Nokia and Nomios Group to Triple Capacity for GÉANT

Nokia, Nomios Group, and GÉANT announced that GÉANT, the collaboration of European National Research and Education Networks (NRENs), will deploy a state-of-the-art IP/MPLS solution from Nokia as part of a 10-year frame agreement led by Nomios. As part of its GN5 IP/MPLS routing and switching replacement project, GÉANT will be the first NREN in the world to deploy 800 Gigabit Ethernet (GE) routing interfaces, tripling capacity and supercharging its 50,000 km network by establishing a resilient and secure foundation for extreme collaboration and knowledge sharing amongst an international alliance of researchers.

GÉANT interconnects 40 NRENs in 40 European countries and links 50 million users and institutions to more than 100 additional NRENs in every region of the world. The high-performance IP backbone network will be the foundation for a global coalition of researchers focused on breakthrough research across disciplines such as high-energy physics, biomedicine, radio astronomy, and climate-impacting weather conditions. Over the past five years, the GÉANT network has experienced 30 percent traffic growth each year and is now carrying more than 7 Petabytes of data daily. This is due, in large part, to the proliferation of instruments such as telescopes, sensors, and detectors, which gather more data with greater precision, sensitivity, and speed. Supercomputers process vast volumes of data, analyzing and validating findings. Given the high level of collaboration between allied institutions, that data must be transferred rapidly, reliably, securely, and cost-effectively.

The GÉANT GN5 IP/MPLS Routing and Switching Infrastructure Replacement project represents a strategic go-to-market partnership between Nomios and Nokia, bringing together Nomios' extensive experience in designing and implementing robust networking solutions, combined with Nokia's expertise in delivering cutting-edge IP network technology for the world’s most critical networks. Under the terms of the agreement, Nomios and Nokia will undertake the complete replacement and upgrade of GÉANT's existing IP/MPLS routing and switching infrastructure, ensuring enhanced scalability, security, and reliability for GÉANT's extensive network operations. Additionally, Nomios and Nokia will provide comprehensive support and maintenance services to ensure uninterrupted connectivity and smooth operations for GÉANT and its vast user base.

The Nokia 7750 Service Router IP/MPLS platform, which leverages in-house developed leading-edge FP5 network processing silicon, is designed to scale in support of the most demanding workloads. The FP5 chipset supports 800G transmission, which triples capacity within the existing footprint and gives GÉANT access to more bandwidth than any other routing technology available today. A layer of network protection is integrated directly into the chipset, ensuring the integrity of research data as security threats – such as DDoS attacks and data breaches – grow in size and severity. Innovations in power consumption deliver a 75 percent reduction in energy use over previous routing chipsets – giving GÉANT the runway to handle ever greater volumes of data while adhering to its sustainability goals.