IP: the state of high speed Europeon R&E metworking -- part 1

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

Date: Wed, 13 Nov 1996 15:34:32 +0000
To: farber () central cis upenn edu
From: Brian.Randell () newcastle ac uk (Brian Randell)


Dave:


> The claim by many in the USA is that the Europeons cannot get any thing
> more than 35 megabits per sec . 
>
> Can you tell me more re the UK etc efforts


I've at last managed, thanks to my colleague Denis Russell and his
contacts, to get some factual data to refute the above claim. (I was
surprised that the information was not fairly readily to hand.)


Denis' message is attached below - he is continuing to try to build up a
picture of existing fast networks in Europe, and of planned developments -
and will pass the results on to you. 


Cheers


Brian




=======


From: Denis.Russell () ncl ac uk
X-Sender: ndmr () popin ncl ac uk
Mime-Version: 1.0
Date: Wed, 13 Nov 1996 12:54:04 +0000
To: Brian.Randell () ncl ac uk
Subject: Networking at more than E3 (34Mbit/s) in Europe


Brian,
        It has taken a lot of time and emails to gather together the raw
material to respond to your request for information about fast networking
in Europe. The raw material that I have has some interesting stuff, but is
certainly incomplete. It needs quite a bit of work to make it presentable.
However, the picture that is emerging certainly does show the use of higher
speed links (mostly 155Mbit/s (STM-1), but with a sprinkling of 622Mbit/s
and of course a bit of FDDI here and there. As a very brief summary of the
status so far:


NorduNET


This has a 155Mbit transatlantic link to the USA. Most of the
infrastructure between the countries served runs on 34Mbit/s links, but
within cities and some regions 155 or FDDI is used. Finland is especially
aggressive in this respect.


The Low countries


There is a lot of ATM activity, some of it running on a 155M carrier. I
understand there are inter-country links between Belgium and the
Netherlands. I have not yet got details.


Germany


The basic infrastructure is a 155Mbit ATM network. The services to
individual Universities are at varying speeds depending on the University,
but a significant number are above 34Mbit/s. In addition, I know there are
significant local MAN activities in both Berlin and Stuttgart, though I
haven't been able to get details.


Internationally, Germany is at this moment commissioning two 45Mbit/s
transatlantic links.


Switzerland


I have a lot of raw information that indicates interesting activity here,
but I still need to sift it. In addition, there is a 155Mbit/s MAN in
Geneva, and there is always CERN, which always has a couple of the best and
fastest of everything.


Trans-Europe


The TEN-34 ATM network probably doesn't qualify, since it is currently
mostly 34Mbit/s. I don't now how close the plans of moving towards 155 are
to becoming a reality.


UK


This seems to have the most (possibly because I know it the best).
SuperJANET started in 1993 as a 140Mbit/s backbone that reached twelve
Universities (including us). This has since been upgraded to 155Mbit/s
STM-1 reaching 14 sites (with five sites receiving two links at 155Mbit/s.
In addition there is a vigorous set of MAN initiatives. In Scotland there
are four different MANs running at 155Mbit/s over dark fibre (so there's a
clear upgrade path to 622 as the need arises), and these MANs are now
interconnected at 155Mbit/s. These MANs cover essentially all the
Universities in Scotland. In Wales, the MAN runs at 155Mbit/s and
interconnects the Universities in the south of the country. In England,
GMING serves Greater Manchester, and "The London Man" already serves
several Universities, plus the major international connection points at the
LINX in docklands, and ULCC in Central London. There are several more MANs,
including our own, at various states of planning and construction. All of
these MANs run ATM services in production, including carrying IP and video.


I know there are several more MANs outside academia in the London area, but
most are in finance and banking, and I can't get any information on them.
However, one that I can is SohoNET. This is an ATM network running at
622Mbit/s in the Soho area of London and is used to exchange digitized
video between film production companies.


I know that other countries in Europe have aspirations, but I haven't yet
found chapter and verse. When I put my list together later this week, I
plan to circulate it as widely as possible. Hopefully, this will elicit
some more information.


        Hope this helps,


                Denis.




Denis Russell                   email:  Denis.Russell () ncl ac uk
Computing Service               Tel:    (+44) 191 222 8243
University of Newcastle         Fax:    (+44) 191 222 8765
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 7RU
ENGLAND


Dept. of Computing Science, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne,
NE1 7RU, UK
EMAIL = Brian.Randell () newcastle ac uk   PHONE = +44 191 222 7923
FAX = +44 191 222 8232  URL = http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/~brian.randell/