Forskningsnettet

Forskningsnettet is the high-speed network which connects and has been connecting Danish universities and research institutions since 1987. Today, about 100 institutions are connected. In 2008 Forskningsnettet was upgraded and now has its own optical fibers. This means higher speed and more stability for the end-users of Forskningsnettet.

Forskningsnettet has its own optical fiber infrastructure with 1 Gbps and 10 Gbps Ethernet connections. These connections ensure that Forskningsnettet can provide researchers, students and teachers with optimum connections for transmission of large amounts of data as well as global cooperation.

The Network Operations Centre (NOC) of Forskningsnettet is situated at the local operator, UNI•C, at the Danish Technical University in Lyngby. This is also where the central node for the traffic within Forskningsnettet is located. 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, Århus and Aalborg. Other institutions scattered around Denmark are connected through the universities or through their own 1 Gbps connection. The numerous institutions around Copenhagen are either connected to Ørestad or to Lyngby through a web of network connections.

The international traffic from Denmark is routed via NORDUnet and GÉANT2 from both Lyngby and Ørestad.xx

Click on the pictures below to see the infrastructure of Forskningsnettet (picture texts in Danish).

	The national backbone The main vein within Forskningsnettet is the connection between the two big institutions, the Core-routers Ly0 and Or0, which also connect the Danish Education and Research Network with the rest of the world. The institutions which are connected to the Core-routers have to have a ‘clean’ routed connection – this being VLANs – and they have to communicate to Forskningsnettet with BGP (Border Gateway Protocol). In this way, a safe and simple lay out and thereby runtime are secured. Most of the connections to the Core-routers are supplied by Forskningsnettet’s optical ring (the lambda net), which provides extra protection against disconnections.
	Zealand – FWA At locations with limited needs in terms of bandwidth, FWA radio-connections are used. A few institutions have access to optical fiber and use FWA as a backup.
	Zealand – fiber and radio connection In the capital region, light-paths are broadly used to transmit Gbps Ethernet or 10 Gbps Ethernet. Before this was possible, Forskningsnettet primarily used 34 Mbps radio connections between the different locations. Some of these are still in use,  but today they are upgraded to 100 Mbps.
	Århusnet Ar1 and Ar2 are connected to the national ring and connect the University of Århus and related institutions to the rest of Forskningsnettet. Some institutions, which are not integrated in the network of the University of Århus, are connected to Forskningsnettet through connections to one or several of the secondary routers in Århus.