We present the architecture for data collection for the NSFNET backbone and difficulties with using the collected statistics for long-term network forecasting of certain traffic aspects. We describe relevant aspects of the NSFNET backbone architecture and the instrumentation for statistics collection.

We then present long-term NSFNET data to elucidate long-term trends in both the reachability of Internet components via the NSFNET as well as the growing cross-section of traffic. We focus on the difficulties of forecasting and planning in an infrastructure whose protocol architecture and instrumentation for data collection was not designed to support such objectives.