This proposal seeks to establish the Califorinia Education and Research Federation Network (CERFnet), a regional network in California, which will provide enhanced communication among researchers and the significant resources made available through NSFNET. CERFnet will provide the needed high-speed access to the supercomputer resources, national data bases, and specialized software at the NSF sponsored supercomputer centers and between groups of researchers as they collaborate. While some of the CERF members currently have medium-speed (56,000 bits per second) access to the NSFNET Backbone, a substantial increase in bandwidth (to 1.5 million bits per second) and connectivity is needed to encourage usage by making access easy, fast, and inexpensive. The research support to be provided by this federation in the form of training, consulting, documentation, seminars, and improved communications is an important element in making supercomputer resources more accessible to academic and industrial institutions in California and to provide the infrastructure for collaborative research and education projects.
