Shaping the future of Janet
The Janet access programme will ensure that we continue to meet the needs of the UK education and research community.
Archived
This project was archived on
5 years and 7 months
Ended
Expected outcome:
Service development
Continued investment into the Janet Network will enable us to meet the growing demands from teaching, learning and research into the future.
Enhancing your world-class Janet Network to meet your future needs
The Janet Network is a large network serving research and education across all parts of the UK. It consists of a large backbone network to which 18 regional networks connect serving over a 1,000 connected organisations and 1 million users.
We are constantly evolving the network to ensure it meets the needs of its users, an example of which is ensuring that there is enough capacity to carry the ever increasing amount of traffic.
To meet this need we will be upgrading a number of backbone routes to 600Gbit/s using Ciena's new technology that allows us to upgrade the network in 400Gbit/s chunks as well as 100Gbit/s.
What we're planning
New network access infrastructure
In summer 2018, we began a three- to five-year programme to upgrade and rearchitect access in most regions across the UK.
The new Janet access infrastructure design comes from Jisc's ability to create resilient rings based on a combination of telephone exchanges, carrier neutral data centres, dark fibre and a range of ethernet and optical based services from Openreach.
These component parts allows the delivery of resilient high speed connectivity to meet the future requirements of our members and customers. The design should also reduce the costs of delivering scalable services across the UK.
A number of the PoPs will be brought into commercial exchanges, standardising the architecture of access to Janet from these regions. This enables us to operate with a more consistent approach to all aspects of building, operating and provisioning the network.
Benefits to you
- Reduced delivery time for members as we can provision new connections without relying on other providers
- Reduced running costs ensuring Janet is sustainably delivered
- A unified architecture that enables us to deliver services to you quicker and more flexibly
- Scaling bandwidth and capacity more efficiently - with a more coherent architecture it becomes much easier to deploy services end to end
- Deploying the latest technologies in a more agile way - whether that’s automating network provisioning through software defined networking, or virtualising network functions such as end users’ firewall services
What's happening in your region
As the Janet access programme addresses your region, you will be contacted by your regional service manager. They will work alongside your relationship manager to ensure you have all the information you need in preparation for changes to your access connectivity.
A number of resources will be shared such as an information sheet outlining steps undertaken to replace your connection (pdf).
We will work to ensure minimal service disruption, in line with our service level description and you will continue to enjoy a highly available, high performance internet experience.
Map showing Janet backbone and regional access infrastructure
Text description of Janet backbone map
Map of the UK and Northern Ireland showing the Janet Network's backbone and each of the regional access infrastructures and their reach. It also shows where Jisc services are delivery over public sector networks.
The regional access infrastructures are: Scotland, North West, Yorkshire, Northern Ireland, North east, Midlands, East, South West, Thames, South and London. The public sector networks are PSBA and KPSN.
Map of the UK and Northern Ireland showing the Janet Network's backbone and each of the regional access infrastructures and their reach. It also shows where Jisc services are delivery over public sector networks.
The regional access infrastructures are: Scotland, North West, Yorkshire, Northern Ireland, North east, Midlands, East, South West, Thames, South and London. The public sector networks are PSBA and KPSN.
Increased security and flexibility
Cyber security is a concern for us all. As we move to the new access infrastructure, security will be implicit in that architecture. The rearchitect is a real opportunity to embed the tools we need to better protect your network and network services.
The requirements gathering work we did when planning this upgrade confirmed that Janet is a mission critical service for you. It also needs to be flexible to meet future demand and more agile in dealing with change.
We are confident that this work will meet those requirements and ensure that the Janet Network continues to be world-class.
Our project partners
Meet the project team
Neil Shewry
Director of networks
Rob Evans
Chief network architect
Tim Chown
Network development manager
James Blessing
Deputy director of network architecture, Jisc
