Subject: n-1-4-fill5

NSF Provides New Latin American Connectivity

by Steve Goldstein <goldstein@nsf.gov>

The National Science Foundation has
initiated a project to assist Latin American and Caribbean countries'
academic and research networks to connect to the Global Internet and
thereby to promote collaboration in research and education.  The project is
included in the overall International Connections Management (ICM)
Project which NSF awarded to Sprint in early 1991.

Specifically, ICM/Sprint will locate a router
at the PanAmSat teleport in Homestead, Florida.  Many Latin American
countries use PanAmSat as part of their international interconnections
and domestic telecommunications infrastructures.  Latin American and
Caribbean research and education networks such as  Costa Rica's CRnet,
Ecuador's ECUAnet, and
Peru's RCP will connect to the ICMnet router at Homestead.  The router will
be connected via a private T1 circuit to the ICMnet router in Washington,
D.C. which, in turn, is connected to a newly-forming Global Internet
EXchange (GIX) in the Washington area.  In addition to the global connectivity
thus afforded, Latin American and Caribbean networks connected to the
router will also be able to connect directly to each other through
the router at Homestead.  This will facilitate regional and inter-regional
networking in Latin America and the Caribbean areas on an interim basis
until more permanent solutions for regional networks are implemented.
The Homestead installation had been expected to be operational in late 1992,
but has been delayed in the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew to early January 1993.

Normally, external networks pay membership and/or management fees
to connect to networks which "host" their connections.  In the case of
the NSF-ICM project, NSF will pay Sprint a "port" management fee for
each connection to the Homestead router from Latin America and the Caribbean.