Merit Network

Definition - What does Merit Network mean?

Merit Network Inc. is a nonprofit organization that provides computer networking and related services to educational, governmental, health care and nonprofit organizations in the state of Michigan. Merit's network is the longest-running regional computer network in the United States. It evolved alongside ARPANET, and eventually became a cornerstone of the National Science Foundation Network (NSFNet), which served as a backbone for the modern Internet.

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Techopedia explains Merit Network

Merit Network was created in 1966 to research resource sharing between Michigan's public research universities. Merit got involved with national networking activities in the mid-1980s, when it connected to national supercomputing centers and contributed to the NSFNet, including re-engineering NSFNet's backbone service.