CERNET launches 100 Gigabit Ethernet network based on Juniper

Juniper Networks has announced that its next-generation core routers have been deployed by the China Education and Research Network (CERNET) to establish the country's first 100 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) backbone network.

With Juniper Networks T4000 Core Routers in place at its regional network centers, CERNET is well-equipped to deliver on the ultra-fast broadband objectives of the Chinese Government's 21st century education Project 211, designed to raise the research standards of leading universities in China.

Funded by the Chinese government, CERNET is one of four top-tier national networks that form the foundation of the Internet in China and is dedicated to supporting the country's higher education institutions. Under the third phase of Project 211, which kicked off at the end of 2011, CERNET chose Juniper Networks to help it deliver ultra-fast broadband network access services to 2000 leading universities in China.

Applications that run over CERNET's network include Internet access, education resource sharing, VOIP, video training, remote-education systems and a plethora of national R&D applications.

CERNET's deployment of Juniper Networks T4000 Core Routers will provide 2,000 universities located in more than 200 cities in China and 20 million students with fast, secure and seamless access to a variety of research applications, fostering greater collaboration across a diverse
set of research disciplines.

With Juniper Networks T4000 routers, CERNET's backbone network now delivers a total bandwidth of international and domestic interconnection exceeding 60 Gbps. In October 2012, China's first 100 GbE long term network link connecting CERNET's network centers in Beijing to Wuhan went live. By the end of the year, CERNET had more than ten 100 GbE links deployed. With 3.84 Tbps of line rate throughput in a half rack chassis, the T4000 offers double the slot capacity of the nearest half rack height core router competitor, supporting up to 16 ports of 100 GbE or 208 ports of 10 GbE.

"CERNET is committed to the digitization of Chinese education and has become the world's largest education and research network. Juniper Networks is now our sole provider of core network routers and will help us further enhance the network bandwidth in the third phase of Project 211, building a new generation of national academic computer networks with leading performance," operation director, CERNET.