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+Network Working Group                                            G. Cook
+Request for Comments: 1527                                   Cook Report
+Category: Informational                                   September 1993
+
+
+         What Should We Plan Given the Dilemma of the Network?
+
+Status of this Memo
+
+   This memo provides information for the Internet community.  It does
+   not specify an Internet standard.  Distribution of this memo is
+   unlimited.
+
+Abstract
+
+   Early last year, as the concluding effort of an 18 month appointment
+   at the US Congress Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), I drafted a
+   potential policy framework for Congressional action on the National
+   Research and Education Network (NREN).
+
+   The Internet community needs to be asking what the most important
+   policy issues facing the network are.  And given agreement on any
+   particular set of policy issues, the next thing we should be asking
+   is, what would be some of the political choices that would follow for
+   Congress to make?
+
+   It is unfortunate that this was never officially done for or by the
+   Congress by OTA.  What we have as a result is network policy making
+   being carried out now by the Science Subcommittee on the House side
+   in consultation with a relatively small group of interested parties.
+   The debate seems to be more focused on preserving turf than on any
+   sweeping understanding of what the legislation is doing.  That is
+   unfortunate.
+
+   In the hope that it may contain some useful ideas, I offer a
+   shortened version of the suggested policy draft as information for
+   the Internet community.
+
+Table of Contents
+
+   The Dilemma of an Unregulated Public Resource in a Free Market
+   Environment  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    2
+   Regulation is a key NREN policy issue. . . . . . . . . . . . . .    3
+   Technology Transfer Goals Achieved?  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    4
+   The Context for Policy Setting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    4
+   Whom Shall the Network Serve?  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    5
+   Access to the NREN is a key policy issue . . . . . . . . . . . .    6
+   How Far To Extend Network Access?  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    6
+
+
+
+Cook                                                            [Page 1]
+
+RFC 1527                Cook Report on Internet           September 1993
+
+
+   A Corporation for Public Networking? . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    9
+   Summary  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   14
+   Security Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   17
+   Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   17
+
+The Dilemma of an Unregulated Public Resource in a Free Market
+Environment
+
+   As currently structured, the NSFnet and american Internet provide
+   access to several million researchers and educators, hundreds of
+   thousands of remote computers, hundreds of databases, and hundreds of
+   library catalogues.  Money being invested in the network as a result
+   of the High Performance Computing and Communications (HPCC) initiative
+   should considerably increase the numbers and variety behind this
+   unprecedented collection of resources.  No other computer network on
+   earth currently comes close to providing access to the breadth and
+   depth of people and information.  If access to information is access
+   to power, access to the national computer network will mean access to
+   very significant power.
+
+   Furthermore, access to the american Internet and NREN is also
+   access to the worldwide Internet.  According to the Director for
+   International Programs at the NSF in February 1992, the development
+   of the Internet over the past twelve years has been one of
+   exponential growth:
+
+               Date           Connected Hosts
+
+               August 1981    213
+               October 1985   1,961
+               December 1987  28,174
+               January 1989   80,000
+               January 1991   376,000
+               January 1992   727,000
+
+   These hosts are computers to which anyone in the world with Internet
+   access can instantaneously connect and use if there are publically
+   available files.  Any host may also be used for remote computing if
+   the system administrator gives the user private access.  These seven
+   hundred thousand plus hosts are located in more than 38 nations.  But
+   they are only part of the picture.  By system-to-system transfer of
+   electronic mail they are linked to probably a million additional
+   hosts.  According to Dr. Larry Landweber of the University of
+   Wisconsin, as of February 10, 1992, Internet electronic mail was
+   available in 106 nations and territories.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Cook                                                            [Page 2]
+
+RFC 1527                Cook Report on Internet           September 1993
+
+
+   Unfortunately, our current regulatory system does not distinguish
+   between the unique nature of the Internet and commercial systems like
+   Prodigy and Compuserve where perhaps a million people pay monthly
+   fees for access to systems offering a few dozen databases run from
+   two or three hosts and electronic mail to several hundred thousand
+   people instead of many millions.  (The picture is made somewhat fuzzy
+   by the fact that Compuserve does provide electronic mail access to
+   the Internet through a gateway and for an extra charge.)  The Federal
+   Communications Commission (FCC) considers all three to be Value Added
+   Networks (VANs) run by Enhanced Service Providers.  All use common
+   carriers to provide their enhanced services and the FCC, in refusing
+   to regulate them, reasons that all services are roughly alike.  If,
+   for example, Compuserve charges too much, the consumer can quit
+   Compuserve and move to Prodigy.  Or, if the monthly cost of access to
+   the Internet were to become too much, access to Prodigy or Compuserve
+   would be basically the same thing.  Here unfortunately the analogy
+   fails: the Internet now and the NREN to be, with its unparalleled
+   resources, is not the same.  Nevertheless, the FCC points out that
+   without Congressional action it is powerless to regulate NREN service
+   providers.
+
+Regulation is a key NREN policy issue.
+
+   Perhaps there will be no need for regulation.  Hopefully, the
+   marketplace for the provision of network services will remain
+   competitive and higher prices and cream skimming will not keep the
+   national network out of the reach of the general public who wish to
+   avail themselves of what it has to offer.  However, given the scope
+   and power of what is contemplated here, Congress should realize that
+   there are important considerations of social and economic equity
+   behind the question of access to the network.  This is especially
+   true since libraries and groups representing primary and secondary
+   schools are demanding what could be considered as universal access to
+   the network without having any knowledge of how such access might be
+   funded.
+
+   The economic stakes are huge.  Other players such as US West's
+   Advanced Communications division are entering the market and AT&T is
+   expected to do so by the spring.  When combined with the award of the
+   EINet backbone to Uunet, their entry should help to level the playing
+   field.  While one company is less likely to dominate such an
+   uncontrolled, unregulated market, those concerned about widespread
+   affordable access to the network would do well to watch unfolding
+   events with care.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Cook                                                            [Page 3]
+
+RFC 1527                Cook Report on Internet           September 1993
+
+
+Technology Transfer Goals Achieved?
+
+   Policy makers may ask how much priority the Federal government should
+   continue to give technology transfer in a market where the technology
+   that allegedly still needs aiding is showing remarkable signs of
+   maturity?  As they debate the course on which they wish to take the
+   network over the next five years, policy makers may find that one
+   answer to the apparent disparity between the emphasis in the
+   legislation on the provision of the network by the government, and
+   the growing number of commercial sources of network availability is
+   that the market matured very rapidly while the HPCC legislation
+   remained unchanged.
+
+   In view of all the remarkable commercial achievements (outlined in
+   this essay) in the four years since the NREN idea arose, perhaps the
+   policy objective of technology transfer for economic competitiveness
+   could be considered to be achieved!  A commercially viable high speed
+   data networking industry, with the entrance of Sprint in January 1992
+   and the anticipated entrance of AT&T, has reached maturity.
+
+   Therefore, having successfully achieved its technology transfer
+   goals, the Congress must decide whether to continue to underwrite the
+   network as a tool in support of science and education goals.  It
+   seems reasonable to assume that this support could be undertaken in a
+   way that would not seriously undermine the commercial TCP/IP data
+   networking market place.
+
+The Context for Policy Setting
+
+   In order to make informed choices of goals for the network, Congress
+   must understand the context of a rapidly commercializing network.
+   The resulting context is likely to produce serious impacts both on
+   the user community and the development of future network technology.
+   It is likely to make some goals more easily attainable than others.
+   Given its maturity, the commercialization of TCP/IP wide area
+   networking technology is inevitable.
+
+   Some have already begun to question whether the government should be
+   providing backbone services where commercial alternatives are
+   currently available and are expected to grow in number.
+
+   Supporters of the NREN vision argue that the NSF is using government
+   funds to build a leading edge network faster than the commercial
+   alternatives.  They say that use of public funds on such technology
+   development is appropriate.  Their critics state that the T-3
+   technology (also called DS-3) is dead end and point out that the next
+   logical step is refining the network so that it can use ATM and
+   SONET.  For aggregate gigabit speeds along the backbone, use of ATM
+
+
+
+Cook                                                            [Page 4]
+
+RFC 1527                Cook Report on Internet           September 1993
+
+
+   and SONET will be necessary.  Critics claim that the T-1 backbone
+   could be engineered to accommodate the network for a while longer
+   while Federal funds would be more appropriately invested now in an
+   ATM and SONET development effort.  They say that Federal policy is
+   being used to enable IBM to have a testbed for the development of
+   DS-3 TCP/IP routers when Network Technologies makes a comparable
+   product that is already proven and reliable.  Whether the Federal
+   Government should be providing backbone services or merely support
+   for access and improved network features is a key policy issue.
+
+   Finding the best answer to the questions raised by this issue is
+   likely to center on the ability of the Federal mission agencies
+   involved in high speed network development to articulate a long term
+   plan for the development of new network technology over the next
+   decade.  How we shall use what is learned in the gigabit testbeds has
+   not yet been clearly addressed by policy makers.  Continuation of the
+   testbeds is currently uncertain. There is also no plan to apply the
+   outcome to the production NREN.  These are areas deserving of federal
+   involvement.  The current players seem to be incapable of addressing
+   them.  Some possible courses of Federal action will be identified in
+   the discussion of a Corporation for Public Networking to follow.
+
+   In the meantime, we face a period of four to five years where the NSF
+   is scheduled to take the NSFnet backbone through one more bid.  While
+   Federal support for the current production backbone may be
+   questionable on technology grounds, policy makers, before setting
+   different alternatives:
+
+          -    must understand very clearly the dual policy drivers
+               behind the NREN,
+
+          -    must define very clearly the objectives of the network,
+               and
+
+          -    must carefully define a both a plan and perhaps a
+               governing mechanism for their achievement.
+
+   A sudden withdrawal of Federal support for the backbone would be
+   likely to make a chaotic situation more so.  However, the application
+   of focused planning could define potentially productive alternatives
+   to current policies that could be applied by the time of the backbone
+   award announcement in April of 1993.
+
+Whom Shall the Network Serve?
+
+   The HPCC legislation gives the FCCSET a year to prepare a report to
+   the Congress on goals for the network's eventual privatization.
+   Thanks to the NSF's decision to rebid the backbone, this task may no
+
+
+
+Cook                                                            [Page 5]
+
+RFC 1527                Cook Report on Internet           September 1993
+
+
+   longer be rendered moot by premature network privatization.  The
+   FCCSET Report needs to address many questions.
+
+   One question is the extent to which, in the higher education
+   environment, Congress through the National Science Foundation, or
+   perhaps through another entity of its own choosing will continue to
+   underwrite networking.  A related question is whether or when
+   Congress should act in order to preserve a competitive networking
+   provider environment.  A question subsidiary to this is whether a
+   competitive commercial environment is adequate to ensure a fertile
+   data networking technical R&D environment?  Another related question
+   centers on what is necessary to preserve network access that is as
+   widely available to post-secondary education as possible?  Further
+   issues center on what type of access to promote.  Should Congress
+   support the addition to the network of many of the expensive
+   capabilities promoted by the advocates of the NREN vision?   What if
+   funds spent here mean that other constituencies such as K-12 do not
+   get adequate support?
+
+Access to the NREN is a key policy issue.
+
+   If network use is as important for improving research and education
+   as its supporters allege it to be, Congress may wish to address the
+   issue of why, at institutions presently connected to the network,
+   only a small minority of students and faculty are active users.  If
+   it examines the network reality carefully, Congress may sense that it
+   is time to leverage investment in the network by improving the
+   network's visibility and usability within the communities it is
+   supposed to serve through improved documentation and training rather
+   than by blindly underwriting massive increases in speed.
+
+How Far To Extend Network Access?
+
+   With the broadening discussion of the NREN vision, expectations of
+   many segments of the population not originally intended to be served
+   by the network have been raised.  An avid group of educators wishing
+   to use the network in K-12 education has arisen.  If
+   commercialization brought significant price increases, it could
+   endanger the very access these educators now have to the network.
+
+   Native Americans have begun to ask for access to the network.  How
+   will Congress respond to them?  And to the general library community
+   which with the Coalition for Networked Information has been avidly
+   pressing its desires for NREN funds?  And to state and local
+   government networks?
+
+   Congress should recognize that choices about network access for these
+   broader constituencies will be made at two levels.  Access for large
+
+
+
+Cook                                                            [Page 6]
+
+RFC 1527                Cook Report on Internet           September 1993
+
+
+   numbers could be purchased by the government from commercial
+   providers at considerable expense - an unlikely development in view
+   of the Federal budget deficit.  In the meantime, given the current
+   mix of government supported and commercial providers, the environment
+   for these user classes is quite competitive.  Those who are able to
+   pay their own way can generally gain access to the network from a
+   choice of providers at reasonable cost.  Congress can act on behalf
+   of these constituencies by ensuring that the market for the
+   provisioning of network services remains open and competitive.  Short
+   of either regulating the industry or establishing a new government
+   operated network, careful use of subsidies will have the most impact
+   on ensuring an open and competitive network.  Congress can also
+   choose to view access as a function of price.  If Congress does opt
+   for this course, it has several choices to ensure that prices will be
+   affordable.  It could seek to impose regulations on the network
+   providers through the FCC at a national level or urge the state PUCs
+   to do it at the local level.  (Of course the viability of state PUC
+   regulation, becomes questionable by the near certainty that there
+   would be little uniformity in how the PUCs in each state would treat
+   a national service.)  Congress also could impose a tariff on network
+   providers profits and use the tariff to subsidize universal access.
+   It should, of course, understand that these courses of action would
+   raise touchy questions of conflicts between Federal and state
+   jurisdiction.
+
+   Congress may also have been vague in dealing with these broader
+   network constituencies, because it wishes to sidestep making these
+   difficult choices.  The origin of most of these choices may be traced
+   to the addition of education policy goals for the Network symbolized
+   by the changing of its name from the National Research Network to the
+   National Research and Education Network in the OSTP Program Plan in
+   September 1989. While this action got the attention and support of
+   new constituencies for the Network, it did not bring any significant
+   shift to the science and mission agency oriented direction of network
+   development.  The legislation remained essentially unchanged:
+   "educators and educational institutions" were as specific as the
+   language of the bills ever got.  Perhaps this was almost on purpose?
+   Having goals that were more specific might imply the need to justify
+   with some precision why some individual segments of the networking
+   community deserved service while some did not.
+
+   Unless Congress were able to construct a separate rationale for the
+   needs of each of the network constituencies - from supercomputer
+   users to grade school students - specific goal setting by Congress
+   might imply that Congress was arbitrarily judging some network
+   constituencies to be more worthy than others.  This would be a
+   difficult course to follow because those who were left out would want
+   to know what the basis for such a judgment would be?  Solid answers
+
+
+
+Cook                                                            [Page 7]
+
+RFC 1527                Cook Report on Internet           September 1993
+
+
+   would be difficult to come by because networking as enabling
+   educational technology is so new that no one is as yet quite sure how
+   to measure its value.  Without such assurances, it may be difficult
+   for Congress to know how to justify its spread on any other grounds
+   than equity of opportunity.
+
+   Indeed there is a constituency of grass roots-oriented, small-scale
+   network builders allied with elements of the library community.  This
+   constituency suggests that computer networks will very quickly become
+   such powerful means of access to information that lack of access to
+   them will soon will carry serious implications for social and
+   economic equity within the nation.
+
+   These groups can be expected to be very vocal in their demands that
+   some minimal level of access to the national network be widely
+   available and affordable.  They are likely to ask that Congress turn
+   its attention to the feasibility of establishing the goal of
+   universal access to the national network.  Although the technology
+   and economic conditions are quite different from the conditions of
+   the 1934 Communications Act, they are likely to demand action
+   analogous to that.
+
+   Motivated by these concerns, Mitch Kapor has been arguing very
+   eloquently for the building of the NREN as a National Public Network.
+   Asked to define what he saw as being at stake, he said the following
+   to the author in September 1991:
+
+      "Information networking is the ability to communicate by means of
+      digitally-encoded information, whether text, voice, graphics, or
+      video.  Increasingly, it will become the major means for
+      participation in education, commerce, entertainment, and other
+      important social functions.  It is therefore important that all
+      citizens, not just the affluent, have the opportunity to
+      participate in this new medium.  To exclude some is to cut them
+      off from the very means by which they can advance themselves to
+      join the political social and economic mainstream and so consign
+      them to second-class status forever.  This argument is analogous
+      to that which was made in favor of universal voice telephone
+      service - full social participation in American life would require
+      access to a telephone in the home."
+
+   Kapor through his Electronic Frontier Foundation, (EFF) is working
+   hard to make sure that Congress is compelled to address the question
+   of universal network access.  The EFF has also begun to press for the
+   use of ISDN as a technologically affordable means of bringing the
+   benefits of a national network to all Americans.
+
+   If Congress wishes to promote widespread access to the network and to
+
+
+
+Cook                                                            [Page 8]
+
+RFC 1527                Cook Report on Internet           September 1993
+
+
+   design an network that is amenable to widespread use, it will do well
+   to examine carefully the position that the EFF is articulating.  It
+   would also do well to look outside the confines of the Federal
+   Networking Council (FNC) and the FNC Advisory Commission that is made
+   up of members similar in orientation to the FNC and is scheduled for
+   only four meetings and a two-year-long existence.  If it wishes to
+   increase secondary and elementary school access to the network, it
+   could investigate enlarging the very small role granted by the
+   legislation to the Department of Education.  Unfortunately, without
+   careful planning what would be gained by this is unclear.  The
+   Department of Education has never played a significant role in
+   computer networking.  The immediate needs of the K-12 arena are
+   focused mainly around maintaining the existence of affordable low
+   bandwidth access and the support of successful pioneering efforts.
+
+   When Congress states its intentions for the scope of access to the
+   network and, as a part of doing so, sets priorities for investment in
+   network bandwidth versus ease of use, it can then turn its attention
+   only to one other area.
+
+A Corporation for Public Networking?
+
+   Network governance and oversight are key policy issues.
+
+   If Congress has doubts about the current situation, it might want to
+   consider the creation of an entity for NREN management, development,
+   oversight and subsidization more neutral than the NSF.
+
+   Action should be taken to ensure that any such an entity be more
+   representative of the full network constituency than is the NSF.  If
+   Congress decides to sanction network use by a community broader than
+   the scientific and research elite, it must understand the importance
+   of creating a forum that would bring together the complete range of
+   stake holders in the national network.
+
+   While such a forum would not have to be a carbon copy of the
+   Corporation for Public Broadcasting, given the half billion dollars
+   to be spent on the network over the next five years and the very
+   confused and contentious policy picture, it might make sense to spend
+   perhaps a million dollars a year on the creation of an independent
+   oversight and planning agency for the network. Such an entity could
+   report its findings to the Congress and respond to goals formulated
+   by the Congress.
+
+   Congress could declare the development and maintenance of a national
+   public data network infrastructure a matter of national priority. It
+   could make it clear the government will, as it does in issues of
+   national transportation systems, the national financial system, and
+
+
+
+Cook                                                            [Page 9]
+
+RFC 1527                Cook Report on Internet           September 1993
+
+
+   national communications systems, maintain an interest in the
+   development and control of a system that serves both the goals of
+   improved education and new technology development.
+
+   To carry out such a mandate, a Corporation for Public Networking
+   (CPN) could have fifteen governors nominated by the members of the
+   network community and subject to the approval of the Congress.
+
+   Each governor would represent a network constituency.
+
+               1. The NSF
+               2. Department of Energy
+               3. National Aeronautics & Space Administration
+               4. Advanced Research Projects Agency
+               5. Corporate Users
+               6. K-12
+               7. Higher Education
+               8. Public Libraries & State and Local Networks
+               9. Commercial Network Information Service Providers
+              10. Interexchange Carriers such as AT&T, MCI, Sprint, etc.
+              11. The Regional Bell Operating Companies
+              12. Personal Computer Users
+              13. Computer Manufacturers
+              14. Disabled Users
+              15. University Computing
+
+   Since the legislation calls for backbone nodes in all 50 states, such
+   a structure would be a reasonable way to coordinate Federal support
+   for the network on a truly national basis - one that, by
+   acknowledging the network as a national resource, would give
+   representation to the full breadth of its constituencies.  Governors
+   could use the network to sample and help to articulate the national
+   concerns of their respective constituencies.
+
+   If it adopted these goals, Congress could give a CPN a range of
+   powers:
+
+         1.   The CPN could be a forum for the expression of the
+              interests of all NREN constituencies.  In the event the
+              network were to be administered by the NSF, it could be
+              serve as a much more accurate sounding board of network
+              user concerns than the FNC or the FNC Advisory Council.
+
+         2.   The CPN could be authorized to make recommendations to NSF
+              and other agencies about how funds should be distributed.
+
+              Such recommendations could include truly independent
+              assessments of the technical needs of the network
+
+
+
+Cook                                                           [Page 10]
+
+RFC 1527                Cook Report on Internet           September 1993
+
+
+              community and the most cost effective ways of achieving
+              them.
+
+         3.   The CPN could itself be given responsibility for funding
+              distribution.  Such responsibilities would incur an
+              increase in administrative costs and staff.  Nevertheless,
+              by creating an opportunity to start a process from scratch
+              and one that would consequently be free of the vested
+              interests of the National Science Foundation in high-end
+              network solutions, Congress would likely get a clearer
+              picture of where and how effectively public monies were
+              being expended. With such responsibility the CPN could
+              also keep extensive pressure on network providers to
+              remain interconnected.  When thinking about cost, Congress
+              should also remember that effective oversight of subsidies
+              funneled through NSF would imply the hiring of extra staff
+              within that agency as well.
+
+         4.   Congress might want to ask a CPN to examine the use of the
+              $200 million in NREN R&D monies. Policy direction
+              dictating the spending of Federal funds is still suffering
+              from the fuzzy boundaries between the network as a tool
+              for leveraging technology competitiveness into commercial
+              networking environments and the network as a tool to
+              facilitate science and education.  If Congress decides
+              that the major policy direction of the network should be
+              to develop the network for use as a tool in support of
+              science and education, then it may want monies directed
+              toward ARPA to be focused on improved databases, user
+              interfaces and user tools like knowbots rather than a
+              faster network used by fewer and fewer people.  A CPN that
+              was representative of the breadth of the network's user
+              constituencies could provide better guidance than the
+              FCCSET or ARPA for spending Federal subsidies aimed at
+              adding new capabilities to the network.
+
+         5.   Additional levels of involvement could have the CPN act as
+              a national quasi-board of networking public utilities.  It
+              could be given an opportunity to promote low cost access
+              plans developed by commercial providers.  If it borrowed
+              some of the fund raising structure of National Public
+              Radio, it should be able to raise very significant funds
+              from grass roots users at the individual and small
+              business level who are made to feel that they have a stake
+              in its operation.
+
+         6.   If congress wanted to increase further the role given the
+              CPN, it could decide that with network commercialization
+
+
+
+Cook                                                           [Page 11]
+
+RFC 1527                Cook Report on Internet           September 1993
+
+
+              and technology transfer goals completed, the majority of
+              the NREN funds go to the CPN which could then put out a
+              bid for a CPN backbone.  In effect Congress could dictate
+              that the backbone announced by the NSF for implementation
+              in 1993 be implemented and run as a joint project between
+              the NSF and a CPN.
+
+              All entities should be considered eligible to join and use
+              the CPN in support of research and education.  Commercial
+              companies who wanted to use the CPN to interact with the
+              academic community should pay a commercial rate to do so.
+
+              With the availability of a parallel commercial network,
+              commercial restrictions on the CPN could be very much
+              loosened to include anything in support of research and
+              education.  The CPN would study and report to Congress on
+              how gateways between commercial TCP/IP networks and the
+              CPN network could be maintained.
+
+         7.   Some suggest that the Congress go even further. These
+              people emphasize that a replacement for the R&D aspects of
+              the Internet in the context of commercialization and
+              privatization is uncertain.  Bell Labs and Bellcore remain
+              as the research arms of the Public Switched Telephone
+              Network.  However neither of them have ever developed
+              major strengths in wide area data networking. Nor do they
+              appear to be likely to do so in the near future.  Despite
+              this situation, the major private investment made in the
+              Gigabit Testbeds indicate that the american
+              telecommunications industry feels a need to invest in
+              continued research.  This is something that the current
+              commercial players are too small to do.  Furthermore, it
+              is something that the larger players driven by pressure to
+              report quarterly profits may find difficult to do.
+
+              Congress could make a decision that Federal investment in
+              the technology should emphasize less pump-priming to
+              increase the pace of what most see as inevitable
+              commercialization and more the continued building of new
+              networking technology for both technology transfer and
+              support of the technology as an enabling tool.  In this
+              case Congress could direct the CPN to plan, deploy and
+              manage a state of the art public information
+              infrastructure. With goals for constituencies and levels
+              of service defined, the CPN could produce for Congress
+              multiple scenarios for developing and maintaining two
+              networks.
+
+
+
+
+Cook                                                           [Page 12]
+
+RFC 1527                Cook Report on Internet           September 1993
+
+
+              The first would be an experimental network where the very
+              newest technologies could be explored.  It could be very
+              similar to the current gigabit testbeds but this time with
+              all five projects linked together.  The second would be a
+              state-of-the-art operational network that can provide wide
+              spread field trials of technology developed on the
+              experimental network. With the maturation of the
+              technology on the operational network it would be
+              available for open transfer to commercial service.  It
+              should be remembered that such a continuous widespread
+              network R&D environment would provide wide spread training
+              experience for graduate students that would otherwise be
+              unavailable.
+
+              Initial seed money would come from public funds. However,
+              the bulk of support could come from a percentage of
+              profits (as cash or in kind contributions) that
+              participating companies would be required to contribute to
+              the CPN as the price of admission for developing and
+              benefiting from new technology.  Care should be taken in
+              structuring contributions in a way that small start-up
+              firms would not be locked out.  To ensure this, Congress
+              could mandate that the CPN commissioners (perhaps with
+              appropriate oversight from the National Academy of
+              Sciences, the IEEE, or the ACM) develop a plan to ensure
+              that the cost of entry to such a testbed not exceed the
+              capitalization of the current small commercial players.
+
+              It could also require the development of proposals to
+              handle the issues of interconnection billing, billing for
+              actual use versus size of connection, and interoperability
+              among network providers.
+
+              A different financing model could be explored if the CPN
+              were instructed to report on the feasibility of selling
+              shares to commercial carriers in a national networking
+              testbed and R&E network where carriers could, over a long
+              term basis, develop and mature new networking technologies
+              before transferring them to the commercial marketplace.
+
+        8.    In its November 1, 1991 recommendations to the National
+              Science Foundation, FARNET suggested that the NSF should
+              consider the issuance of several separate solicitations
+              for the development of software tools for end-user
+              applications and network management and operations.  To
+              emphasize its point it added:  "we believe that the lack
+              of useful tools for information retrieval and display is
+              one of the biggest impediments to the productive use of
+
+
+
+Cook                                                           [Page 13]
+
+RFC 1527                Cook Report on Internet           September 1993
+
+
+              the network and has impaired the credibility of the NREN
+              in the eyes of the target user populations."  FARNET
+              admonished the NSF to emphasize open architectures and
+              standards in its solicitations, adding that "where
+              standards are not adequately understood or developed, the
+              NSF should support programs to test, evaluate and improve
+              them."
+
+              FARNET concluded by recommending
+
+                   "that the NSF, working with the user community and
+                   the providers, define and implement clear criteria
+                   for the award of additional funding to mid-level and
+                   campus networks . . . The new criteria should be
+                   designed to further . . . goals such as the extension
+                   of network services to new or underserved communities
+                   (for ubiquity); the improvement of network
+                   operations, procedures and tools (for reliability);
+                   the enhancement of existing services through
+                   development activities, upgrading of existing
+                   connections to 'have not' institutions; leveraging of
+                   state, local, and private funds (to maximize the
+                   impact of Federal investment), and training and
+                   support for end-users (in cooperation with national
+                   and local programs)."
+
+              If a CPN is created, it should be directly involved with
+              working toward these important goals.  If implementation
+              of the network is left to the National Science Foundation,
+              Congress should emphasize the importance of the NSF's
+              meeting these goals.
+
+         9.   Finally, a strong and broad-based CPN might be able to
+              make recommendations to Congress on the identification and
+              resolution of problems of telecommunications policy
+              engendered by the continued growth of this network
+              technology.  It could perhaps play an educational role in
+              advising state Public Utilities Commissions on the long
+              term implications of their decisions.
+
+Summary
+
+   Policy makers must soon decide whether the National Research and
+   Education Network is a public or a private good.  Although
+   privatization appears to be proceeding apace, since the network
+   backbone will be rebid, there should be time for some careful
+   planning for the development and evolution of what can, within 10 to
+   20 years, become an extraordinarily powerful system that is as
+
+
+
+Cook                                                           [Page 14]
+
+RFC 1527                Cook Report on Internet           September 1993
+
+
+   ubiquitous as the current telephone network and provides all
+   Americans with access to information in much the same way as public
+   libraries were created for a similar purpose a century ago.
+
+   Congress must understand that the NREN is not just a new technology
+   (indeed much is of it is old technology), but has the potential to
+   become the most powerful means of access to information ever created.
+   Within this context it must decide whom the NREN shall serve.  It
+   must decide whom shall have access to the NREN.
+
+   Once it has done this further options fall into four major areas:
+
+              First:    Congress must decide degree of oversight
+                        that is necessary to extend to the network. Such
+                        oversight could range from legislating that the
+                        FCC regulate the network, to strict reviews of
+                        the NSF's actions, to vesting oversight powers
+                        in a Corporation for Public Networking.
+
+              Second:   It must decide whether the appropriate place to
+                        subsidize technology transfer is within a
+                        privatized operational NREN or within the
+                        experimental gigabit testbeds.  Without a better
+                        understanding both of how the technologies are
+                        evolving in the commercial market place, and the
+                        evolution of both the testbeds and the NREN, it
+                        will be difficult to make make a wise decision.
+                        In addition, we must expect that the nature of
+                        its choice will be further influenced by its
+                        decision on whom the network is to serve.
+
+              Third:    It must decide whether to subsidize a backbone
+                        for an NREN.  If it does subsidize such a
+                        backbone, it must decide whether it shall be
+                        built as a private network or as a part of the
+                        PSTN.
+
+              Fourth:   It must decide whether to subsidize additional
+                        connectivity or broader use within connected
+                        institutions or both.  In other words, should
+                        more institutions be connected to the network,
+                        or should the network be made easier to use by
+                        the members of those institutions already
+                        connected?
+
+   To the extent that Congress chooses to pursue options three and four,
+   it will want to explore the scenario for the Corporation for Public
+   Networking discussed above.
+
+
+
+Cook                                                           [Page 15]
+
+RFC 1527                Cook Report on Internet           September 1993
+
+
+   Access to information is access to power.  The creation of a National
+   Research and Education Network based on the NSFnet and the remainder
+   of the american Internet will mean the creation of a national
+   information access system of unprecedented power.  In its ability to
+   affect the lives and well being of Americans, the NREN, if properly
+   designed, will be just as significant as the national Interstate
+   highway system and the national electric power grid.  The national
+   highway, or the national power grid, or the national telephone system
+   could serve as models for implementation.  The Federal Government
+   provides a public but otherwise unregulated Interstate highway system
+   with universal access available to all Americans.  Private industry
+   provides our electric power.  However, it was allowed to do so only
+   in return for submitting to Federal and state regulation designed to
+   ensure affordable national access by all citizens. The national
+   telephone system has been established under a similar "social
+   contract".  If the nation is not to be dangerously split into
+   information rich and information poor classes, policy makers have
+   about five years in which to choose a Federally provided National
+   network, or a privately provided but nationally regulated network.
+
+   During the development and maturation of the national network, policy
+   makers should also be very attentive to its impact on the public
+   switched telephone network (PSTN). The technology involved and the
+   speed with which it is changing will only increase the potentially
+   serious impact from the freedom of unregulated components of the
+   telecommunications industry to pursue market solutions that will keep
+   regulated companies from becoming viable players.  We must realize
+   that we are about to enter a power struggle for the control of the
+   information resources of the 21st century that promises to be every
+   bit as harsh and bruising as the power struggle for natural resources
+   was at the end of the last century.
+
+   While the intentions of most appear to be good, as this study has
+   shown, the playing field is terribly confused. Gigabit technology (if
+   properly understood) is desirable. Still we should take great care
+   that its cost does not raise the price of low bandwidth or "low end"
+   entry into the network.
+
+   Lack of a specific definition of communities to be served, lack of an
+   agreed upon plan for how they shall be served, and lack of funds to
+   serve everyone have combined to create the present chaotic situation
+   in which many of the players have been motivated primarily by a
+   desire to increase their institutional role in order to get larger
+   Federal allocations of funds.
+
+   In the absence of both a well-thought-out plan agreed to by all
+   parties and adequate monetary support, the grand push to accelerate
+   both the speed and scope of the technology could have the ironic role
+
+
+
+Cook                                                           [Page 16]
+
+RFC 1527                Cook Report on Internet           September 1993
+
+
+   of weakening the entire foundation of the network.  Until the
+   Congress provides more direction, the squabbling that has developed
+   is likely to continue.  In the absence of such direction, at best
+   large sums of public funds may be ineffectively spent, and at worst a
+   picture of empire building could emerge that would make any Federal
+   support for research or educational networking unlikely.
+
+   Such an outcome should be avoided because the potential of a well
+   designed and developed network to do great good in both policy arenas
+   is very significant.  Unfortunately with the NSF under mounting
+   criticism, ANS on the defensive and rumored to be financially
+   weakened, and Congressional hearings scheduled for mid-March, the
+   potential for a destructive free-for-all is very great.
+
+Security Considerations
+
+   Security issues are not discussed in this memo.
+
+Author's Address
+
+   Gordon Cook, Editor and Publisher
+   COOK Report on Internet
+   431 Greenway Ave
+   Ewing, NJ 08618
+
+   Phone: (609) 882-2572
+   EMail: cook@path.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
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+
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+
+
+Cook                                                           [Page 17]
+
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