article is about the Internet An internet is suggested by some to be a more general term for any set of interconnected computer networks that are connected by internetworking Graphic representation of the WWW information network structure around Wikipedia, as represented by hyperlinks The Internet, or simply the Net... An Internet service provider (ISP, also called Internet access provider) is a business or organization that offers users access to the Internet and related services. ... Internet public access point. ...


From 1987 to 1995 the NSFNET was operated on behalf of the NSF by Merit Network, Inc., a non-profit corporation governed by public Universities.


On April 30, 1995, the NSFNET Backbone Service was successfully transitioned to a new architecture, where traffic is exchanged at interconnection points called Network access points. Network Access Point (NAP) is the original term for the data communications facilities built in the early days of the Internet to provide on-ramp access to higher-speed Internet links (which were typically transcontinental or intercontinental in extent). ...


See also

This NeXTcube used by Berners-Lee at CERN became the first Web server. ... ARPANET logical map, March 1977. ... CSNET (the Computer Science Network) was created by the US National Science Foundation in the early 1980s. ...

External links


  Results from FactBites:
 
NSFNet - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (264 words)
The NSFNet went online in 1986, using a TCP/IP-based protocol that was compatible with the military's ARPANET, as a backbone to which regional and academic networks would connect.
From 1987 to 1995 the NSFNET was operated on behalf of the NSF by Merit Network, Inc., a non-profit corporation governed by public Universities.
On April 30, 1995, the NSFNET Backbone Service was successfully transitioned to a new architecture, where traffic is exchanged at interconnection points called Network access points.
  More results at FactBites »

 

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