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    The numbers are not definitive: there might, for example, be some physical sciences work that supports telecommunications, and (similarly uncounted) physical sciences work that supports IT as well. Also, not all of the LSN budget supports networking research per se. For example, the biggest contributor to support for LSN is NIH, at least some of which appears to be for networks for health sciences research rather than for networking research itself. Considering funding for all agencies except for NIH funding, the FY 2006 spending on LSN is $230 million out of $1.7 billion, or 14 percent. Also, the second largest supporter of LSN research is NSF ($95 million); some of NSF’s LSN budget also supports research infrastructure rather than networking research, making the percentage for research itself even lower.
    There are elements of programs in NSF’s Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) and Engineering (ENG) directorates that address aspects of telecommunications research. The CISE directorate has, for example, long been an important supporter of networking research (as noted in “The Internet,” the section above on the development of the early Internet). Over the years the ENG directorate has made investments in various areas including wireless and optical communications, and it has established several engineering research centers related to telecommunications. In the view of the committee, however, these efforts as a whole have not represented a major programmatic emphasis by NSF on telecommunications nor reflected a comprehensive, coordinated research strategy in telecommunications.

    Today, as outlined above, telecommunications programs in total see only a modest level of funding. In addition, testimony provided to the committee indicated that overall proposal acceptance rates for most NSF programs related to telecommunications (in the CISE and ENG directorates) have been 10 percent or less for the past several years.19

    In 2004, NSF announced a new $40 million per year program called Network Technology and Systems (NeTS), which represents a significant new investment in telecommunications research and education projects and will focus on the following four areas: programmable wireless networks, networking of sensor systems, networking broadly defined, and future Internet design.20 The program has latitude for interdisciplinary work that could also involve physical devices and could suggest a wide range of research topics in the control, deployment,

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