Status of NSFNET Transition
28 March 1995
We are within five weeks of the retirement of the NSFNET Backbone service. This note provides an update on the status of:
1. The establishment of three priority NAPs and a MFS provided interconnection point
The nap-info@merit.edu mailing list has been established to field questions from organizations or individuals concerning the services being offered by the four NAP providers.
The Sprint NAP has been considered operational for purposes of the NSFNET Backbone Service transition since the end of September 1994. Sprintlink, MCInet and the NSFNET/ANSnet are all exchanging traffic at the Sprint NAP. The Routing Arbiter's route server has been in place at the Sprint NAP since mid-February.
MCInet and NSFNET/ANSnet have been physically present at the PacBell ATM NAP since mid-October. As of March 1995, PacBell has been in the process of establishing a contingency FDDI NAP. The FDDI NAP at PacBell is being offered to all customers of the PacBell NAP until the ATM NAP is robust.
MCInet and NSFNET/ANSnet have been physically present at the Ameritech ATM NAP since early January 1995. As of March 1995 Ameritech is installing a FDDI contingency NAP to facilitate the transition from the NSFNET service to MCInet and Sprintlink's service. Ameritech will also permit the Routing Arbiter's route server to be homed on the FDDI NAP.
Whereas MFS is not considered a priority NAP, it has the largest number of network service providers connected to its MAE-East/ MAE-East+ service. MFS has bridged its Ethernet and FDDI offerings and the NSFNET Service, Alternet, MCInet, and Sprintlink are all attached to the MFS service. The Routing Arbiter's route server is also attached to the MFS service and is peering with several providers.
2. The attachment of the NSFNET Backbone Service to the NAPs and other interconnection points
The NSFNET backbone service was physically connected to the Sprint NAP on September 13, 1994. Physical connections to the PacBell NAP and the Ameritech NAP occurred in mid October '94 and early January '95 respectively.
The NSFNET Backbone Service was upgraded to the colocated FDDI offered by MFS on March 22, 1995.
3. The attachment of Sprintlink and MCInet to the NAPs and other interconnection points
MCInet has been physically present at MAE-East since August 15, 1994. The connection to the Sprint NAP was completed the week of September 12, 1994. Attachment to the PacBell NAP was completed on October 9, 1994. Attachment to the Ameritech NAP was completed in early January 1995. MCInet became attached to MAE-East+ during the month of February 1995.
Sprintlink was physically present at the Sprint NAP as of the week of September 19,1994. Sprintlink is a member of the CIX and is connected to MFS's MAE-East and MAE-East+. Sprintlink has no firm date for when it will connect to the PacBell and Ameritech NAPs.
4. The deployment of the Routing Arbiter service
The Routing Arbiter Database (RADB) has been established and is running in dual mode with the Policy Routing Database (PRDB). The plan is to retire the PRDB in early April at which time the RADB will generate routing configurations for AS 690 (the NSFNET Backbone Service). Merit is generating configurations for the route servers from the RADB currently.
Route Servers are physically in place at all interconnection points: Ameritech, MFS, PacBell, and Sprint. At the MFS facility, the Route Servers are passing routes between MCInet, PIPEX and Net99.
5. The list of regionals which have a new primary service provider
The following entities prefer another service over the NSFNET Backbone Service:
Argonne
CICnet
BARRnet
MCInet
CA*net
MCInet
CERFnet
CERFnet
CICnet
MCInet
Cornell Theory Ctr. NYSERnet
CSUnet
MCInet
DARPA
ANSnet
JvNCnet
MCInet
MichNet
MCInet
MOREnet
Sprintlink
NEARnet
MCInet
NevadaNet Sprintlink
NYSERnet Sprintlink
SESQUINET
MCInet
SURAnet
MCInet
THEnet
Sprintlink
Westnet
Sprintlink
The NSFNET Service to the following sites has been retired:
Atlanta, GA ENSS 138
March 11, 1995
College Park, MD ENSS 136
March 22, 1995
Ithaca, NY ENSS 133
March 31, 1995
The NSFNET Service will be retired in its entirety on April 30, 1995.