​GÉANT Testbeds

The objectives of the GÉANT project are to provide a next-generation pan-European network and related services that meets the communications needs of research communities in all fields. Such needs include both a transport facility for production data and also a network environment where experiments can be conducted.

Within this phase of work, the project is introducing a new production Service Activity to support the network research community. The new “Testbeds as a Service” activity will provide two types of testbed capabilities. The first is a Dynamic Packet Network Testbed Service intended to address upper layer network research, and the second is a Dark Fibre Testbed intended to provide photonic layer long haul facilities for testing novel optical/photonic technologies in the field.

Dynamic Packet Testbeds

The GÉANT Packet testbeds is a service designed to dynamically construct network consisting of a variety of network resources – routing/switching resources, server resources, circuit and/or connection resources, storage resources, and specialized experimental hardware or software resources. This packet testbed facility is intended to be highly dynamic and virtualized, and will support emerging concepts and technologies such as Software Defined Networks and OpenFLow. The testbed networks constructed by the SA2 Packet service will be insulated from one another to prevent unanticipated behaviour from causing problems with other testbeds or other production services. The packet testbeds will be useful for rapid prototyping and will offer a realistic geographic footprint across Europe and will have access to external facilities and/or real traffic where appropriate.

Dark Fibre Testbed

The GÉANT dark fibre testbed is made up of dark fibre (DF) that has become available due to the recent GÉANT network migration. Five DF routes are available from October 2013 and can be used until contracts expire at the end of Q2 2015. The DF routes are:

  • London–Paris
  • Frankfurt–Geneva
  • Amsterdam–Frankfurt
  • Amsterdam–Brussels
  • Milan–Finkenstein–Vienna

These routes encompass approximately 2500Km of high capacity dark fibre infrastructure available for a variety of research and development activities.   These facilities are “dim” fibre systems – i.e. they include inline optical amplifiers and the support shelves at the terminal points from the Alcatel DWDM transport system from GEANT3. These route segments can be modified to remove or bypass the inline systems or may operate in conjunction with the existing systems.

Since the Dark Fibre Testbed Services are based upon physical infrastructure and require specialized engineering, researchers will be working closely with SA2 Engineering staff and DANTE to design and deploy the testbed experiments.

Visit   services.geant.net/gts   for more information.