JANET
Encyclopedia
JANET is a private British government-funded computer network
dedicated to education and research. All further- and higher-education organisations in the UK are connected to JANET, as are all the Research Council
s; the majority of these sites are connected via 20 metropolitan area network
s (though JANET refers to these as Regional Networks, emphasising that JANET connections are not just confined to a metropolitan area) across the UK. The network also carries traffic between schools within the UK, although many of the schools' networks maintain their own general Internet connectivity. The name was originally a contraction of Joint Academic NETwork but it is now known as JANET in its own right.
It is linked to other European and worldwide NREN
s through GEANT
, has a private connection to its equivalent CERNET
in China and peers
extensively with other ISPs
at Internet Exchange Point
s in the UK. Any other networks are reached via transit services
from commercial ISPs
.
JANET is operated by JANET(UK)
, formerly known as UKERNA (the United Kingdom Education and Research Networking Association), who are also responsible for the .ac.uk and .gov.uk domain
s. It is funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee
(JISC).
, UMRCC Manchester, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
serving the Science and Engineering Research Council
community), each with their own star network had developed. There were also regional networks centred on Bristol, Edinburgh and Newcastle, where groups of institutions had pooled resources to provide better computing facilities than could be afforded individually. These networks were each based on one manufacturer's standards, were mutually incompatible, and overlapping. In the early 1980s a standardisation and interconnect effort started, hosted on an expansion of the SERCnet X.25
research network. The system first went live in April 1983, hosting about 50 sites with line speeds of 9.6 kbit/s. In the mid-80s the backbone was upgraded to a 2 Mbit/s backbone with 64 kbit/s access links, and a further upgrade in the early 1990s sped the backbone to 8 Mbit/s and the access links to 2 Mbit/s, making JANET the fastest X.25
network in the world.
The JANET effort resulted in the standardisation known as the Coloured Book protocols
, which provided the first complete X.25 standard. The naming scheme used on JANET (JANET NRS
) had similarities to the Internet
's Domain Name System
, but with domains specified in big-endian format rather than the little-endian style used by DNS. There had been some talk of moving JANET to OSI
protocols in the 1990s, but changes in the networking world meant this never happened.
traffic on the existing network. Within ten months the IP traffic had exceeded the levels of X.25 traffic, and the IP support became official in November. Today JANET is primarily a high-speed IP network.
In order to address speed concerns, several hardware upgrades have been incorporated into the JANET system. In 1989 SuperJANET was proposed, to re-host JANET on a fibre optic network. Work started in late 1992, and by late 1993 the first 14 sites had migrated to the new 34 Mbit/s ATM
system. SuperJANET also moved solely to IP.
In 1995 SuperJANET2 started, adding 155 Mbit/s ATM backbones and a 10 Mbit/s SMDS
network encompassing some of the original JANET nodes. JANET's mandate now included running metropolitan area networks centred on these sites.
SuperJANET3 created new 155 Mbit/s ATM nodes to fully connect all of the major sites at London
, Bristol
, Manchester
and Leeds
, with 34 Mbit/s links to smaller sites around the country.
In March 2001 SuperJANET4 was launched. The key challenges for SuperJANET4 were the need to increase network capacity and to strengthen the design and management of JANET to allow it to meet a similar increase in the size of its userbase.
SuperJANET4 saw the implementation of a 2.5 Gbit/s core backbone from which connections to regional network points of presence were made at speeds ranging between 155 Mbit/s to 2.5 Gbit/s depending upon the size of the regional network. In 2002 the core SuperJANET4 backbone was upgraded to 10 Gbit/s.
SuperJANET4 also saw an increase in the userbase of JANET with the inclusion of the Further Education Community and the use of the SuperJANET4 backbone to interconnect schools' networks. The core point of presence (Backbone) sites in SuperJANET4 were Edinburgh
, Glasgow
, Warrington
, Reading
, Bristol
, Portsmouth
, London
and Leeds
.
In October 2006 the SuperJANET5 project was launched after £29 million of investment. It provides a 10Gbit/s backbone, with an upgrade path to 40Gbit/s over the next few years. The new backbone as a result of the SuperJANET5 project is a hybrid network offering, providing both a high speed IP transit service and private bandwidth channel services provisioned over a dedicated fibre network. It is designed not only to fully accommodate the requirements of the traditional JANET user base - all research institutes, universities and further education - but also to meet the needs of a new userbase in the UK's primary and secondary schools.
In April 2011 Verizon helped JANET upgrade 4 central locations to run at 100Gbit/s bringing it to a national research and education network performance parity with Internet2
(which upgraded its backbone to 100Gbit/s in October 2007). As of October 2011 they have 18 million end-users.
Each RNO covers a specific geographical area, as of 2009 the following regional networks are connected to JANET:
Computer network
A computer network, often simply referred to as a network, is a collection of hardware components and computers interconnected by communication channels that allow sharing of resources and information....
dedicated to education and research. All further- and higher-education organisations in the UK are connected to JANET, as are all the Research Council
Research Council
The UK Research Councils, of which there are currently seven, are publicly-funded agencies responsible for co-ordinating and funding particular areas of research, including the arts, humanities, all areas of science and engineering...
s; the majority of these sites are connected via 20 metropolitan area network
Metropolitan area network
A metropolitan area network is a computer network that usually spans a city or a large campus. A MAN usually interconnects a number of local area networks using a high-capacity backbone technology, such as fiber-optical links, and provides up-link services to wide area networks and the...
s (though JANET refers to these as Regional Networks, emphasising that JANET connections are not just confined to a metropolitan area) across the UK. The network also carries traffic between schools within the UK, although many of the schools' networks maintain their own general Internet connectivity. The name was originally a contraction of Joint Academic NETwork but it is now known as JANET in its own right.
It is linked to other European and worldwide NREN
National Research and Education Network
A National Research and Education Network is a specialised internet service provider dedicated to supporting the needs of the research and education communities within a country....
s through GEANT
GEANT
GÉANT is the main European multi-gigabit computer network for research and education purposes...
, has a private connection to its equivalent CERNET
Cernet
The China Education and Research Network is the first nationwide education and research computer network in China. The CERNET project is funded by the Chinese government and directly managed by the Chinese Ministry of Education...
in China and peers
Peering
In computer networking, peering is a voluntary interconnection of administratively separate Internet networks for the purpose of exchanging traffic between the customers of each network. The pure definition of peering is settlement-free or "sender keeps all," meaning that neither party pays the...
extensively with other ISPs
Internet service provider
An Internet service provider is a company that provides access to the Internet. Access ISPs directly connect customers to the Internet using copper wires, wireless or fiber-optic connections. Hosting ISPs lease server space for smaller businesses and host other people servers...
at Internet Exchange Point
Internet Exchange Point
An Internet exchange point is a physical infrastructure through which Internet service providers exchange Internet traffic between their networks . IXPs reduce the portion of an ISP's traffic which must be delivered via their upstream transit providers, thereby reducing the average per-bit...
s in the UK. Any other networks are reached via transit services
Internet transit
Internet transit is the service of allowing network traffic to cross or "transit" a computer network, usually used to connect a smaller Internet service provider to the larger Internet...
from commercial ISPs
Internet service provider
An Internet service provider is a company that provides access to the Internet. Access ISPs directly connect customers to the Internet using copper wires, wireless or fiber-optic connections. Hosting ISPs lease server space for smaller businesses and host other people servers...
.
JANET is operated by JANET(UK)
JANET(UK)
JANET is the trading name for the JNT Association, which since 1994 has had responsibility for the management of the United Kingdom’s Higher Education networking programme. It manages the operation and development of the JANET network, which links the UK’s education and research organisations to...
, formerly known as UKERNA (the United Kingdom Education and Research Networking Association), who are also responsible for the .ac.uk and .gov.uk domain
Domain name system
The Domain Name System is a hierarchical distributed naming system for computers, services, or any resource connected to the Internet or a private network. It associates various information with domain names assigned to each of the participating entities...
s. It is funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee
Joint Information Systems Committee
JISC is a United Kingdom non-departmental public body whose role is to support post-16 and higher education and research by providing leadership in the use of ICT in learning, teaching, research and administration...
(JISC).
History
JANET developed out of a number of local and research networks dating back to the 1970s. By 1980, a number of national computer facilities (ULCC LondonUniversity of London Computer Centre
The was founded in 1968, and was the first supercomputer facility established in London for the purpose of scientific and educational research by all of the colleges of the University of London...
, UMRCC Manchester, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
The Rutherford Appleton Laboratory is one of the national scientific research laboratories in the UK operated by the Science and Technology Facilities Council . It is located on the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus at Chilton near Didcot in Oxfordshire, United Kingdom...
serving the Science and Engineering Research Council
Science and Engineering Research Council
The Science and Engineering Research Council used to be the UK agency in charge of publicly funded scientific and engineering research activities including astronomy, biotechnology and biological sciences, space research and particle physics...
community), each with their own star network had developed. There were also regional networks centred on Bristol, Edinburgh and Newcastle, where groups of institutions had pooled resources to provide better computing facilities than could be afforded individually. These networks were each based on one manufacturer's standards, were mutually incompatible, and overlapping. In the early 1980s a standardisation and interconnect effort started, hosted on an expansion of the SERCnet X.25
X.25
X.25 is an ITU-T standard protocol suite for packet switched wide area network communication. An X.25 WAN consists of packet-switching exchange nodes as the networking hardware, and leased lines, Plain old telephone service connections or ISDN connections as physical links...
research network. The system first went live in April 1983, hosting about 50 sites with line speeds of 9.6 kbit/s. In the mid-80s the backbone was upgraded to a 2 Mbit/s backbone with 64 kbit/s access links, and a further upgrade in the early 1990s sped the backbone to 8 Mbit/s and the access links to 2 Mbit/s, making JANET the fastest X.25
X.25
X.25 is an ITU-T standard protocol suite for packet switched wide area network communication. An X.25 WAN consists of packet-switching exchange nodes as the networking hardware, and leased lines, Plain old telephone service connections or ISDN connections as physical links...
network in the world.
The JANET effort resulted in the standardisation known as the Coloured Book protocols
Coloured Book protocols
The Coloured Book protocols were a set of computer network protocols used on the SERCnet and JANET X.25 packet-switched academic networks in the United Kingdom between 1980 and 1992...
, which provided the first complete X.25 standard. The naming scheme used on JANET (JANET NRS
JANET NRS
The JANET NRS was a pseudo-hierarchical naming scheme adopted for use on British academic and research networks before the superficially similar system used by the Internet DNS had been fully established....
) had similarities to the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
's Domain Name System
Domain name system
The Domain Name System is a hierarchical distributed naming system for computers, services, or any resource connected to the Internet or a private network. It associates various information with domain names assigned to each of the participating entities...
, but with domains specified in big-endian format rather than the little-endian style used by DNS. There had been some talk of moving JANET to OSI
Open Systems Interconnection
Open Systems Interconnection is an effort to standardize networking that was started in 1977 by the International Organization for Standardization , along with the ITU-T.-History:...
protocols in the 1990s, but changes in the networking world meant this never happened.
JIPS and SuperJANET
In January 1991 the JANET IP Service (JIPS) was set up as a pilot project to host IPInternet Protocol
The Internet Protocol is the principal communications protocol used for relaying datagrams across an internetwork using the Internet Protocol Suite...
traffic on the existing network. Within ten months the IP traffic had exceeded the levels of X.25 traffic, and the IP support became official in November. Today JANET is primarily a high-speed IP network.
In order to address speed concerns, several hardware upgrades have been incorporated into the JANET system. In 1989 SuperJANET was proposed, to re-host JANET on a fibre optic network. Work started in late 1992, and by late 1993 the first 14 sites had migrated to the new 34 Mbit/s ATM
Asynchronous Transfer Mode
Asynchronous Transfer Mode is a standard switching technique designed to unify telecommunication and computer networks. It uses asynchronous time-division multiplexing, and it encodes data into small, fixed-sized cells. This differs from approaches such as the Internet Protocol or Ethernet that...
system. SuperJANET also moved solely to IP.
In 1995 SuperJANET2 started, adding 155 Mbit/s ATM backbones and a 10 Mbit/s SMDS
SMDS
Switched Multi-megabit Data Service was a connectionless service used to connect LANs, MANs and WANs to exchange data, in early 1990s. In Europe, the service was known as Connectionless Broadband Data Service ....
network encompassing some of the original JANET nodes. JANET's mandate now included running metropolitan area networks centred on these sites.
SuperJANET3 created new 155 Mbit/s ATM nodes to fully connect all of the major sites at London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
, Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
and Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
, with 34 Mbit/s links to smaller sites around the country.
In March 2001 SuperJANET4 was launched. The key challenges for SuperJANET4 were the need to increase network capacity and to strengthen the design and management of JANET to allow it to meet a similar increase in the size of its userbase.
SuperJANET4 saw the implementation of a 2.5 Gbit/s core backbone from which connections to regional network points of presence were made at speeds ranging between 155 Mbit/s to 2.5 Gbit/s depending upon the size of the regional network. In 2002 the core SuperJANET4 backbone was upgraded to 10 Gbit/s.
SuperJANET4 also saw an increase in the userbase of JANET with the inclusion of the Further Education Community and the use of the SuperJANET4 backbone to interconnect schools' networks. The core point of presence (Backbone) sites in SuperJANET4 were Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
, Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
, Warrington
Warrington
Warrington is a town, borough and unitary authority area of Cheshire, England. It stands on the banks of the River Mersey, which is tidal to the west of the weir at Howley. It lies 16 miles east of Liverpool, 19 miles west of Manchester and 8 miles south of St Helens...
, Reading
Reading, Berkshire
Reading is a large town and unitary authority area in England. It is located in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the River Thames and River Kennet, and on both the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 motorway, some west of London....
, Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
, Portsmouth
Portsmouth
Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
.
In October 2006 the SuperJANET5 project was launched after £29 million of investment. It provides a 10Gbit/s backbone, with an upgrade path to 40Gbit/s over the next few years. The new backbone as a result of the SuperJANET5 project is a hybrid network offering, providing both a high speed IP transit service and private bandwidth channel services provisioned over a dedicated fibre network. It is designed not only to fully accommodate the requirements of the traditional JANET user base - all research institutes, universities and further education - but also to meet the needs of a new userbase in the UK's primary and secondary schools.
In April 2011 Verizon helped JANET upgrade 4 central locations to run at 100Gbit/s bringing it to a national research and education network performance parity with Internet2
Internet2
Internet2 is an advanced not-for-profit US networking consortium led by members from the research and education communities, industry, and government....
(which upgraded its backbone to 100Gbit/s in October 2007). As of October 2011 they have 18 million end-users.
Regional networks
The JANET network is implemented through 19 regional network operators (RNOs) which connect universities, colleges and schools to the JANET network. Most RNOs are operated as independent entities working under contract to JANET(UK), though JANET(UK) operates a small number of RNOs directly.Each RNO covers a specific geographical area, as of 2009 the following regional networks are connected to JANET:
- AbMANAbMANAbMAN was one of the regional networks that comprise JANET. AbMAN connected universities and colleges in and around Aberdeen in Scotland to one another and to the JANET backbone....
The Aberdeen Metropolitan Area Network - C&NLMANC&NLMANC&NLMAN is one of the regional networks that comprise JANET. C&NLMAN connects universities and colleges in Cumbria and Lancashire in the north-west of England to each other and to the JANET backbone....
The Cumbria And North Lancashire Metropolitan Area Network - ClydeNET The Glasgow and Clydeside Network
- EaStMANEaStMANEaStMAN is one of the regional networks that make up JANET. EaStMAN connects universities and colleges to one another and to JANET in the Edinburgh, Stirling, West Lothian and Borders areas of Scotland....
The Edinburgh and Stirling Metropolitan Area Network - EastNet The Eastern Regional Area Network
- EMMANEMMANEMMAN is a company limited by guarantee and jointly owned by its members, eight Higher Education Institutions in the East Midlands region of the United Kingdom.-Function:...
The East Midlands Metropolitan Area Network - FaTMANFaTMANThe Fife and Tayside Metropolitan Area Network is one of the regional networks that comprise JANET. FaTMAN connects three universities University of Dundee, University of St Andrews and University of Abertay Dundee and five colleges to each other and to the JANET backbone in the east of Scotland...
The Fife and Tayside Metropolitan Area Network - Kent MAN The Kent Metropolitan Area Network
- LenSE The Learning Network South East
- LMN The London Metropolitan Network
- NIRANNiranNiran is a kibbutz and Israeli settlement in the West Bank. Located in the Jordan Valley near Jericho, it falls under the jurisdiction of Bik'at HaYarden Regional Council. In 2006 it had a population of 80, 30 of whom were new arrivals....
The Northern Ireland Regional Area Networking - NNWNNWNNW may refer to:*National Nurses Week, the week of May 6 through May 12 proclaimed by Richard Nixon in 1974 as a period for Americans to recognize nurses' service and contributions...
Network North West - NorMANNormanNorman or Normans may refer to:* The Normans, a people descended from Norse Vikings who colonised Normandy in France and conquered other lands** Norman architecture, styles of Romanesque architecture developed by the Normans...
The North East Metropolitan Area Network - PSBA Wales (under bespoke contract)
- SWERNSWERNSWERN is one of the regional networks that make up JANET, the UK's higher education internet backbone. SWERN is owned and operated by the universities of Plymouth, Exeter, Bristol, Bath and the West of England and also provides high speed connections to the other South West Higher Education...
The South West England Regional Network - TVN The Thames Valley Network (operated directly by JANET(UK))
- UHIMI The University of the Highlands and Islands Millennium Institute Network
- WMRN West Midlands Regional Network (operated directly by JANET(UK))
- YHMAN The Yorkshire and Humberside Metropolitan Area Network