Nokia will provide Norway’s national research and education network, Uninett, with high capacity optical network solutions for expansion of the fibre infrastructure in northern Norway. The need for this expansion is mainly driven by Eiscat Scientific Association’s extreme capacity needs (8 Tbit/s) for ionosphere and upper atmosphere 3D research in the Northern region.
Uninett provides advanced connectivity infrastructure for Norwegian research and education, including nationwide fiber network access. Uninett is also part of GÉANT, the pan-European network for scientific excellence, research, education and innovation, where Nokia also has a multi-year frame agreement to supply solutions to GÉANT’s member networks.
Uninett is Norway’s NREN, a non-commercial network created for the advancement of knowledge. It powers open innovation, research, education, collaboration and knowledge-sharing amongst universities and research institutions.
Tom Røtting, Managing director for Uninett, said:
“As the digital foundation provider for research and education in Norway, our goal is to create robust collaborative networks that serve the unique needs of our users in the knowledge sector. The distributed Eiscat 3D radar in the Nordics is an excellent example of what challenges we as an NREN will face in the future.
We need to prepare for terabit per-second data transfer solutions. Nokia will provide us with an advanced photonic transport and switching solution that will further education, scientific and industrial research, commerce and overall quality of life – fostering collaboration between institutions in Norway, across Europe and around the world.
Uninett meets the unique needs of the research and education community through cutting-edge performance in terms of bandwidth capacity, scalability, flexibility and data security.
The solution is based on the Nokia 1830 Photonic Service Interconnect (PSI) compact modular photonic platform, optimized for data centre interconnect applications. Utilizing Nokia Photonic Service Engine (PSE) super-coherent processors, the solution is scalable from 100 up to 600 Gbps per channel. Open, standardized management interfaces allow for control of a multi-vendor network. Nokia will manage the services for Uninett.
Nicolas Almendro, Vice-President, Europe Optics Business Development for Nokia’s Optical Networks Division, said:
“Uninett’s community consists of all Norwegian universities and most of the public colleges who are all committed to furthering research and enriching education in Norway and around the world.
The Nokia 1830 PSI is the ideal platform for meeting the stringent needs that a world-class national research and education network demands.
We look forward to working closely with Uninett to design, deploy and manage this service, ensuring it provides the highest performance in terms of capacity, scalability, flexibility and security.”
GÉANT is a fundamental element of Europe’s e-infrastructure, delivering the pan-European GÉANT network for scientific excellence, research, education and innovation. NORDUnet, which includes Uninett, is the Nordic expansion of the GÉANT network. Through interconnections with its 39 national research and education network (NREN) partners, the GÉANT network is the largest and most advanced R&E network in the world, connecting over 50 million users at 10,000 institutions across Europe and supporting all scientific disciplines. The backbone network operates at speeds of up to 600Gbps per optical channel and reaches over 100 national networks worldwide.
