Europe - Advances in research collaboration with GEANT's high-speed ICT infrastructure 99.999% availability for 40 million users at speeds up to 2 Tbps

The European Commission reports

GÉANT, the pan-European research and education network infrastructure, is evolving fast. Long considered the most advanced research network in the world thanks to its 99.999 % availability, continual development and an expanding range of multi-domain services to enhance performance and access, GÉANT is building on that reputation with a comprehensive upgrade to its transmission and switching technology ― and effectively future-proofing the network to 2020. Europe's critical network will continue to enable research and innovation that is seen as a driver of European growth by supporting some of the world's largest and most data-intensive research projects.

Together with Europe's National Research and Education Networks (NRENs), GÉANT connects over 40 million users in more than 8000 universities, higher education institutes, research institutes, libraries, museums, national archives and hospitals, as well as a further 22 000 primary and secondary schools.

GÉANT is currently implementing a major infrastructure upgrade, including the latest transmission and switching technology to support up to 2 terabits per second (Tbps) capacity across the core network, effectively future-proofing Europe's critical network infrastructure through 2020. 500 Gigabits per second (Gbps) capacity will be available across the core network from first implementation, delivering circuits across Europe that will allow individual users to transfer data at speeds of up to 100;\Gbps, or multiples thereof, thereby enabling faster collaboration on critical projects and meeting the rapidly increasing demand for data transfer.