SuperJanet

An initiative started in 1989, under the Computer Board, with

the aim of developing of a national broadband network to

support UK higher education and research. The preparatory

work culminated in 1992 with the award of a contract worth 18M

pounds to British Telecom to provide networking services over

a four year period that extends to March 1997.

The BT contract will provide a national network with two

components: a high speed, configurable bandwidth network

serving up to 16 sites, initially using PDH to be replaced

with SDH, and a high speed switched data service (SMDS)

serving 50 or more sites. The primary role of the PDH/SDH

component will be to support the development and deployment of

an ATM network. These components will be complemented by

several high performance Metropolitan Area Networks each

serving several closely located sites. The aim is to provide,

within the first year of the project, a pervasive network

capable of supporting a large and diverse user community.

The network has two parts, an IP data network and an ATM

network, both operating at 34Mbit/s. Early in August 1993 the

pilot IP network was transferred to full service and was

configured to provide a trunk network for JIPS, the JANET IPService.

In November 1993 work was well advanced on the next phase

which aims to extend SuperJANET to a large number of sites.

The pilot four site ATM network will be extended to serve

twelve sites and will expand the scope of the video network.

The principal vehicle used for the expansion of the data

network will be the SMDS service provided by BT. Most of

the work associated with the development of this phase is

expected to be completed by the end of March 1994.

[Joint Network Team, Network News 40, ISSN 0954 - 0636].

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[Current status?]

(1994-12-15)