National and Regional RENs

Actually since a long time ago I want to write threads about RENs (Research and Education Networks). Why? Simply because they were the origin of the current Internet and they still have a major role in creating advances in networking technologies. This time I would not start with an indonesian case (if INHERENT or Jardiknas can be categorized as a National REN/NREN), but with european cases.

BWiN, GWiN and SurfNET

GWiN Connectivity and Traffic Statistics

Each country in Europe has one or more NRENs. These are connected at a higher level with regional european RENs. Some of you might already heard about TEN-155 or currently GEANT/GEANT2; these are RENs at european level. At country level, Germany for instance has formerly BWiN (Breitband Wissenschaftnetz), GWiN (Gigabit Wissenschaftnetz) and currenly XWiN (X Wissenschaftnetz :-)). Other examples: France has RENATER, Holland has SurfNET, UK has Janet and UKnet?. During my dissertation several years ago, I used intensively these networks to measure, calculate and simulate performance of my approaches and algorithms.

These RENs are active and very dynamic since they are intended to fascilitate research on advance networking technologies and their applications. We may take a look the case of the RE networking (r)evolution in Germany:

First Generation (1989/1990) --> X.25-WiN

• 64 kbps in core; 2.5 - 64 kbps access
• X.25 technology
• 1990 upgraded to 2 Mbps (core and access)

Second Generation (1995-1999) --> BWiN

• 155 Mbps in core; 4.8 kbps - 155 Mbps access
• ATM technology
  

Third Generation (2000-2005) --> GWiN

• 10 Gbps in core; 128 kbps - 10 Gbps access
• PoS technology
  

Fourth Generation (2006-) --> XWiN

• heterogeneous technologies based on recent advances in optical transmission/networking

At a glance, from my point of view, XWiN takes the NLR (National Lambda Rail) model to some extent.