network access points

San Francisco NAP





Very high
Band width network
[>155 mbps]


Chicago NAP New York NAP

Network access
Points (NAP) containing
ATM switches for
Fast packet transfer






Figure 3.7 Network access points (NAPs) and high bandwidth architecture (vBNS)
NETWORK ACCESS POINTS (NAPs)
A network access point is a high-speed network or to which a number of routers can be connected for the purpose of traffic exchange and interoperation. NAPs are locations where other networks can connect to the vBNS. It is anticipated that many types of networks will eventually connect to the NAPs. Examples of such networks include other federally sponsored networks, other services providers for research and education, service providers for traffic not limited to the support of research and education, and international networks. NAPs must be able operate at speeds of at least 1.544Mbps (T-1).
According to NSF, NAPs will not be subject to the acceptable usage policy (AUP) and will permit, for example, tow attached networks to exchange traffic without violating the AUP of any other attached networks to exchange traffic without violating the AUP of any other attached network. The Internet’s Acceptable use policy states that only data whose connect type falls under the category of research and education is allowed on the Internet backbone; Commercial business data content is not. This policy, created for commercial network providers to bypass the NSFNET backbone as much as possible.
The NAP is a conceptual evolution of other successful models, namely, Federal Information Exchange (FIX) and the commercial Information Exchange CIX). An interconnection point where multiple commercial meet and exchange traffic, CIX was created to let network providers exchange traffic directly without concern about violating the AUP (See Chapter 4).
Today, the primary NAPs are located in san Francisco, operated by pacific bell; in Chicago, operated by Ameritech; and in pennsauken, New Jersey, operated by sprint. A fourth access point, in Washington, is operated by Metropolitan Fiber Systems. The NAPs are fiber distributed data interface (FDDI)-based rings to which other carriers connect At T-1 or T-3 speeds. Traffic meeting AUP guidelines would be allowed on the vBNS 155-Mbps backbone, but commercial traffic would have to use alternative delivery services that may also be connected to multiple backbones, each serving different customers.
The internal details of each NAP are beyond the scope of this book. They can be obtained from the following addresses:
• San Francisco – Pacific Bell ( http://www.pacbell.com/ )
• Chicago – Ameritech ( http://www.ameritech.com/ )
• New York – sprint ( http://www.sprint.com/)
• Washington, D.C. – Metropolitan Area Fiber ( http://www.mfsdatanet.com/ )