






                   SWITCH - Swiss University and Research Network


            _A_d_d_r_e_s_s:
               SWITCH Head Office
               Limmatquai 138
               CH-8001 Zurich
               SWITZERLAND

            _E_m_a_i_l: Postmaster@switch.ch

            _P_h_o_n_e: +41 1 256 5454
               FAX: +41 1 261 8133


            _D_e_s_c_r_i_p_t_i_o_n

            SWITCH is a foundation, sponsored by the government and  the
            Swiss  universities,  providing  teleinformatics services to
            all Swiss universities and to various research institutes by
            connecting  to  national and international resources. SWITCH
            started operation in October 1988.

            SWITCHlan is a national backbone network which connects  all
            universities   using   leased   lines  with  speeds  between
            128 kbit/s  and   2 Mbit/s.   Most  other  organizations are
            connected  via  64 kbit/sec.   For routing on these national
            leased  lines  SWITCH  uses  CISCO  routers.  The  protocols
            supported are DECnet, TCP/IP, X.25 and ISO CLNS.

            All three Swiss supercomputers are connected  to  SWITCHlan.
            Access to some library catalogs is already available; others
            will join later.

            International  connections  on   the   network   level  went
            into operation in January 1990. The current state today is:

               o+  Two lines with TCP/IP to CERN, each  2  Mbit/s.   This
                  gives access to the European part of the  Internet and
                  access to the NSFnet via the EASIgate T1 link to  Cor-
                  nell.

            _________________________
            The information in this section is provided  in  accor-
            dance  with the copyright notice appearing at the front
            of this guide.




            May 25, 1992                NNSC       Section 5.24,  Page 1








               o+  TCP/IP  and  ISO  CLNS  connection  to   Nice,  France
                  with  64kbit/s;  this  link is the backup route to the
                  Internet/NSFnet.

               o+  A TCP/IP 64  kbit/sec  line  to  BelWue,   a  regional
                  research network in southern Germany.

            A 64 kbit/sec  connection to the COSINE/IXI pilot X.25  net-
            work has been   running   since   the   first   quarter   of
            1990.  This infrastructure  is  mainly used  for  exchanging
            X.400  messages,  connecting   to  other  X.500 DSAs and for
            TCP/IP over X.25 and ISO CLNS over  X.25  with   the   Euro-
            pean Academic and Research Community.

            SWITCHmail is  the  national X.400 MHS network  which   con-
            nects  the   universities   and   research institutes to the
            ADMD of the Swiss PTT and through COSINE-MHS to research MHS
            networks    in   19   countries.     E-mail    gateways   to
            EARN/BITNET,  UUCP  and Internet are also offered by SWITCH.

            In  RARE  (Reseaux   Associes  pour  la  Recherche   Europe-
            enne,  the European  research  network organisation), SWITCH
            is an active partner  in  the  COSINE MHS  project  as  well
            as  in  the COSINE pilot   X.500   Directory   Service  pro-
            ject  and  the  COSINE Information Service project.

            _N_e_t_w_o_r_k _A_c_c_e_s_s

            Any host on the network  of  a  connected  organization  may
            access the  network, as long the usage complies with the use
            policy of SWITCH.

            _W_h_o _C_a_n _U_s_e _t_h_e _N_e_t_w_o_r_k

            SWITCH networks can only be used for academic  and  research
            traffic.















            May 25, 1992                NNSC       Section 5.24,  Page 2


