Editing Internet exchange point (section)

==History==
{{globalize|section|United States|date=March 2025}}
[[File:NewNSFNETArchitecture.jpg|thumb|upright=2.0|[[NSFNet]] Internet architecture, {{circa|1995}}]]

Internet exchange points began as '''Network Access Points''' or '''NAPs''', a key component of [[Al Gore]]'s [[National Information Infrastructure]] (NII) plan, which defined the transition from the US Government-paid-for [[National Science Foundation Network|NSFNET]] era (when Internet access was government sponsored and commercial traffic was prohibited) to the commercial Internet of today. The four Network Access Points (NAPs) were defined as transitional data communications facilities at which Network Service Providers (NSPs) would exchange traffic, in replacement of the publicly financed [[NSFNET]] Internet backbone.<ref>[http://w2.eff.org/Infrastructure/Govt_docs/nsf_nren.rfp NSF Solicitation 93-52] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305030153/https://w2.eff.org/Infrastructure/Govt_docs/nsf_nren.rfp |date=2016-03-05 }} - Network Access Point Manager, Routing Arbiter, Regional Network Providers, and Very High Speed Backbone Network Services Provider for NSFNET and the NREN(SM) Program, May 6, 1993</ref><ref name=prescriptive-policy-guide>{{cite web |last=Woodcock |first=Bill |author-link=Bill Woodcock |title=Prescriptive Policy Guide for Developing Nations Wishing to Encourage the Formation of a Domestic Internet Industry |publisher=[[Packet Clearing House]] |date=March 2001 |url=https://www.pch.net/resources/papers/policy-guide/policy-guide.html |access-date=10 August 2021 |archive-date=3 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210603065525/https://www.pch.net/resources/Papers/policy-guide/policy-guide.html |url-status=live }}</ref>  The [[National Science Foundation]] let contracts supporting the four NAPs, one to [[Metropolitan Fiber Systems|MFS Datanet]] for the preexisting [[MAE-East]] in Washington, D.C., and three others to [[Sprint Nextel|Sprint]], [[Ameritech]], and [[Pacific Bell]], for new facilities of various designs and technologies, in New York (actually [[Pennsauken, New Jersey]]), Chicago, and California, respectively.<ref>[http://www.merit.edu/mail.archives/mjts/1994-03/msg00001.html E-mail regarding Network Access Points from Steve Wolff (NSF) to the com-priv list] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029195813/http://www.merit.edu/mail.archives/mjts/1994-03/msg00001.html |date=2013-10-29 }}, sent 13:51 EST 2 March 1994</ref>  As a transitional strategy, they were effective, providing a bridge from the Internet's beginnings as a government-funded academic experiment, to the modern Internet of many private-sector competitors collaborating to form a network-of-networks, transporting Internet bandwidth from its points-of-production at Internet exchange points to its sites-of-consumption at users' locations.

This transition was particularly timely, coming hard on the heels of the [[National_Science_Foundation_Network#Controversy|ANS CO+RE controversy]],<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.cookreport.com/ |title=The Cook Report on the Internet |access-date=10 August 2021 |archive-date=5 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210805001912/http://cookreport.com/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>[http://www.cookreport.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=216:310&catid=53:1995&Itemid=63 "A Critical Look at the University of Michigan's Role in the 1987 Merit Agreement"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210810194235/http://www.cookreport.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=216:310&catid=53:1995&Itemid=63 |date=10 August 2021 }}, Chetly Zarko in ''The Cook Report on the Internet'', January 1995, pp. 9–17</ref> which had disturbed the nascent industry, led to congressional hearings,<ref>[http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/search/recordDetails.jsp?ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED350986&searchtype=keyword&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&_pageLabel=RecordDetails&accno=ED350986&_nfls=false Management of NSFNET] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130728150959/http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/search/recordDetails.jsp?ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED350986&searchtype=keyword&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&_pageLabel=RecordDetails&accno=ED350986&_nfls=false |date=28 July 2013 }}, a transcript of the March 12, 1992, hearing before the Subcommittee on Science of the [[Committee on Science, Space, and Technology]], U.S. House of Representatives, [[One Hundred Second Congress]], Second Session, Hon. [[Rick Boucher]], subcommittee chairman, presiding</ref> resulted in a law allowing NSF to promote and use networks that carry commercial traffic,<ref>[http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d102:S.1146: Scientific and Advanced-Technology Act of 1992] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160705025503/http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d102:S.1146: |date=5 July 2016 }}, Public Law No: 102-476, 43 U.S.C. 1862(g)</ref> prompted a review of the administration of NSFNET by the NSF's Inspector General (no serious problems were found),<ref>[https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/stis1993/oig9301/oig9301.txt Review of NSFNET] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170706035156/https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/stis1993/oig9301/oig9301.txt |date=6 July 2017 }}, Office of the Inspector General, National Science Foundation, 23 March 1993</ref> and caused commercial operators to realize that they needed to be able to communicate with each other independent of third parties or at neutral exchange points.

Although the three telco-operated NAPs faded into obscurity relatively quickly after the expiration of the federal subsidies, [[MAE-East]], thrived for fifteen more years, and its west-coast counterpart [[MAE-West]] continued for more than twenty years.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Garfinkel |first1=Simson |title=Where Streams Converge |url=https://simson.net/clips/1996/96.HW.MAE_West.pdf |date=11 September 1996 |access-date=11 November 2021 |archive-date=11 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211111123341/https://simson.net/clips/1996/96.HW.MAE_West.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

Today, the phrase "Network Access Point" is of historical interest only, since the four transitional NAPs disappeared long ago, replaced by hundreds of modern Internet exchange points, though in Spanish-speaking [[Latin America]], the phrase lives on to a small degree, among those who conflate the NAPs with IXPs.{{citation needed|date=August 2023}}