What is the difference between the vBNS and Abilene?
The vBNS, created in 1995 in partnership with the National Science Foundation (NSF), provides to NSF designated organizations a high performance production research platform with service features and performance characteristics designed to be “one step ahead” of what is currently available in the commercial Internet. In addition to the production network, MCI also provides, as part of the vBNS program, a separate standalone testnet for the investigation of new routing and switching technologies, new service features and network performance experimentation. Abilene, under development by the University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development (UCAID) in partnership with Qwest Communications, Nortel (Northern Telecom) and Cisco Systems, is planned to be a high-performance network dedicated to the support of the UCAID membership. Abilene is scheduled for initial operation in early 1999. Below are 14 highlights to help outline the unique, and unequalled, features and functionality alre
