IP: SuperJANET III Contract Signed

[Dave Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>]

SuperJANET III Launches Next Phase of the UK's Academic Network


The United Kingdom Education and Research Networking Association
(UKERNA) and Cable and Wireless Communications Services Ltd. today signed
an agreement to replace the
backbone of the UK's academic and research network (SuperJANET). This
is the third phase of the SuperJANET project and is aimed at
consolidating the pioneering work of the previous two phases in
meeting the key aim of the network: to provide the UK higher
education and research community=A0 with a high quality and leading edge
network to facilitate teaching and research.=A0 This new initiative will
set the direction=A0 of the network to the millenium and beyond.


The replacement program, supported by funding by the Higher Education
Funding Councils for England, Scotland and Wales and the Department for
Education Northern Ireland, through their Joint Information Systems
Committee (JISC), will ensure that the United Kingdom
retains one of the fastest and most pervasive networks available to the
worldwide higher education and research sector.


Under the agreement with Cable & Wireless, a SuperJANET backbone will
use Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) technology to provide connections
running at 155 million bits per second (Mbit/s) into a central ring of
switching centres sited in London, Bristol, Manchester and Leeds. From
this core the network will fan out at 155 or 34 Mbit/s to nodes located
at the following centres:


Belfast
Birmingham
Bristol
Cambridge
Cardiff
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL)
Edinburgh
Exeter
Leeds
Newcastle
Nottingham
Manchester
University of London Computer Centre (ULCC).


The emphasis will be on connecting from these points to Metropolitan
Area Networks (MANs) that have been developed under joint funding
initiatives between the Higher Education Funding Councils and Higher
Education Institutions in regions throughout England, Scotland and
Wales. By this means the benefits of SuperJANET will be brought to
a wide range of institutions in the most cost effective manner.


In addition to the installation of a new backbone, UKERNA has also
reviewed its provision of SuperJANET to those institutions which
are not connected to MANs due to geographical or other considerations.
In such cases UKERNA will continue to use BT's Switched Multi-Megabit
Data Service (SMDS) to provide access at bandwidths of 4 or 10 Mbit/s.
As part of a successful collaboration with BT, the first phase of the
SuperJANET project assisted in the bringing to market of the SMDS.
Since then it has played a major and continuing role in SuperJANET.


Under the terms of the agreement with Cable & Wireless it will be
possible to augment the basic provisions of the backbone to accommodate
requirements by individual institutions and projects for additional
bandwidth or facilities on a basis of individual charging where these
requirements exceed the service levels funded through the JISC.
UKERNA looks forward to working with its colleagues in the academic sector
in developing such bespoke solutions.


Dr Bob Day, Network Services Director at UKERNA, said "A broadband
SuperJANET network is vital to the whole academic process, especially
as an infrastructure to support research and the increasing number
of distance learning applications. Cable & Wireless Communications
offered us a reliable solution that both meets our present needs and
offers us a means to develop further the leading edge services which
we provide to the higher education and research community."


Further information on this and other aspects of SuperJANET may be
found on the World Wide Web at URL:
=A0=A0 http://www.ja.net/press_release/SJ_Brief.html=20






**************************************************
"Photons have neither morals nor visas"  --  Dave Farber 1994
**************************************************