The China Science & Technology Network Center (CSTNET) opened EU-China 10G network “ORIENTplus Research and Education Internet Link between Europe and China” at its launching ceremony in London on April 12, 2013.
Running between Beijing and London, ORIENTplus offers the shortest and fastest network route between the two regions, enabling innovative China-EU R&E collaborations to flourish. This trans-continental link connects the Chinese national research and education networks CSTNET and China Education and Research Network (CERNET) to the 40 million users of the pan-European GÉANT network.
The link capacity has been upgraded from 2.5 Gbps of its predecessor ORIENT to 10 Gbps in January, 2013 to keep pace with increased user demand. “We very much welcome this upgrade. It is a fine example of the European Union, China and NRENs in both regions being committed to working together to provide world-class e-Infrastructure for world-class research and education”, said Mr. Kostas GLINOS, head of Unit e-Infrastructure, DG Connect at the European Commission. "The growing research and technology development programs as well as academic collaborations between China and Europe mean that there is a clear need for high-capacity connectivity to be further developed. This collaboration is more than just an Internet link. It connects our research communities and universities, bringing the best minds together”, commented Mr. SHEN Yang, minister counselor for Education, embassy of the P.R. China in London. ORIENTplus underpins a wide range of data-intensive and/or time-critical scientific collaborations between China and Europe including participation in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and ITER global energy fusion programs, cosmic ray observation, radio-astronomy and life sciences projects. It also enables real-time, interactive knowledge transfer through innovative e-learning tools, such as stable, jitter-free videoconferencing. The new ORIENTplus connection operates in hybrid mode and can thus carry both IP and point-to-point traffic. In addition to the upgraded link capacity, dynamic point-to-point links will allow the project partners to support user communities with special networking requirements in a more flexible way. Furthermore, vital research collaborations will be safeguarded through a recent mutual around-the-globe backup agreement between ORIENTplus, CERNET, Internet2 and TransPAC3 which guarantees network resilience and IP service availability by automatically re-routing the traffic via the US in the event of outages or cable cuts. For more details, please contact:
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