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From: morgan@jessica.stanford.edu (RL "Bob" Morgan)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.lans
Subject: Re: ARPANET & NSFNET: performance
Message-ID: <1990Jun4.171812.21900@portia.Stanford.EDU>
Date: 4 Jun 90 17:18:12 GMT
References: <1990Jun2.214632.10217@Neon.Stanford.EDU>
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Byung S. Lee writes:

> 1. Does anyone have any result of performance measurement on the ARPANET,
>    and/or know about any published materials containing such information?
>    I want to get some cost parameters such as latency and throughput
>    that have been `measured'.

Hmm,  I don't know for sure, but you should check some of the issues
of the SigComm Review, the publication of the ACM Speical Interest
Group on Communications.

> 2. Can anyone give me info about NSFNET?  I heard that it is replacing
>    ARPANET to connect research institutes around the entire U.S.A. and
>    runs faster than ARPANET.  Specifically, I want to know its data rate
>    (Is 150Kbps correct?) and a reference I can cite for the data rate.

Well, NSFNET and the various regional networks it connects have by now
completely replaced the ARPANET.  At Stanford, for example, ARPANET
ceased to carry any off-campus traffic in June of 1989, as I recall.
NSFNET currently uses T1 links between nodes (1.5 Mbps), but I believe
splits them into thirds, so any circuit between two NSFNET routers is
500 kbps.  At some point (maybe already) this is intended to be
dynamically variable in response to offered traffic.  In the near
future the T1 links will be upgraded to T3 (45 Mbps).

You can get lots of info about NSFNET (including complete statistics
reports for all nodes) by poking around with anonymous FTP to the host
nis.nsf.net.  Note that it's an IBM 4381, so it's a little clumsy to
maneuver on if you're used to Unix.

 - RL "Bob" Morgan
   Networking Systems
   Stanford