VBNS

The vBNS (very-high-performance Backbone Network Service) came on line in April 1995 as part of a National Science Foundation sponsored project to provide high-speed interconnection between NSF-Sponsored supercomputing centers and select access points. The network was engineered and operated by MCI Telecommunications under a cooperative agreement with the NSF. By 1998, the vBNS had grown to connect more than 100 universities and research and engineering institutions via 12 national points of presence with DS-3, OC-3 and OC-12 links on an all OC-12 network, a substantial engineering feat for that time. The vBNS installed one of the first ever production OC-48c IP links in February 1999 and went on to upgrade the entire backbone to OC-48.

The vBNS pioneered the production deployment of many novel network technologies including IP multicasting, quality of service and IPv6.

After the expiration of the NSF agreement, the vBNS largely transitioned to providing service to the government. Most of the universities and R&E centers have since migrated to the Internet2 educational backbone.

References

• John Jamison, Randy Nicklas, Greg Miller, Kevin Thompson, Rick Wilder, Laura Cunningham and Chuck Song. [1]. IEEE Spectrum (July 1998) pages 38-46.

External links

• vBNS homepage