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 The
early 1980s also saw other ER research programs joining
established computer networks. Many university research
groups began to use the electronic mail and file transfer
facilities of BITnet or ARPAnet to communicate
with their collaborators at the national laboratories.
Other university groups found it necessary to lease
direct connections to mainframe computers located
at remote laboratories where those groups' research
activities were concentrated.
By
the mid-1980s, the HEP program had
developed an extensive network of leased lines (mostly
operating at 9600 bps) that interconnected the main
particle-accelerator laboratories with numerous other
sites. Until that time, ad hoc network management
by volunteers from the HEP community had served the
de facto HEPnet well. However, this system
was expected to encounter serious difficulties managing
the substantial upgrades that had become imperative
as HEPnet utilization began to extend beyond the HEP
community.
Later
in FY 1985, Dr. Alvin Trivelpiece, then Director of
Energy Research, charged OER's Scientific Computing
Staff (now the Office of Scientific Computing) with
surveying computer networking requirements across
all the ER programs and evaluating the status of existing
network facilities. As a result of these findings,
Dr. Trivelpiece recommended that the MFEnet and
HEPnet initiatives be combined into what would become
ESnet, in order to optimize the efficiency and
functionality of ER-wide networking. In a special
presentation made in response to the survey's findings,
the SCS staff set forth a number of more specific
recommendations that became the foundations of ESnet.
The
staff recommended the formation of the Energy Sciences
Network Steering Committee to represent the ER scientific
community. The SCS staff also proposed an evolutionary
model for the development of the new network and endorsed
a phased approach to achieving long-term networking
goals.
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