Forskningsnettet - The Danish Research Network

Forskningsnettet is the Danish national research and education network connecting about 100 institutions to each other and to the internet.

Forskningsnettet

The DeiC service Forskningsnettet is the high speed network connecting Danish universities and research institutions since 1987. Today about 100 institutions are connected to the network. In 2008 Forskningsnettet was upgraded to run on its own optical fibres. This means higher speed and more stability for the users. 

Forskningsnettet has its own fiber infrastructure with 1 Gbps and 10 Gbps Ethernet connections. With these connections Forskningsnettet supplies researchers, students and lectures with optimum connections for transmissions of large data amounts as well as global cooperation. 

DeIC's Network Operations Center (NOC) is situated at the campus of the Technical University of Denmark in Lyngby. This is also where the central node for the traffic is situated. A similar node is situated in Ørestad. This ensures continuous availability if the Forskningsnettet connection in Lyngby should fail. 

From both Lyngby and Ørestad there are 10 Gbps connections to the universities in Odense, Aarhus and Aalborg. Other institutions scattered around Denmark are connected through the universities or via their own 1 Gbps connections. The numerous institutions in the Copenhagen area are connected to both Ørestad and Lyngby through a web of network connections. 

The international connections from Denmark are routed via NORDUnet and GÉANT from both Lyngby and Ørestad.

Video about research networks from GÉANT


Click the pictures below to see the infrastructure of Forskningsnettet

(Picture text in Danish)

The national backbone

Det nationale backboneThe main vein within Forskningsnettet is the connection between the large institutions, the core routers Ly0 and Or0, which also connect the Danish research network with the rest of the world. The institutions connected to the core routers have to have a clean routed connection - there are no VLAN's – and they have to communicate via BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) with Forskningsnettet. In this way a safe and simple layout and thereby runtime is secured. 

Most connections to the core routers are supplied by the optical ring (the lambda network) in Forskningsnettet, giving extra protection against disconnections.

North Zealand - fiber link

Nordsjælland - fiberlinkIn the capital area lightpaths transmitting gigabit Ethernet or 10 gigabit Ethernet are mostly used. Due to the short distances it is possible to use both CWDM (coarse wavelength division multiplexing) and DWDM (dense wavelength division multiplexing), which brings down the costs. The illustration shows the extension of CWDM and DWDM.

North Zealand - routed connections

On top of the fiber infrastructure in the capital area is a routed infrastructure, providing the smaller institutions with access to redundant connections to Forskningsnettet and thereby to the internet. These connections are typically based on 1Gbit/s and offer IPv4 and IPv6 to the institutions.

Aarhus network

Ar1 and Ar2 are connected to the national backbone ring. They connect the University of Aarhus and the institutions behind it to the rest of Forskningsnettet. Some institutions, not integrated in the university network, are connected to the net through connections to one or several of the secondary routers in Aarhus. 

At the moment the Aarhus network is in a transition phase to a new configuration where each institution will connect direct to the optical network. In the transition phase Ar1 and Ar2 have been phased out, and instead University of Aarhus, Ar3 and Ar5 are connected directly to Or0 and Ly0.

Revised 29/02/16

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