GÉANT2 Operations

The planning and execution of the migration to the new GÉANT2 network, and its operation once in service, are the responsibility of DANTE.

DANTE’s operations staff handle the co-ordination and execution of GÉANT2's operational service provision, with first-line day-to-day management handled by a network operations centre (NOC).

The operations team monitors, manages, and troubleshoots the performance of circuits (fibre-optic cables) and equipment (routers and switches) within the GÉANT2 network. The team also handles liaison with NRENs connected to the network, via each NREN's dedicated access port manager (APM). This channel of communication ensures the smooth management of the flow of traffic onto and off GÉANT2 from connected national networks.

The operations team also oversees the working of the European distributed access (EDA) nodes for intercontinental access, and the network's interconnections with commercial IP carriers, for routing traffic to and from commercial IP addresses.

Successive generations of pan-European research networks have cultivated a culture of operational excellence. DANTE has been able to exploit enhancements in networking technologies to the benefit of the networks it has operated, alongside a continuing programme of refinements. The operations team is also responsible for the development of connectivity to other world regions.

The operational service portfolio will be extended as production-grade technologies become available. The primary limitation to service development lies in the way in which GÉANT2 connects other networks. To reach beyond these limitations, GÉANT2 will have to address a new challenge: to optimise overall performance, spanning the domains of responsibility of the core network and of independent networks.

The GÉANT2 programme of joint research activities has a key role to play in this process. It is strengthening the co-ordination between GÉANT2 and the national networks, developing new technologies in a way that explicitly recognises the need to apply them in a multiple-domain environment.