The Division of Research of the Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program proposes to connect its local area network to the NSFNET for the purpose of facilitating its research activities. DOR is applying to the National Science Foundation for a grant to share the cost of hardware, software and communication services to connect its Ethernet local area network to NSFNET, under the "Connections to NSFNET" program through an interagency agreement with the National Library of Medicine. A connection to NSFNET would allow communication between over 150 DOR researchers and colleagues in the academic community, at other medical research institutions and in government agencies, who already have Internet connectivity. It would facilitate the transfer of data, documents and ideas between researchers at DOR and other institutions who are working on collaborative projects and multicenter research studies. It would also provide collaborative projects and multicenter research studies. It would also provide DOR investigators with access to national networks and services and improve access to services which are currently limited by 2400 baud modem connections. To gain access to NSFNET, DOR proposes to connect its LAN to the Bay Area Regional Research Network (BARRNet), a regional data network connected to NSFNET, using a leased line between DOR and a port on the BARRNet backbone at the University of California, Berkeley.
