LAN and OSI Based Heterogeneous Campus Networks

Until two decades ago the computing center (CC) of a complex organisation, such as a university, consisted of a central computer which was administered and operated by a department devoted exclusively to this task. The users developed programs and used data and equipment stored in the CC in close cooperation with the CC to process and present their results. It soon became clear that many procedures and programs, equipment and data — in short resources — would be useful to a larger community of users, and that the productivity of research and education could be improved if these resources were to be collected by the CC and made generally available to the community.