JANET – The UK’s Education and Research Network

Tim Kidd Production Services DirectorUKERNA

Topics

• Who and what is JANET?• JANET Services• JANET Developments• Challenges• SuperJANET5

UKERNA: basic facts

• UK Education & Research Networking Association• not-for-profit company (limited by guarantee)• operated as a public-sector organisation

• headquarters: Oxfordshire• administration, management, customer

service, security, development …• around 90 staff• other network operations via University of

London

UKERNA objectives

“To take responsibility for the networking programme of the education, learning and research communities in the United Kingdom; and to research, develop and provide advanced electronic communication facilities for use within these communities, and to facilitate the electronic connectivity of these communities to external third parties.”

Advancing and supporting the UK’s education and research network

Advancing and supporting the UK’s education and research network

Government Funding

Network Infrastructur

e JANET

Online Information

Services

ICT teaching,

learning and research

Joint Information Systems

Committee

Funding and Organisation

Higher Education Funding Councils

Further Education Funding Councils

Research

Councils

The Dawn of JANET

Late 1970’

s

RegionalResearchNetworks

1984

JANET BornX.25 networkServing 50

Sites @9.6kbit/s

Late 1980’

sX.25 network

2Mbit/s backbone64kbit/s access

200 sites

Research & HE

Early 1990’

sX.25 network

8Mbit/s backbone2Mbit/s access

Early 1991

JANET IP Pilot(over X.25)

Within 10 monthsIP traffic dominated

JANET comes of age

1992

SuperJANET34Mbit/s &

SMDS network

1995

SuperJANET IIIP over ATM

155Mbit/s & 34Mbit/sBackbone

MANs created

Late 1990’

sSuperJANET IIIGeneral b/w

upgrade

More MANs created

2001

SuperJANET410Gbit/s core

155Mbit/s to 2.5Gbit/sLinks to MANs

Further EducationConnected

Schools NetworksConnected

2006

SuperJANET5

What is JANET?

• 19 regional networks.

• 10Gb core across UK.

• >20Gb external connectivity.

• ≈1,000 sites.

Who Is Allowed To Connect?

• Higher Education Institutions• Further Education Colleges• Research Council Establishments• Schools (collectively or individually)• Other organisations where there is

clear benefit to HE, FE or RC community.

Current Connections

213 Higher Education

591 Further Education (16+)

40 Research establishments

62 Self funded

74 Local Education Authorities (collections of schools)

980

The JANET community

• JANET available to 18M+ users in education• primary and secondary

schools• higher and further

education• lifelong learning

programmes

schools

HE/FE

ACL

Relative sizes of sectors: from funding body statistics on staff & student numbers

ScotIX

Co-lo

Offnet

Network Infrastructure

MaNAP

Glasgow Edinburgh

LeedsManchester

LondonReading

Portsmouth

Bristol

Co-lo LINX

Global internet

Europe researchCo-

lo

Topics

• Who and what is JANET?• JANET Services• JANET Developments• Challenges• SuperJANET5

Network Services

Security Video Conferencin

gUsenetNews Web

Mail

Advisory Services

Network Monitoring

Support

Nameserver

Xxxxx Xxxxxx College

xxxxx-xxxxxxx

Other Services

Training Workshops &

conferencesCustomer Service IP address

allocation

Documentation

Domain registration

Topics

• Who and what is JANET?• JANET Services• JANET Developments• Challenges• SuperJANET5

Developments

Network Access

Video Conferencin

g

IP QoS

Multicast

IPv6

UKLight• e-science: huge end-to-end data flows

• Will this be possible with IP networks?

• UKLight project:• End-to-end Gbps bandwidth• Ultimate goal: application-controlled switching of

WDM wavelengths• First steps: electrical multiplexing

applications proof-of-concept

• Early adoptors• Particle Physics - high performance data transfer• Radio Astronomy - very long baseline interferometry

(near-real-time data transfer)• Distributed HPC & visualization

International Network

UK Access Network

NetherLightAmsterdam

10G

b

StarLightChicargo

10Gb

UKLightLondon

Glasgow Edinburgh

LeedsManchester

LondonReading

Portsmouth

Bristol

Cambridge

University

2.5Gb

2.5Gb

Manchester

University

UK Access Networ

k

London

UKLight

Glasgow Edinburgh

LeedsManchester

LondonReading

Portsmouth

Bristol

JIVEJodrell Bank

DwingelooNetherlands

SurfNet

GÉANT

NNW

Joint Institute for Very Long Baseline Interferometry in

Europe

Topics

• Who and what is JANET?• JANET Services• JANET Developments• Challenges• SuperJANET5

Services – challenges

• Change in community.• Increasing demand for services that we

have not previously provided (e.g.):• web mail, filtering and hosting; and• off-site resolver.

• Increasing emphasis on security services:• security health check;• central e-mail testing; and• site incident investigation service.

Challenges…

• Connection of Adult Community Learning community.

• Connection of schools.

Education networks

10 regional networks144 local education authority networks

Scottish Schools Digital Network– built over SuperJANET in Scotland– 32 local authority networksLifelong Learning Network Wales – attached to SuperJANET in Cardiff– 22 unitary authority networks

Challenges…

• Connection of Adult Community Learning community.

• Connection of schools.• Upgrade of FE community.• Reliability

• Change in use of internet by HE and FE• Critical to the business

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InstitutionsExternal

TBytes JANET Usage

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SJ4

Summer break

Availability to Institutions

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It’s not always easy…

Reading C-PoP

RAL Oxford

What we thought we had…

It’s not always easy…

Reading C-PoP

What we actually had…

RAL Oxford

It’s not always easy…

Reading C-PoP

RAL Oxford

What we ended up with…

IngenuityAward2004

IngenuityAward2004

IngenuityAward2004

Reliability – programmes…

• Replace as much microwave as possible.

• Back-up links.• Enhance regional infrastructure.

Topics

• Who and what is JANET?• JANET Services• JANET Developments• Challenges• SuperJANET5

SuperJANET5 Requirements

controlled access to network monitoring and measurement information by end users

Visibility

responsiveness to additional network service requirements

Flexibility

protection of interests of teaching & learning and research sectors

Separability

ability to increase bandwidth at controllable cost

Scalability

improve by building in more resilience

Reliabilityen

d-to

-en

d a

cro

ss

JAN

ET

An overall architecture

flexible transmission platformflexible transmission platform

IP production networkIP production network

special purposebandwidth

special purposebandwidth

test-bed(s)

test-bed(s)

test-bed(s)

test-bed(s)

commodity use e-sciencenetwork R&D

service developme

nt

requirements to be served

From requirements to solution

• UKERNA ability quickly to change configuration of network when needed

• configure parallel purpose-built networks via control at transmission-level

• UKERNA control of costs of adding large amounts of bandwidth when needed

• minimise single points of failure• reduce components and complexity

Flexibility

Separability

Scalability

Reliability

Key objective …

• visibility to UKERNA in day-to-day operation• capacity planning and cost control by UKERNA• early adoption of new optical technologies,

as and when these arrive

UKERNA-controlled transmission platformUKERNA-controlled transmission platformflexible transmission platformflexible transmission platform

Procurement options

telc

o. p

rovi

des

band

wid

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serv

ices

telc

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rovi

des

wav

elen

gth

serv

ices

telc

o. m

anag

es

fibre

UKE

RN

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as

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of the

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issi

on

UKE

RN

A le

ases

fibre

man

ages

it

and

the

tran

smis

sion

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RN

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wns

,

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s an

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ages

fibr

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UKERNA effort & resource

Backbone Service Components

• building block: raw bandwidth channels• 2.5Gbps / 10Gbps or subdivisions (e.g. 1G

Ethernet / 155Mbps) – 40Gbps in the future

• IP production service built over channels• other services also built over separate

channels• e.g. high-capacity bandwidth channels:

– Regional Network/Regional Network or – RNO/international (UKLight integration)

Collecto

r A

rcSuperJANET5 transmission

RN

RN

RN

RN

RN

RN

CoreNetwork

RNO premises

Connection to a RN

RegionalNetwork

UKERNA equipmentRNO equipment

typically single campus – aim for building and electricity supply diversity

IP architecture

reductions in:• complexity• cost

less time:• to roll out

software upgrades• taken for “at risk” periods

Regional NetworkRegional Network

CoreNetwork

UKERNA

Procurement & rollout timetable

May 05 Sept 05Jan 05 Dec 05

InfrastructureLaunchprocurement

Suppliernegotiations Issue ITT

Selectsupplier

Oct 04

Contractin place

Jun 05 Dec 05Transmissionequipment

Launchprocurement

ContractIn place

Oct 05 Mar 06IP routers

Launchprocurement

contractIn place

SJ4 closes

Jan 06 Mid 06

Dec 06

Rollout

Transmissioninfrastructure

IP Routers

Start transitionSJ4 to SJ5

UKERNA

Telco.

The market challenge …

value-added

servicesIP routing service

transmission service

fibre infrastructur

e

UKERNA

Telco.??

Conclusion

• JANET’s community is growing and providing new challenges.

• SuperJANET5 will prepare us for the next stage of growth in JANET.

• There’s lots going on!