You may be trying to access this site from a secured browser on the server. Please enable scripts and reload this page.
Turn on more accessible mode
Turn off more accessible mode
Skip Ribbon Commands
Skip to main content
Turn off Animations
Turn on Animations
FAQs
CONTACT US
SITEMAP
COOKIE POLICY
GÉANT GATEWAY
faq
Team Site
Currently selected
ABOUT GÉANT
10 years of the GEANT network
How was GÉANT brought about?
Building a global research community
Integrated, accessible services are the future
GÉANT Birthday Song
Activities
Research Activities
Services Activities
Networking Activities
JRA1
Campus Best Practice
Collaboration & Contact
Best Practice Documents
Campus Best Practice - Reports
Campus best Practice Workshops
Physical_Infrastructure
Campus_Networking
Wireless
Network_Monitoring
Real-time_Communications
Security
GÉANT Expert Group
Intellectual Property
Management
NREN Policy Committee
Executive Committee
Project Management Team
Project Co-ordinator
Technical Coordination
GÉANT Announcements - Klaus Ullmann
Partners
NREN Development and Support
International Collaboration
Project Achievements
Value of GÉANT
EVENTS
2009 Events
2010 Events
2011 Events
2012 Events
EGI Community Forum 2012
2013 Events
GÉANT at TNC 2012
GÉANT Associated Speakers
Exhibition booth and Demos
BoD Competition
Poster Sessions
GÉANT Launch Event
Event Agenda
Event Speakers
Event Venue
Harald Alvestrand
Mauro Campanella
Giovanni Colombo
Erik Ekudden
Giovanni Frisoni
Kostas Glinos
Scott Kirkpatrick
Robert Klapisch
Vasilis Maglaris
Viviane Reding
Zoran Stancic
Gard Titlestad
Dr Alexandre M.J.J Bonvin
Sam Samuel
Dimitra Simeonidou
Robert Koopman
Par Strand
MEDIA CENTRE
CONNECT Magazine
Guidelines for Representation
Media Library
Maps
Brochures
Audio and Visual
Presentations
Demonstrations
Documents
Deliverables
Posters
Interviews
Case Studies
Michael Foley Interview
White Papers
The case for research and education networking
Eumed image Downloads
Global Case Studies
Domenico Vicinanza Interview
public download
News
News Archive
Order Materials
Press Kit
NETWORKS
Environmental Impact
GHG_Audits
GHG accounting template
Green Team Collaboration
Carbon accounting - direct action
Zero carbon - renewable energy
Corporate policy on the environment
Green Telecoms - the mitigating effect
Deliverables
News and events
Statistics from GHG reports in 2009
Statistics from GHG reports in 2010
Green-Campus Alliance Meeting 2013
Global Connectivity
GÉANT Global Connectivity - World Regions - North America
North American NRENs
World Regions
World Regions - Latin America
World Regions-Caribbean
World Regions - North Africa and the Middle East
World regions - Sub-Saharan Africa
World Regions - South Caucasus
World Regions - Central Asia
World Regions - Asia-Pacific
Users and Applications
Global Collaboration Case Studies
Global Focus
Network Operations
NSHaRP
Network Topology
Innovative Technology
High Bandwidth Growth
IPv6 and GÉANT
Research and Education Networks
Terabit Network
RESEARCH
Future Network Research
Carrier Class Transport Network Technologies
Photonic Switching and Experimental Photonic Facilities
Federated Network Architectures
Current and Potential Uses of Virtualisation
International Collaboration
Multidomain Network Services Research
Control and management
Hybrid Network Provisioning
Monitoring
Security
Multidomain User Application Research
Roaming
Identity Federations
GEMBus
RESOURCES
Image Library
Exhibition stands
SERVICES
Connectivity Services
home
GÉANT IP
GÉANT Plus
GÉANT Lambda
Bandwidth on Demand
Tools for Connectivity Services
GÉANT Open
GEANT Open form
Fee Structure
who can connect
GEANT_Open_Documents
Namespace Registry
urngeantUniformResourceName(URN)
urn:geant Registry
Namespace Request
URN Request Form
Network Performance Services
GÉANT Security - CERT Portal
eduPERT
GÉANT Framework
Services Registration Authority
Services_Registration_Authority
Request a Certificate
Training
test
User Access & Applications
eduGAIN
eduroam old
GIdP
eduPKI
eduCONF
educonf
eduroam
USERS
Arts and Culture
ASTRA
LOLA
Performing Arts
Bio-Medical Sciences
EMBL-EBI
neuGRID
DECIDE
Sim-e-Child
OutGRID
Test
Earth Observation and Early Warning
EMSA
Sichuan Earthquake
PAGASA
Education
ShanghAI_Lectures
Health
ITHANET
TEMDEC
High-Energy Physics
LHCOPN
LHCONE
Support for LHCONE
Radio Astronomy
EU Satellite Observatory
NEXPReS
LOFAR
SKA - Square Kilometer Array
User Posters
It looks like your browser does not have JavaScript enabled. Please turn on JavaScript and try again.
GÉANT – Frequently asked questions
About the Network
What is GÉANT?
GÉANT is the third generation of the GÉANT network, and successor to GÉANT2. Designed and built on behalf of a consortium of National Research and Education Networks (NRENs), with funding support from the European Commission as part of its 7th Framework Programme, the GÉANT network provides a vital research infrastructure as well as the necessary resources for information technology and telecommunications development.
Why is GÉANT needed?
Without high-speed research networks like GÉANT, many research projects and innovative scientific studies at the forefront of their fields would simply not be possible. Europe is home to the largest and most diverse group of academic and scientific researchers in the world. An extraordinary amount of data is collectively produced every month and is shared between researchers in different countries. It is important that they can work together and share data in real time. Work at the frontier of research increasingly depends on large scale databanks and massive processing power to deal with problems such as decoding genetic information, simulating climate change and energy demands, or predicting and managing the spread of epidemics. Commercial Internet technology is not as efficient and does not deliver service availability levels required by current and future projects. Moreover, because GÉANT uses switched and routed technology, it is paving the way for next generation, high performance, cost-effective communication networks.
Who benefits from GÉANT?
High-speed Internet services have not only improved the cost-effectiveness of research, but have fundamentally transformed the way it is carried out, allowing researchers located in different parts of Europe and around the globe to co-operate as if they were on the same campus. Thanks to GÉANT, the results of scientific experiments, such as radio astronomic observations, can be made available instantly, rather than three weeks later. GÉANT also provides access to remote resources that are sometimes too costly for a single country to develop, such as telescopes that are located in remote places.
Users from a wide variety of disciplines can utilise GÉANT to facilitate ground breaking research that can bring real benefit to society. From big Science users seeking answers about our universe, to medical research seeking cures for diseases across the world; and from research into understanding and predicting climate change, to communication providing support for natural disasters - the diversity of user and project applications is immense.
Which areas are linked to GÉANT?
Users in 40 countries are served by GÉANT, through the European NRENs interconnected to the GÉANT backbone. In addition, extensive links to other world regions create a European gateway for global research.
Which countries are GÉANT partners and which countries receive GÉANT connectivity?
There are 32 GÉANT partner NRENs (serving 36 countries) that receive GÉANT connectivity directly, and a further four associate NREN partners, that are connected to the network through one of the full partners. Thus in total, 40 countries receive GÉANT connectivity through the GÉANT consortium. There are two additional GÉANT partners - the organisations DANTE and TERENA (Trans-European Research and Education Networking Association).
GÉANT partner countries (and NRENs):
Austria (ACOnet), Belgium (Belnet), Bulgaria (BREN), Croatia (CARNet), Cyprus (CyNET), Czech Republic (CESNET), Estonia (EENet), France (RENATER), Germany (DFN), Greece (GRNET), Hungary (NIIF), Ireland (HEAnet), Israel (IUCC), Italy (GARR), Latvia (SigmaNet), Lithuania (LITNET), Luxembourg (RESTENA), Macedonia (MARNet), Malta (University of Malta), Montenegro (MRnet), Nordic region (includes Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway and Iceland) (NORDUnet), Poland (PSNC), Portugal (FCCN), Romania (RoEduNet), Serbia (AMRES), Slovakia (SANET), Slovenia (ARNES), Spain (RedIris), Switzerland (SWITCH), The Netherlands (SURFnet), Turkey (ULAKBIM), UK (JANET)
GÉANT associate partner countries:
Belarus, Moldova, Russia, Ukraine
Which other world regions are connected to GÉANT?
GÉANT connects:
the Mediterranean countries via EUMEDCONNECT2
the Balkans via SEEREN
Central Asia via SILK/OCCASION and soon CAREN
Black Sea via BSI
Asia via TEIN3
Latin America via ALICE2
China via ORIENT
Japan via New York
South Africa via a dedicated high speed link and the UbuntuNet Alliance
African countries
The US and Canada through a long-standing trans-Atlantic partnership
Are there further regions to connect to GÉANT?
CAREN (Central Asian Research and Education Network) - This network will connect the countries Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. A feasibility study is also underway in sub-Saharan Africa.
About the Project
What is the GÉANT project?
The GÉANT (or GN3) project is the EC project that funds the GÉANT network. The GÉANT project advances all aspects of European research and education networking. This encompasses the network itself, a range of network support and access services for users, initiatives to address the digital divide of research and education networking around Europe, and technological research to ensure GÉANT continues to be at the forefront of networking on a global scale.
How does this new GÉANT project relate to GÉANT2?
GÉANT is the successor to GÉANT2. It continues and develops the GÉANT network
and builds on the technology and service elements of GÉANT2.
What will be the main differences in this GÉANT project?
The two main focuses of GÉANT are service delivery and collaboration.
Service Delivery
– the previous project was mainly focussed on building the hybrid network itself but now that this infrastructure has been completed, the GÉANT project is focused on developing and rolling out services to National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) and their end users, institutions and projects to enable them to get the best performance possible from the network.
GÉANT will provide the pan-European backbone to interconnect Europe’s NRENs, which will be supported by a range of multi-domain performance and monitoring tools. A suite of advanced end user services will be developed and made available for NRENs to incorporate into their service portfolios, for Europe’s research and education community. This creates the pan-European GÉANT Service Area, a collaboration of interconnecting networks, enabling users across Europe to benefit from simple, secure “any place” access to high performance data communication capabilities.
Collaboration
– the GÉANT project is focussed on service delivery, not just to NRENs but to end users, institutions and projects, and this requires close collaboration from all the consortium members.
Why is the GÉANT project focussing on user services?
The GÉANT network provides extremely high bandwidth to thousands of researchers across Europe and the globe. In order to optimise the user experience, the suite of GÉANT multi-domain services in development is a major focus.
Funding and the EC
How is GÉANT funded?
GÉANT is co-funded by the EU’s 7th Research & Development Framework Programme. Further funding is provided by the project’s NREN partners. The overall co-ordination and management of the project is performed by DANTE on behalf of the NRENs and the EC.
Why is the EC involved?
Besides the important role it plays in bringing national academic Internet networks together, EC funding is needed to upgrade Europe’s research and education networking infrastructure, boosting Europe’s research competitiveness. EC-funding enabled GÉANT to stay at the forefront of research networking technology.
What is FP7?
The EC’s Seventh Framework programme (FP7) is where all research-related EU initiatives are classified, including GÉANT. Projects within FP7 play a crucial role in reaching the goals of growth, competitiveness and employment in Europe.
GÉANT uses cookies to deliver the best possible web experience. By continuing and using this site, you agree that we may store and access cookies on your device. Please ensure you have read GÉANT’s
Privacy Notice
and
Cookies Policy
.
I agree / Continue