GÉANT

GÉANT is the pan- European internet connection network of European research. It currently connects 26 national research networks, including the DFN means exclusively reserved multi-gigabit lines. The name corresponds to the French word " Géant " on German "giant".

The core network is based on 10Gbit lines, the lowest speeds are 155Mbit. The project was founded in November 2000 and it is in full operation, where it replaced the older TEN -155 since December 2001. According to the original plans, the project should run until October 2004, it was then extended until April 2005 and the same was started in September 2004 with the follow-up project Géant2.

The project not only supplies the European research networks with gigabit lines and IPv6 traffic, but has cross-connections with Gigabit capacity to the other large research networks in the world, especially the U.S. and Japan. It is planned to establish the network as the core of a global research network that brings together the fragmented national gigabit networks of research and educational institutions.

Organization

The Géant network is managed by DANTE organization. Collaborating networks include:

• Belgium: BELNET
• Bulgaria: ISTF
• Denmark: Forskningsnettet ( connected via NORDUnet )
• Estonia: EENet
• Finland: Funet ( connected via NORDUnet )
• France: RENATER
• Greece: GRNET
• Ireland: HEAnet
• Iceland: RHnet ( connected via NORDUnet )
• Israel: IUCC
• Italy: GARR
• Croatia: CARNet
• Latvia: LATNET
• Lithuania: LITNET
• Luxembourg: RESTENA
• Netherlands: SURFnet
• Norway: UNINETT ( connected via NORDUnet )
• Austria: ACOnet
• Poland: PIONEER
• Portugal: FCCN
• Romania: RoEduNet
• Sweden: SUNET ( connected via NORDUnet )
• Switzerland: SWITCH
• Slovakia: SANET
• Slovenia: BORGARNES
• Spain: RedIRIS
• Czech Republic: CESNET
• Turkey: ULAKNET
• Hungary: HUNG ARNET
• United Kingdom: JANET
• Cyprus: Cynet

In addition, the following four networks associated with GÉANT:

• Moldova: Renam
• Russia: JSCC
• Ukraine: URANIUM
• Belarus: BASNET

GÉANT 2

The successor to GÉANT is GÉANT2. It was founded by the European Union and the national research and scientific networks and went officially on 15 June 2005. GÉANT2 has a multi-gigabit core network and connects a total of 34 countries and 30 national research networks together.