Network Research


Page Title: Network Research Page Address: http://www.merit.edu/networkresearch/index.php

Network Research Overview

Merit was founded by research faculty, and research remains the wellspring of innovation at Merit today. Our statewide network, is an ideal laboratory and testbed for new Internet technologies and services. As described by Eric Aupperle, Merit's first president:

A myth once believed by some is that after a network is installed and working it requires no further development. In reality network technology like computers, continues to evolve. Merit has always been committed to pushing the networking state-of-the-art.

Merit's Networking R&D group collaborates with researchers at Michigan's public schools, colleges, and universities; with industry, and with Internet2.

Current Projects

Some of the historically significant successes of the group have included the development and deployment of the global collection of Internet data known as the Routing Assets Database (RADb); the coordination activities of NANOG—the largest forum for information exchange between network operators; the development of the highly successful GateD routing protocol suite, as well as pioneering development of distributed dial-in and AAA mechanisms. Other research efforts focus on network security (the PREDICT project), visualization (Flamingo), and Web-based statistical analysis tools (BGP::Inspect).

Technology Transfer

Technology transfer is an important legacy of this activity. Over the years Merit has spun off Advanced Network & Services, NextHop Technologies, and Interlink Networks as independent organizations. Merit also worked with IBM, MCI, and the State of Michigan to build the NSFNET Backbone Service from 1987-1995.