GÉANT Open

Facilitating open collaboration across the globe

The GÉANT Open connectivity service allows national research and education networking (NREN) organisations and approved commercial organisations to exchange connectivity in a highly efficient and flexible manner.​ The service uses shared facilities to which all users can connect their own circuits at either 100Gbps, or 10Gbps, and they can then request interconnections with any other participant in order to provide inter-organisation connectivity.​

Central site o​per​ations for increased flexibility

​GÉANT Open is available in London and Paris​​ - enabling partners across Europe to interconnect seamlessly. This has particular benefits to international partners who need to manage multiple interconnections and wish to harmonise their international circuits. NRENs wishing to arrange private connectivity can also use GÉANT Open to facilitate such requirements.

As a first within the European research and education community, approved commercial organisations will be able to connect to GÉANT Open. This enhancement will help research and education users to access a wide variety of commercial third parties as part of private-public research projects.

GÉANT Open features​

 
Protoc​​​ols​​​
GÉANT Open is protocol neutral at the network layer and allows each participant to connect to the exchange at between 10Gbps and 100Gbps Ethernet.​ 1Gbps available on special request.

​​VL​​AN connectivity
Connections can be logically subdivided into separate VLANs (Virtual Local Area Networks), allowing the participant to simultaneously connect with many other members of the exchange.​

GÉAN​​T network interconnectivity
​Participants can also apply to make connections from GÉANT Open through the GÉANT network – this allows onward connectivity to organisations that are unable to connect directly to GÉANT Open.​

​​Inter​​​national connectivity​​​​
GÉANT Open is able to support both European and worldwide interconnects.​​

Who can connect t​​​o GÉANT Open?

GÉANT Open offers a neutral, policy-free interconnection facility between a wide range of research and education networks, users and commercial operators, and offers onward connectivity to the GÉANT network. The users who are able to connect are:

  • GÉANT and other international research and education network providers;
  • national and regional research and education networks;
  • commercial operators;
  • individual research facilities.

Commercial operators and individual research facilities need to have their connectivity to the Open Exchange 'sponsored' by either the NREN to whom they wish to connect or, in the case of individual research facilities, the NREN who would normally manage their network connectivity.

Once an organisation is connected to GÉANT Open there are few limits on which other organisations can be linked to, as a consequence of the rules governing GÉANT operations in Europe and its funding structure. GÉANT is intended for and configured to support research and education networks and all activities must be in support of this use.

Connection partners

The following partners are currently connecting, or are actively planning connections, to GÉANT Open:

​NORDUnet​London
​Internet2​London
​SURFnetParis
​GÉANT​London and Paris
​ESnet​London
​PSNC​London
​TENET​London
​WACREN​London
​Indiana University (USA)​London
​Hamid bin Khalifa University (Qatar Foundation)​London and Paris
​SingAREN​London
​AARNET​London
​Maeen (KSA)​London
​Ankabut (UAE)​London

 

At a glan​​ce​​​​​

Users

GÉANT Open is designed to support interconnectivity between NRENs, and European and International partner networks.

Commercial organisations can be connected via GÉANT Open to support private-public projects.

Key Facts​​

Interconnections at between 10Gbps and 100Gbps.
​​
VLAN switching supports multiple interconnections on a single physical interface.​

Documentation

GÉANT Open Service Description April 2022

Skip to content