JANET Facts for Kids

Quick facts for kids
Janet

Predecessor	SERCnet
Formation	1 April 1984
Type	National research and education network
Purpose	To manage the operation and development of the UK's national education and research network
Headquarters	Harwell, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
Region served	UK
Director (Jisc Technologies)	Tim Kidd
Formerly called	Janet(UK); JANET

Janet is a super-fast internet network for schools, colleges, and universities across the UK. It's provided by Jisc, a not-for-profit company that helps with computing for education. Janet serves over 18 million users. It carries more data than any other similar network in Europe!

Janet connects all further and higher education places in the UK. This includes universities, colleges, and research groups. Most of these connections happen through 20 large networks spread across the UK. These are called "regions" by Janet. The network also helps schools send information to each other.

Janet connects to other special education networks around the world through GÉANT. It also connects directly with other internet providers at special connection points in the UK. This helps make internet traffic faster. Janet is run by Jisc Services Limited. It also manages important internet names like .ac.uk (for academic sites) and .gov.uk (for government sites).

History of Janet
Janet Regions
See also

History of Janet

How it Started

Janet grew from earlier computer networks built in Britain. These networks started in the late 1960s. Different universities and research groups had their own networks. But these networks often couldn't talk to each other. They were like separate islands.

In the early 1980s, people decided to connect these networks. They wanted a single, standard way for them to communicate. This big effort led to the creation of JANET. It was based on special rules called "Coloured Book protocols." These rules helped the UK get ahead in network technology.

JANET Goes Live

JANET officially started on 1 April 1984. It first connected about 50 places. The internet speed was quite slow back then, around 9.6 kbit/s. This is much slower than what you have at home today! In the mid-1980s, the main network speed was upgraded to 2 Mbit/s. This was a big jump. JANET connected to the early internet in the USA in 1989.

Faster Internet for Education

In 1991, a project called JIPS started. It helped JANET carry regular internet traffic. Within eight months, this internet traffic became more important than the older types of traffic. JANET then became mainly a high-speed internet network.

More upgrades happened in the early 1990s. The main network speed went up to 8 Mbit/s. This made Janet one of the fastest networks of its kind.

SuperJanet Upgrades

To make the network even faster, several big upgrades happened. These were called SuperJanet projects.

SuperJanet (1992-1993): This was the first major upgrade. It used new fibre optic cables. The speed increased to 34 Mbit/s.
SuperJanet2 (1995): This added even faster connections, up to 155 Mbit/s. It also started connecting city-wide networks.
SuperJanet3: This connected major cities like London, Bristol, Manchester, and Leeds with 155 Mbit/s links. Smaller places got 34 Mbit/s links.
SuperJanet4 (2001): This was a huge upgrade. The main network speed became 2.5 Gbit/s. Later, it was upgraded again to 10 Gbit/s. SuperJanet4 also connected more schools.
SuperJanet5 (2006): This project cost £29 million. It brought a 10 Gbit/s main network. It was also designed to go even faster, up to 40 Gbit/s. This version was built to serve both universities and primary/secondary schools.
Recent Upgrades: In 2011, Janet upgraded some central locations to an amazing 100 Gbit/s. This made it as fast as other top research networks worldwide.
Janet6 (2013): The latest version, Janet6, launched in 2013. It has an incredible starting capacity of 2 Tbit/s. This means it can handle a massive amount of data very quickly!

Janet Regions

The Janet network works through 18 different regions. These regions connect universities, colleges, and schools to the main Janet network. Most regions are run by Janet itself. A few are run by independent groups under contract.

Each regional network covers a specific area. Here are some of the regions connected to Janet:

Cumbria and North Lancashire
East of England
East Midlands
Kent Public Services Network
London
North West
North East
North East Scotland
Northern Ireland
PSBA Wales
South
South East Scotland
South West
South West Scotland
Thames Valley
The Highlands and Islands
West Midlands
Yorkshire and Humberside

JANET facts for kids

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