It is essential for NASA to develop and maintain a leading-edge network platform, both to conduct network research and to support application research. This network must provide connectivity between selected NASA centers and peer with other high-performance networks to enable NASA scientists and researchers to reach their partners within other federal agencies and academia.

The goals of the network are to:

• Enable large data distribution and real-time interactive applications over a wide area, high-speed network.

• Enable distributed access to NASA research and engineering communities.

• Provide access to federal and academic entities via peering with High-Performance Research and Engineering Networks (HPRENs).

NREN is a nationwide hybrid IP-based routed-data wide area network (WAN) consisting of synchronous optical network (SONET), packet over SONET (POS), satellite, fiber, and Ethernet WAN and LAN elements.

Currently the NREN WAN connects four NASA centers and three exchange points with plans to expand to an additional NASA centers in the fall of 2006. It is a hub-based 10 Gigabit Ethernet network with hubs based in Sunnyvale, Calif. and the Washington, DC area. Interconnection of the hubs is the core of the network and NASA centers serve as tail sites that connect to the various hubs. Peering arrangements and satellite connectivity provide additional bandwidth and access to multiple NASA LANs, federal and academic networks, and remote locations.