9321047 Liebhaber MCI will provide the NSFNET very high speed Backbone Network Service (vBNS) as defined in project solicitation NSF 93-52. This service will be operated from MCI's production telecommunications infrastructure based on SONET technology. Five supercomputer center (SCCs) and the NSF designated Network Access Points (NAPs) will be interconnected to the vBNS. Access to the vBNS will commence at SONET OC-3 data rates (155 Mbps) with Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) access and will increase to gigabit per second rates over the 5 year award period. OC-12 access (655 Mbps) is estimated to be available by 1996. By 1998 an OC-192 (9.6 Gbits/sec) SONET backbone with OC-48 (2.$ GBits/sec) access to SCCs is anticipated. MCI will make a Testnet available in support of experimentation with new telecommunications technologies.
