






                                       SWITCH


            _A_d_d_r_e_s_s:
            SWITCH Geschaeftsstelle
            ETH-Zentrum
            CH-8092 Zurich
            SWITZERLAND

            _E-_m_a_i_l: ch-zone-contact@verw.switch.ch

            _P_h_o_n_e: +41 1 261 8188


            _D_e_s_c_r_i_p_t_i_o_n

            SWITCH is a foundation, sponsored by the government and  the
            Swiss  universities,  providing  teleinformatics services to
            all Swiss universities and to various research institutes by
            connecting  to  national and international resources. SWITCH
            started operation in October 1988.

            SWITCHlan is a national backbone network which connects  all
            universities   using   leased   lines  with  speeds  between
            128kbit/s and 2Mbit/s.  For routing on these national leased
            lines  SWITCH uses CISCO router-bridges.  The protocols sup-
            ported are DECnet, TCP/IP, X.25 and ISO IP.

            All Swiss supercomputers are connected to SWITCHlan.  Access
            to some library catalogs will become available later on.

            International connections on the network level will go  into
            operation in January 1990:

            -    IP connection to CERN with 128kbit/s.

            -    IP connection  to  the  Internet/NSFnet  with  64kbit/s
                 through INRIA, France to Princeton University, USA.

            A connection to the COSINE/IXI pilot X.25  network  will  be
            realized in the first quarter of 1990.

            _________________________
            The information in this section is provided  in  accor-
            dance  with the copyright notice appearing at the front
            of this guide.




            28 November 1989            NNSC       Section 5.24,  Page 1








            SWITCHmail is the national X.400 MHS network which  connects
            the  universities and research institutes to the ADMD of the
            Swiss PTT and through RARE MHS to research MHS  networks  in
            19 countries. Gateways to EARN/BITNET, EUnet/UUCP and Inter-
            net are offered by SWITCH too.

            In RARE (Reseaux  Associes  pour  la  Recherche  Europeenne,
            European research network organisation), SWITCH is an active
            partner in the RARE MHS pilot project and it  will  partici-
            pate in the pilot X.500 Directory Service project and in the
            COSINE Information Service project.

            _N_e_t_w_o_r_k _A_c_c_e_s_s

            Any host on the network of a member organization may  access
            the network.

            _W_h_o _C_a_n _U_s_e _t_h_e _N_e_t_w_o_r_k

            SWITCH networks can only be used for academic  and  research
            traffic.

            _M_i_s_c_e_l_l_a_n_e_o_u_s _I_n_f_o_r_m_a_t_i_o_n

            Fax number: +41 1 261 8133


























            28 November 1989            NNSC       Section 5.24,  Page 2


