2002 - cesnet

10 GÉANTSince 1996, CESNET has been participating in several international projectsdealing with the setting up and operation of a communication infrastructure interconnectingthe National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) withinEurope. After successful TEN-34 and Quantum projects (TEN-34 and TEN-155networks), the international consortium of 26 partners (including CESNET) isworking on the GÉANT project, the goal of which is to build up and operate aninfrastructure with backbone bandwidth of 10 Gbps.10.1 GÉANT NetworkThe Géant project was initiated in November 2000 as a project of the 5 th EUFramework Programme in the IST (Information Society and Technology) group.The total budget of this four-year project amounts to 200 million Euro, of which80 millions will be provided by the EU. The project coordinator is DANTE Ltd.with headquarters in Great Britain.The objective of the project has been defined as providing of a pan-Europeaninfrastructure interconnecting European NRENs with speeds in Gbps. The bandwidthof the GÉANT core should initially have been 2.5 Gbps and should havebeen upgraded to 10 Gbps in the shortest time possible. From the geographicalpoint of view, the network should represent a follow-up to the original TEN-155network and should be extended with points of presence in Bulgaria, Estonia,Lithuania, Latvia, Romania, and Slovakia.In addition to standard IP service, the network should also provide the PremiumIP service, guaranteed bandwidth service, Virtual Private Network service,multicast, and other new services that will emerge as a result of the developmentin the area of communication technologies. An integral part of the projectis also ensuring a quality interconnection of European research centres andsimilar organizations outside the GÉANT network.In the previous paragraph, we described the project objectives planned. Andwhat is the current status? The GÉANT network was officially put into operationon 1 December 2001. Even then, the network core was formed by lines with thespeed of 10 Gbps, which was a unique world phenomenon at that time. Thus,Europe even surpassed USA in the development in this sphere. The US Abilenenetwork used backbone lines with the bandwidth of 2.5 Gbps in those days.Currently, the GÉANT network interconnects 28 NRENs and serves more than30 thousand research institutions.High-speed National Research Network and its New Applications 2002137