The transition to SuperJanet5, the enhanced world class ICT network for UK education and research, is complete, on time and on budget
The process went smoothly, primarily due to the meticulous planning and hard work of the Janet operations staff and the regional network operators.
Operated and developed by Ukerna and funded by JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee), SuperJanet5 provides a highly robust and scalable UK-wide network to support the diverse requirements of more than 18 million UK users including research institutes, universities, further education and primary and secondary schools.
The latest incarnation of Janet demonstrates its continued evolution into a full service network, offering not only infrastructure but also a growing range of value added features through middleware, applications, user training and education.
"The SuperJanet5 project is an excellent example of a successfully delivered national ICT project from procurement to implementation," said Tim Marshall, Ukerna's CEO.
"We are delighted to have completed the project on time, on budget and to specification.
"We look forward to delivering an exciting array of innovative features and services in the future and are committed to ensuring UK research communities and education establishments continue to benefit from a truly world-class communications network".
Looking towards the future, plans are being developed to trial 40Gbit/s channel operation over SuperJanet5, both at the transmission level and at the IP level.
The trial will begin in this summer and will take place on one of the busiest parts of the network - the link between Telehouse- and the London C-PoP (core point of presence).
Initially a 40Gbit/s channel will be established over separate fibre to the operational traffic between Telehouse- and the London C-PoP, and once Ukerna is fully satisfied with its stability then the channel will be cut over to the SuperJanet5 infrastructure.
Ukerna is also planning an optical development programme, the overall objective of which will be to capitalise on the potential of the SuperJanet5 infrastructure.
This will be done by investigating mechanisms to improve the management and delivery of network capacity to locations where it is needed, and by examining strategic developments in optical networking and network architectures to inform the approach to future Janet network services.
One early aim of the programme will be to develop systems and processes to allow the dynamic configuration of network paths with dedicated capacity.
The final act of transition to SuperJanet5 will be the switch-off of SuperJanet4, which will take place at the end of March 2007.
