Management of NSFNET. Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Science of the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, U.S
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
DOCUMENT RESUME ED 350 986 IR 015 797 TITLE Management of NSFNET. Hearing before the Subcommittee on Science of the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, U.S. House of Representatives, One Hundred Second Congress, Second Session. INSTITUTION Congress of the U.S., Washington, DC. House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. REPORT NO ISBN-0-16-038772-8 PUB DATE 12 Mar 92 NOTE 190p. AVAILABLE FROMU.S. Government Printing Office, Superintendent of Documents, Congressional Sales Office, Washington, DC 20402. PUB TYPE Legal/Legislative/Regulatory Materials (090) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC08 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Computer Networks; Corporate Support; Educational Research; *Federal Legislation; *Government Role; Information Needs; Information Networks; National Programs; Private Sector; Public Policy; Public Sector; *Telecommunications IDENTIFIERS High Performance Computing Act 1991; Internet; *National Research and Education Network; National Science Foundation; *Network Management (Computers) ABSTRACT The Science Subcommittee began its oversight of the implementation of the High-Performance Computing Act of 1991 by focusing on the establishment of the National Research and Education Network (NREN), which will evolve out of the current internet, the National Science Foundation's (NSF) NSFNET. The policy issues under discussion were: providing a level playing field for network services providers; ensuring that the network is responsive to user needs; providing for effective network management; determining the level of consultation that has occurred between the NSF, the network user, and provider communities during the course of developing the policies for governance and operation of the NSFNET backbone; and moving toward the long-term vision for the NREN, including the appropriate roles of the public and private sectors. Included in the hearing report are statements from Bob Traxler and Jerry F. Costello of the House Subcommittee on Science and testimony from the following witnesses: Eric Hood, Federation of American Research Networks and Northwestnet, Inc.; Douglas E. Van Houweling, Merit Network, Inc. and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Mitchell Kapor, Commercial Internet Exchange Association and Electronic Frontier Foundation; Michael M. Roberts, Educom; William L. Schrader, Performance Systems International, Inc. Also included are a statement by A. Nico Habermann and Stephen S. Wolff, National Science Foundation; the Subcommittee and Full Committee markups of H.R. 5344, Amendment to the NSF Act of 1950; and an additional statement submitted for the record by E. Michael Staman, CICNet. (ALF) MANAGEMENT OF NSFNET U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC? DThis document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating 0 c Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction Quality HEARING Points of view or opinions Stated in thisdocu- ment do not necessarily represent official BEFORE THE °FRI positron or P°IrcT SUBCOMMITTEE ON SCIENCE OF THE COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, SPACE, AND TECHNOLOGY U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED SECOND CONGRESS SECOND SESSION MARCH 12, 1992 [No. 120] Printed for the use of the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology 8 U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 56-900 a WASHINGTON :1992 For sale by the U.S. Government Printing Office Superintendent of Documents, Congressional Sales Office, Washington, DC 20402 ISBN 0-16-038772-8 2 BEST COPY AVAILABLE COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, SPACE, AND TECHNOLOGY GEORGE E. BROWN,JR., California, Chairman JAMES H. SCHEUER, New York ROBERT S. WALKER, Pennsylvania' MARILYN LLOYD, Tennessee F. JAMES SENSENBRENNER, Ja., DAN GLICKMAN, Kansas Wisconsin HAROLD L. VOLKMER, Missouri SHERWOOD L BOEHLERT, New York HOWARD WOLPE, Michigan TOM LEWIS, Florida RALPH M. HALL, Texas DON FUTTER, Pennsylvania DAVE McCURDY, Oklahoma SID MORRISON, Washington NORMAN Y. MINETA, California RON PACKARD, California TIM VALENTINE, North Carolina PAUL B. HENRY, Michigan ROBERT G. TORRICELLI, New Jersey HARRIS W. FAWELL, Illinois RICK BOUCHER, Virginia LAMAR SMITH, Texas TERRY L. BRUCE, Illinois CONSTANCE A. MORELLA, Maryland RICHARD H. STALLINGS, Idaho DANA ROHRABACHER, California JAMES A. TRAFICANT, Ja., Ohio STEVEN H. SCHIFF, New Mexico HENRY J. NOWAK, New York TOM CAMPBELL, California CARL C. PERKINS, Kentucky JOHN J. RHODES, M, Arizona TOM McMILLEN, Maryland JOE BARTON, Texas DAVID R. NAGLE, Iowa DICK ZIMMER, New Jersey JIMMY HAYES, Louisiana WAYNE T. GILCHREST, Maryland JERRY F. cosTEuo, Illinois SAM JOHNSON, Texas JOHN TANNER, Tennessee GEORGE ALLEN, Virginia GLEN BROWDER, Alabama PETE GEREN, Texas RAY THORNTON, Arkansas JIM BACCHUS, Florida TIM ROEMER, Indiana ROBERT E. "BUD" CRAMER, Alabama DICK bwk:ri, New Hampshire MICHAEL J. KOPEISK!, Oregon JOAN KELLY HORN, Missouri ELIOT L ENGEL, New York JOHN W. OLVER, Massachusetts RADFORD BYERLY, JR., Chief of Staff MICHAEL RODIMICYRR, Chief Counsel CAROLYN C. Gazeseittn, Chief Clerk DAVID D. Crszexrer, Republican Chief of Staff SUBCOMMITITX ON SCIINC1 RICK BOUCHER, Virginia, Chairman TERRY BRUCE, Illinois RON PACKARD, California MICHAEL J. KOPETSKI, Oregon SHERWOOD L BOEHLERT, New York TIM VALENTINE, North Carolina HARRIS W. FAWELL, Illinois CARL C. PERKINS, Kentucky STEVEN H. SCHIFF, New Mexico DAVID R. NAGLE, Iowa TOM CAMPBELL, California JIMMY HAYES, Louisiana WAYNE GILCHREST, Maryland JERRY F. COSTELLO, Illinois GEORGE ALLEN, Virginia GLENN BROWDER, Alabama RAY THORNTON, Arkansas TIM ROEMER, Indiana JIM BACCHUS, Florida 'Ranking Republican Member. (U) 3 CONTENTS WITNESSES Page March 12, 1992: Michael M. Roberts, Vice President, Networking, Educom, Washington, DC; Douglas E. Van Houweling, Member, Board of Directors, Merit Network, Inc., and Vice Provost for Information Technology, Universi- . ty of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan; Eric Hood, President, Federation of American Research Networks, Inc., Executive Director, Northwest- net, Bellevue, Washington; Mitchell Kapor, Chairman, Commercial In- ternet Exchange Association, and President, Electronic Frontier Foun- dation, Cambridge, Massachusetts; and William L Schrader, President and CEO, Performance Systems International, Inc., Reston, Virginia 8 A. Nico Habermann, Assistant Director, Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering, NSF, Washington, DC; accompa- nied by Stephen S. Wolff, Director, Division of Networking and Com- munications Research and Infrastructure 124 June 4, 1992: Subcommittee markup of H.R. 5344, Amendment to the NSF Act of 1950 157 June 10, 1992: Full Committee markup H.R. 5344, Amendment to the NSF Act of 1950 171 Appendix: Additional statement submitted for the record by E. Michael Staman, President, CICNet 183 4 MANAGEMENT OF NSFNET THURSDAY, MARCH 12, 1992 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, SPACE, AND TECHNOLOGY, SUBCOMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, Washington, D.C. The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:06 p.m., in room 2325, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Rick Boucher [chair- man of the subcommittee] presiding. Mr. BOUCHER. The subcommittee will come to order. This morning, the Science Subcommittee begins its oversight of implementation of the High-Performance Computing Act of 1991, which was signed into law last December. The initial focus of the subcommittee and the subject of this morning's hearing will be the establishment of the National Re- search and Education Network, commonly referred to as the NREN. It will be a high-speed network that will provide broad access to the research and education communities and lead to a privatized infrastructure serving the needs of all sectors of society. It is essential as the network is structured that all commercial providers of network services receive equal treatment and that Government policy in managing the network not favor any provid- er or set of providers over others. Adequate attention andsport must also be given to stimulating the advancement of network technologies and to developing standards that will allow a seam- less, user-friendly national network to emerge. The NREN will evolve as an outgrowth of the current internet. A m 'or component of the internet is the NSFNET, which is sup- ported by the National Science Foundation for research and for education purposes. Policy decisions regarding the operation of the NSFNET reverberate among the network user and provider coin- munities. This effect is evident in the aftermath of the decision to allow the mixing of research and education traffic with commercial traffic on the NSFNET backbone. Today the subcommittee will review the administration and the operation of the NSFNET since current practices will strongly influence the evolution of the NREN. We have asked our witnesses to focus on the agreement that has been put in place by the National Science Foundation for the oper- ation of the NSFNET backbone as well as on the Foundation's plan for recompetition of the current agreement. We will explore wheth- er the NSF's policies provide a level playing field for network serv- ice providers, ensure that the network is responsive to user needs, and provide for effective network management. (1) 5 2 We are also interested in determining the level of consultation that has occurred and is occurring between the NSF and the net- work user and provider communities during the course of develop- ing the policies for governance and operation of the NSFNET back- bone. Finally, we have asked today's witnesses to provide their