NSFNET

NSFNET is a wide-area network started by the National Science Foundation (NSF) that went online in 1986 and during the late 1980's and early 1990's was a crucial backbone to ARPANET and the Internet.

NSFNET was a network for research computing deployed in the mid-1980s that in time also became the first backbone infrastructure for the commercial public Internet. Created as a result of a 1985 National Science Foundation (NSF) initiative, NSFNET established a high-speed connection among the five NSF supercomputer centers and the National Center for Atmospheric Research, and provided external access for scientists, researchers, and engineers who were not located near the computing centers.