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The NSFNET Backbone ServiceThe Nation's First High-Speed Backbone Network
From 1987 until April 1995, Merit managed and re-engineered the NSFNET Backbone Service project in partnership with the National
Science Foundation , ANS, IBM, MCI, and the State of Michigan.
Part of NSF's ongoing high-speed computing and communications infrastructure initiatives, the NSFNET program from its inception was
the foundation of the U.S. Internet and the main catalyst for the explosion in computer networking around the world that followed. The
NSFNET backbone service, the basis of the larger NSFNET program, linked scientists and educators located on university campuses in the
United States to each other and to their counterparts located in universities, laboratories, and research centers all over the world.
The partnership of academia, industry, and government that built the NSFNET backbone service also pioneered a model of technology transfer.
From 217 networks connected in July of 1988 to more than 50,000 in April of 1995 when the NSFNET backbone service was retired, the NSFNET's
exponential growth stimulated the expansion of the worldwide Internet and provided a dynamic environment for the development of new communications
technologies.
As we continue to address the challenge of national and global information infrastructure—the next generation of communications infrastructure — we
are fortunate to be guided by the example set by the NSFNET in its successful partnership for high-speed networking.
The final NSFNET report is available below as a PDF document, which requires Adobe Acrobat Reader to view/print.
Adobe Acrobat Reader can be downloaded for free from
Adobe.
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