JANET – The UK’s Education and Research Network Tim Kidd Production Services Director UKERNA

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

Government Funding Network Infrastructure 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 Regional Research Networks 1984 JANET Born X.25 network Serving 50 Late 1980’s X.25 network 2Mbit/s backbone 64kbit/s access 200 sites Research & HE Early 1990’s X.25 network 8Mbit/s backbone 2Mbit/s access Early 1991 JANET IP Pilot (over X.25) Within 10 months IP traffic dominated

JANET comes of age 1992 SuperJANET 34Mbit/s & SMDS network 1995 SuperJANET II IP over ATM 155Mbit/s & 34Mbit/s Backbone MANs created Late 1990’s SuperJANET III General b/w upgrade More MANs created 2001 SuperJANET4 10Gbit/s core 155Mbit/s to 2.5Gbit/s Links to MANs Further Education Connected Schools Networks Connected 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 213Higher Education 591Further Education (16+) 40Research establishments 62Self funded 74Local 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 schoolsHE/FE ACL Relative sizes of sectors: from funding body statistics on staff & student numbers

ScotIX Co-lo Off net Network Infrastructure MaNAP GlasgowEdinburgh Leeds Manchester LondonReading PortsmouthBristol Co-lo LINX Global internet Europe research Co-lo

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

Network Services Security Video Conferencing Usenet News Web Mail Advisory Services Network Monitoring Support Nameserver

Xxxxx Xxxxxx College xxxxx-xxxxxxx

Other Services Training Workshops & conferences Customer Service IP address allocation DocumentationDomain registration

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

Developments Network Access Video Conferencing 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 NetherLight Amsterdam 10Gb StarLight Chicargo 10Gb UKLight London

GlasgowEdinburgh Leeds Manchester LondonReading Portsmouth Bristol Cambridge University 2.5Gb Manchester University UK Access Network London UKLight

GlasgowEdinburgh Leeds Manchester LondonReading PortsmouthBristol JIVE Jodrell Bank Dwingeloo Netherlands 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 testing; and site incident investigation service.

Challenges… Connection of Adult Community Learning community. Connection of schools.

Education networks 10 regional networks 144 local education authority networks Scottish Schools Digital Network – built over SuperJANET in Scotland – 32 local authority networks Lifelong 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

TBytes JANET Usage Month SJ4 Summer break

Availability to Institutions

It’s not always easy… Reading C-PoP RALOxford What we thought we had…

It’s not always easy… Reading C-PoP What we actually had… RALOxford

It’s not always easy… Reading C-PoP RALOxford What we ended up with…

Ingenuity Award 2004

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 Reliability end-to-end across JANET

An overall architecture flexible transmission platform IP production network special purpose bandwidth special purpose bandwidth test- bed(s) commodity usee-science network R&D service development 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 platform flexible transmission platform

Procurement options telco. provides bandwidth services telco. provides wavelength services telco. manages fibre UKERNA has control of the transmission UKERNA leases fibre manages it and the transmission UKERNA owns, lights and manages fibre 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)

Collector Arc SuperJANET5 transmission RN Core Network

RNO premises Connection to a RN Regional Network 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 Network Core Network UKERNA

Procurement & rollout timetable May 05Sept 05Jan 05Dec 05 Infrastructure Launch procurement Supplier negotiations Issue ITT Select supplier Oct 04 Contract in place Jun 05Dec 05 Transmission equipment Launch procurement Contract In place Oct 05Mar 06 IP routers Launch procurement contract In place SJ4 closes Jan 06Mid 06Dec 06 Rollout Transmission infrastructure IP Routers Start transition SJ4 to SJ5

UKERNA Telco. The market challenge … value-added services IP routing service transmission service fibre infrastructure 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!