VBNS Definition

A broadband optical network provided under a cooperative agreement between the National Science Foundation (NSF) and Worldcom (now MCI, which is part of Verizon) in support of NSF-approved institutions of higher learning. vBNS initially (1995) ran over an ATM/SONET backbone at 155 Mbps (OC-3), and later was upgraded to 2.5 Gbps (OC-48).When the NFS contract expired, the vBNS largely transitioned to a federal government network from virtual private networks (VPNs) and the universities and research institutions transitioned to Internet2. See also Abilene Project, ATM, backbone, broadband, Internet2, OC, SONET, and VPN.