JANET sets another first with the largest European deployment of 40Gbit/s on a national education and research network (NREN).

Following the successful trial of 40 Gbit/s circuit technology JANET(UK) have started an ambitious programme to upgrade the JANET core network from 10Gbit/s circuit capacity to 40Gbit/s, making it the largest deployment of 40Gbit/s over an NREN in Europe.

The 40Gbit/s deployment will take place in 2 phases. Phase 1, planned for completion by the end of September 2008 will involve installing four 40Gbit/s circuits at the heart of JANET between the JANET Points of Presence (PoPs) in Reading and London Kings Cross and those at London Canary Wharf Telehouse and Telecity to which JANET connects for it external connectivity. The first circuit between the London Kings Cross and Canary Wharf Telehouse went live today.
Phase 2, due to be completed by December 2008 will provide 40Gbit/s upgrades to the circuits from the PoPs at Reading and London to Warrington and Leeds with a direct link from Reading to London, routed via Bristol.

The initial trial, which took place over the last 12 months, was run on the busiest parts of the network from London Canary Wharf to London Kings Cross. “The trial has been a great success,” says Jeremy Sharp, Head of Strategic Technologies. “Technology and network applications are developing at an ever increasing rate, which together with the rapid growth of our user base results in significant challenges for the JANET service. It has always been our aim to build a network that is flexible enough to meet future demand and with 40Gbit/s technology we are able to meet these challenges now and for the foreseeable future.”

JANET has worked closely with its industry partners Verizon Business; Ciena Corporation; Alcatel Lucent; Juniper Networks and Nortel Networks to deliver this ambitious upgrade. Jeremy commented, “We couldn’t have done this without the support and commitment of our industry partners. The increased capacity means that JANET continues to offer a world class service to education and research in the UK”