JANET Aurora
JANET Aurora is a dark-fibre network to support research on photonics and optical systems. It will interconnect research groups at the universities of Cambridge, Essex and UCL, with access to intermediate locations along each fibre path where additional equipment can be sited. This is a national facility funded for two years operation by HEFCE via JISC, and if projects require it, the JANET Lightpath service can provide circuits for use as an access mechanism to other locations on JANET, and also internationally.
JANET Aurora will enable research groups to pursue their research with minimal constraints, and in a way that would be impossible on a production network carrying real traffic. This network will allow researchers to trial prototype equipment and test advanced network architectures and technologies under real operational conditions.
JANET Aurora is already creating opportunities for UK based and international research collaborations. The network is scheduled to support several nationally and EU funded research projects that lead the academic effort.
Project Status
JANET(UK) signed a contract with ntl:Telewest Business to provide the dark fibre network in June 2007. Deployment proceeded and JANET(UK) accepted the infrastructure on 3rd December 2007 after comprehensive fibre characterisation tests showed that they met the requirements specified by the photonics community.
JANET(UK) has subsequently installed equipment racks, power management systems and telecommunictions access to enable the resaerchers to install and manage their equipment at these locations.
Research Projects hosted on JANET Aurora
For further information please contact David Salmon.