National Research and Education 

 Network Program (NREN) 



The NREN* component will establish a gigabit communications infrastructure to enhance the ability 

 of U.S. researchers and educators to perform collaborative research and education activities, regard- 

 less of their physical location or local computational and information resources. This infrastructure 

 will be an extension of the Internet, and will serve as a catalyst for the development of the high speed 

 communications and information systems needed for the National Information Infrastructure (Nil). 



The emerging Nil will require: advances in the underlying loundations of networking technology and 

 in generic networking services; the development and deployment of major new networking technolo- 

 gies; broader access to state-of-the-art high performance computing facilities; and early testing of new 

 commercial products and services so that these can be effectively integrated into NREN associated 

 networks. 



The principal objectives of the NREN component are to; 



J Establish and encourage wide use of gigabit networks by the research and education communi- 

 ties to access high performance computing systems, research facilities, electronic information 

 resources, and libraries. 



□ Develop advanced high performance networking technologies and accelerate their deployment 

 and evaluation in research and education environments. 



3 Stimulate the wide availability at reasonable cost of advanced network products and services 

 from the private sector for the general research and education communities. 



a Catalyze the rapid deployment of a high speed general purpose digital communications infras- 

 tructure for the Nation. 



The NREN component's Interagency Internet and Gigabit Research and Development elements con- 

 tribute to reaching these soals: 



I. Interagency Internet 



Near-term enhanced network services will be developed on the Nation's evolving networking and 

 telecommunications infrastructure for use by mission agencies and the research and education com- 

 munities. Interagency Internet activities include expansion of the connectivity and enhancement ot 

 the capabilities of the federally funded portion of today's research and education networks, and 

 deployment of advanced high performance technologies and services as they mature. Coordinated 

 among Federal agencies in cooperation with the private sector, this effort succeeds the Interim 

 Interagency NREN element identified in previous reports about the HPCC Program. 



' NSF has applied for registration of the service mark "NREN" with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. 



32 



