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The History of NANOG

NANOG History is linked to the National Science Foundation funding as outlined in the NSFNET FinalReport, 1987-1995, which you can view here. In 1987, a MeritNetwork, Inc. led consortium won a $39 million grant from the National Science Foundation to re-engineer and manage the NSFNET, the first national high-speed Internet backbone for research and education.

From 1987 until April 1995, Merit managed and re-engineered the NSFNET Backbone Service project in partnership with the National Science Foundation, ANS, IBM, MCI, and the State of Michigan.

 

NANOG's activity from 1994 - 2012

Funding from NANOG originally came from the National Science Foundation, as part of two projects Merit Network, Inc. undertook in partnership with NSF and other organizations:  the NSFNET Backbone Service and the RoutingArbiterProject.

Specifically, NANOG evolved from the NSFNET “Regional-Techs” meetings, where technical staff from the regional networks met to discuss operation issues of common concern.  At the February 1994 regional techs meeting in San Diego, the group revised its charter to include a broader base of network service providers, and subsequently adopted NANOG as its new name. 

 

  • From 1994 to 2010, Merit coordinated and managed the activities of the North American Network Operators' Group (NANOG). NANOG evolved from the "Regional-Techs" meetings that were part of the NSFNET project, and became an important forum for the exchange of technical information and discussion of implementation issues among network service providers.

 

 

  • In October 2005 the NANOGCharter was amended and the first NANOG Elections were held.  The NANOG Steering Committee was implemented.

 

  • April 7, 2010, the elected NANOG leadership (Steering Committee) sent this letter to Merit, stating their intention to form an independent, self-governing organization to operate NANOG meetings on behalf of the community.

 

  • April 12, 2010 Merit responded with this letter, expressing their concerns but agreeing to work with the Steering Committee on a transition plan resulting in a change of control after the NANOG 51 meeting in February, 2011.

 

  • May 11, 2010 NewNOG, Inc. is officially incorporated as a 501(c)(3) educational nonprofit, community membership based organization formed to manage the meetings after the transition from Merit.

 

 

 

  • NANOG 52 is the last meeting serviced by Merit Network.

 

 

  • October 2011 the first NANOG Membership Elections were held 

 

NANOG in 2012

NANOG is collaborating to make the Internet better through the coordination and dissemination of technical information related to backbone/enterprise networking technologies and operational practices of todays internet.

Meetings are held three times each year, and include presentations, tracks, and tutorials.  The meetings are informal,  NANOG membership and meetings  are open to all interested individuals. Conference participants typically include senior engineering staff from tier 1 and tier 2 ISPs.  Participating researchers present short summaries of their work for operational feedback.

NANOG is the premier meeting for network operators in North America. Meetings provide a forum for information exchange among network operators, engineers, and researchers. NANOG meets three times each year, and includes panels, presentations, tutorial sessions, tracks, and informal BOFs.

NANOG attendees include operators from networks of all sizes, enterprise operators, peering coordinators, transport and switching equipment vendors, and network researchers. NANOG attendees will share ideas and interact with leaders in the field of network operations, discuss current operational events and issues, and learn about state-of-the-art operational techniques.

a forum for the exchange of technical information and promote discussion of implementation issues that require community cooperation  Coordination among network service providers helps ensure the stability of overall service to network users.

NANOG also offers a mailing list that provides a forum for network operators around the world to ask questions and discuss issues.  The NANOG archives are a content rich repository of previous mail list conversations, meeting presentations, and meeting broadcasts.