Juniper M160 routers for Dante's new pan-european research networkCambridge 26 September 2001 DANTE has selected Juniper Networks M160 Internet backbone routers for the brand new Pan-European research and education (R&E) network GEANT. The M160 routers will be supplied and installed by Juniper Networks systems integration partner Dimension Data.
GEANT serves the European research community by supplying it with a number of
services, including testbeds and guaranteed Quality of Service (QoS) features.
By interconnecting the national R&E networks in more than 30 countries - GEANT
reaches over 3,000 R&E institutions throughout Europe - provides the highest
capacity and offers the greatest geographic coverage of any network of its kind
in the world.
Juniper Networks M160 routers allow for a high-bandwidth network
that is no longer a bottleneck for the R&E community. Where previously research
efforts were hindered by limited network capacity, now the European R&E
institutions have the infrastructure to support all of their international
collaborations. The research activities, which will be undertaken on the new
GEANT network, include grid development projects such as DataGrid and EuroGRID.
Each have very demanding networking requirements and are concerned with the
management of very large distributed data sets and distributed computing for
weather forecasting, respectively.
The architecture of the Juniper Networks systems allows DANTE to fully
maximize the deterministic forwarding capabilities and ensure QoS and guaranteed
bandwidth, which are absolute necessities for many of the research institutes
DANTE is serving with the GEANT network.
The M160 routers will be installed in the main points of presence (POPs) in the
GEANT network, i.e. in Vienna, Brussels, Geneva, Prague, Frankfurt (x2), Madrid,
Paris, Budapest, Milan, Amsterdam, Poznan, Stockholm, Brastislava and London.
Previously installed M40 Internet routers will be re-deployed in locations where
there are no Gigabit-speed circuits.
DANTE has selected Juniper Networks systems integration partner, Dimension Data,
for the supply and installation of the M160 routers. DANTE's management was
particularly impressed by their integration and IP expertise. Coupled with the
European coverage of Dimension Data it proved to be the combination that exactly
addressed DANTE needs.
Upon completion the GEANT network will have nine trunk circuits each operating
at 10 Gbps and a further 11 trunk circuits operating at 2.5 Gbps from the start
of service. At least 10 national R&E networks will access this backbone at 2.5
Gbps. The resilience of the network will be assured by connecting the GEANT POPs
in most cities by two or more international circuits to different countries. The
combination of speed and resilience will give GEANT an efficient and robust
structure and make it the most advanced network of its kind in the world today.
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