– Improved connectivity for research and education north of the Arctic Circle
A new 10-gigabit cross-border connection from Finnish Sodankylä northwards to the Norwegian Finnmark will be taken into service later this year. The new connection provides research facilities and universities in the northernmost parts of Norway and Finland with much needed improvements in connectivity.
Project Tundra is a cooperation initiative between the research & education networks in Sweden (Sunet), Finland (Funet) and Norway (Uninett), together with Nordic e-infrastructure provider NORDUnet.
It creates a network ring enabling data transfer both through Norway/Sweden and through Finland, and thereby creating redundancy throughout the entire research and education e-infrastructure north of the Arctic Circle.
– Fibre routes are few and scarce in the northern parts of Scandinavia, says Vidar Faltinsen, Chief Technical Officer at UNINETT.
– Up until now, north of the Arctic Circle broadband connections have been vulnerable, due to lack of backup solutions. Now we can offer improved network resilience for all Uninett customers in Finnmark region. Also, the Tundra project improves resilience for Unitett’s main POP in Northern Norway, Tromsø.
Teemu Kiviniemi, development manager at Funet, the Finnish national research and education network, elaborates:
– With Nordic collaboration we have been able to achieve a very cost effective solution to the connectivity challenges north of the Arctic Circle. Northern Finland is very important to us, as it has several important research facilities and universities. Reliable high performance connectivity is crucial for today’s research and education. There are also plans for new research facilities in the area, requiring state-of-the-art e-infrastructure.
The initial installation of the new network ring is based on a 10-gigabit network infrastructure that is a combination of Funet, Uninett and Sunet 10-gigabit wavelengths and capacity from third parties. To provide redundant connectivity along the ring, NORDUnet deploys and operates 3 routers that allow for connecting the various sites and national networks.
