17/07/2002

The country's first broadband network, GRNET2, recently started operations, offering high level next generation Internet services to the Greek academic and research community with high speeds of up to 2.5 Gigabits/sec.

Specifically, a few days ago the Metropolitan Athens Network of GRNET2 was activated at 1-2.5 Gigabits/sec (Gbps); at the same time its connection to the GEANT new-generation, pan-European academic and research network was upgraded. In the immediate future the pan-Hellenic network will also come into operation outside Attica, with speeds of 1.2 Gbps when the upgrading of GRNET to the next generation GRNET2 network will be completed.

GRNET2 will enable a single broadband access for end-users in the country's higher education institutions and research centres through their institution's local networks (speed 10-100 Mbps) with broadband access (1-2,5 Gbps) through the national backbone (2.5 - 5 Gbps) as well as to the GTRN (Global Terabit Research Networking) next generation international research network (1.2 Gbps) through the pan-European GEANT network.

GRNET2, the upgrading of GRNET (Greek Research and Technology Network) to an optical network with next generation Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) technology, will be achieved at the same time as the upgrading of the pan-European GEANT research network and the respective networks in Germany, France, Italy, etc.

The next generation GRNET network became a reality with the development of the Athens Metropolitan WDM network which includes the connection of 3 central nodes with a speed of 2.5 Gbps. Ten of the fourteen organizations of Greek Research and Technology Network (GRNET) organisations in Attica are already connected with these nodes while the remainder will be connected shortly.

Specifically, the following have been connected: the National Technical University of Athens, the University of Athens, the Athens University of Economics and Business, the University of the Aegean, the University of Piraeus, the Technological Educational Institute of Athens, the Panteion University, the Technological Educational Insitute of Piraeus, the Agricultural University of Athens and the National Documentation Centre at the National Hellenic Research Foundation.

The project will then be extended outside Attica so as to cover the 68 GRNET institutions in Greece, through the creation of a national high-speed WDM wide-area network. GRNET2 aspires to be the high speed "Greek information super highway" for research and education.

It should be noted that the implementation of GRNET2 is being jointly financed by the Operational Programme "Information Society" (3rd Axis - "Development and Employment in the Digital Economy", Measure 3.3. "Research and Technological Development for the Information Society") and community competitiveness programmes within the framework of the common European policy for eEurope2000 and eEurope2005 on research and educational networks

Source: Greek Research and Technology Network