MIDnet

Grants were submitted to the National Science Foundation in the Spring of 1986, and in the Summer of 1986 NSF approved funding. In September, 1997 MIDnet was the first NSFNET regional backbone network to become fully operational. The NSFNET regional backbone networks were the precursors to the Internet. MIDnet initially connected Iowa State University, Kansas State University, Oklahoma State University–Stillwater, the University of Kansas, the University of Missouri, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the University of Oklahoma, and Washington University in St. Louis with 56 kbit/s DDS leased telephone lines in a ring topology. The MIDnet ring was originally connected via a 56 kbit/s DDS leased telephone line from the Nebraska node to the NSFNET backbone. It was the first of the NSF-funded regional networks to become fully operational.