GÉANT - An Overview

GÉANT is the name used to refer to both the pan-European research and education network and of the corresponding four-year project that created it. (The project is officially called GN1 but is more commonly called GÉANT.)

The GÉANT (GN1) project was co-funded by the European Commission as part of its Fifth Research & Development Framework Programme. GN1 was a contract between 26 National Research and Education Networks (NRENs), DANTE and the European Commission. It began in November 2000 and ended in May 2005, having been extended from its original planned conclusion of October 2004. DANTE was the co-ordinating partner of the project.

The project’s purpose was to improve on the previous TEN-155 pan-European research network by creating a new backbone at gigabit speeds – the GÉANT network.

The project had four main objectives:

• Gigabit speed
• Geographical expansion
• Global connectivity
• Guaranteed quality of service

The signatories to the GN1 contract were eligible to receive co-funding from the European Commission under the rules of the European Union’s Fifth R&D Framework Programme. One of the conditions of the contract was that the project partners must sign a Consortium Agreement, which committed them to certain binding principles of cooperation and conduct.

Some NRENs were also signatories of the Consortium Agreement – and directly connected to the GÉANT network - but were not signatories to the contract with the EU. Other countries were indirectly connected to GÉANT through a peering with another NREN which was directly connected.

The result of all this is that, statistically, GÉANT was very difficult to describe! As well as the 26 NREN signatories to the contract with the European Commission, by the end of the project there were:

• 29 NREN Consortium members, directly connected to GÉANT
• 33 countries in Europe connected to GÉANT, either directly or indirectly

Within Europe, GÉANT reached, indirectly, over 3,500 research and education institutions. On top of this, there were also NRENs further afield that were connected to GÉANT via its various international connections.

One thing is certain, however: GÉANT’s geographical coverage was wider than any of its predecessor pan-European networks. During the deployment of the GÉANT2 network, the existing GÉANT network continued to provide service to connected NRENs. GÉANT was the sixth generation of pan-European research network backbone.

For further information about GÉANT please visit the GÉANT website, which you can reach via the link in the black panel at the top-right of this page.