What is the vBNS? The vBNS is the "very high performance Backbone Network Service" funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and managed by MCI-WorldCom. Originally developed to link the 6 national supercomputer centers at high speeds, the vBNS was expanded to connect about 100 research universities under the Connections to the Internet Program.  The NSF backbone uses ATM technology Learn more about the vBNS network, who's connected to it, performance statistics, etc. What is Abilene? Abilene is a network built by Internet2 member institutions; it employs IP over Sonet technology. Learn more about the Abilene network here.   UAB's Connection to the vBNS UAB connected to the vBNS in April 1998, at DS-3 (45 megabits/second).  That connection was increased to OC12 (155 megabits/second), shared with UAH and UA.  In March 2000, UAB changed from vBNS to Abilene service. UAB's connection was funded by NSF Grant 9729500. Project Description: "High Performance Connection for Research Universities in Alabama" Announcement: NSF Award 9729500 Principle Investigators and Co-Investigators View proposal here Year 1 Progress Report   Meritorious Research Applications The need for higher-performance networks is applications driven. A variety of research and education applications were severely limited by the commodity Internet technology.  Descriptions of the meritorious research applications.   Project Architecture and Implementation Schedule Implementation Schedule Description of UAB's high performance network Equipment and network topology Campus infrastructure upgrades   Contacts Who do I contact for more information? UAB Internet2 Project Team UAB Internet2 Press Contacts: Dr. David Shealy 205-934-4736 dls@uab.edu Deborah Lucas  205-934-8946  dgl@uab.edu Related Items of Interest EDUCAUSE Post-vBNS report to the NSF   Related Activities: Gulf Central GigaPoP,  a regional high performance network Alabama Research and Education Network (AREN) Southern Crossroads (SoX), a regional high performance network

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 9729500.

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