To begin at the beginning (or maybe the middle).

Today we announced Janet6, the network we're building to replace SuperJANET5 which has been in operation since 2006 and for which the contract finishes at the end of October 2013.

Janet6 is going to mark a significant change from the previous iterations of Janet as the transmission will be wholly managed inside the Janet Network Operations Centre, which will give us much greater visibility and control of the network, and flexibility for provisioning new services.  With SuperJANET 4 and 5, Verizon Business provided a dedicated, managed, DWDM layer on our behalf.  Before that with SuperJANET3, Cable and Wireless managed a dedicated ATM transmission layer, and SuperJANET2 was based on an SMDS network provided by BT.

For Janet6 we will be building a network based on Ciena 6500s and running over fibre provided to us by SSET for at least 10 years.  Whilst today is the official announcement of the network, this ties in with signing the contracts with Ciena and SSET, but a lot of challenging work has gone into getting us where we are now and there is still lots more to do.

We started on the requirements gathering process for Janet6 over two years ago, but the procurement process itself started in earnest in the second half of 2011 with "Pre-Qualification Questionnaires" to kick off two Competitive Dialogues, one for fibre and one for transmission equipment.  The first third of 2012 was occupied with rounds of dialogue with the potential suppliers during which the design of the network was evolved and eventually the option for a managed service was dropped.  The second third of 2012 has been taken up by the evaluating the responses to the final CFT, and concluding the designs with the preferred bidders.

Now we know what we're getting, but we still have to build it.  The first spans of fibre for the core will be handed over this month, but it will be early in 2013 that the network starts to take shape with the transmission equipment being installed to light it.  The aim is to have the entire network ready for service by next Easter, and then to migrate between Easter and the start of the Clearing process when the A level results are announced next summer.  We'll then have from the end of Clearing until the end of October for contingency before the old network is dismantled and handed back.

I'll try and write updates here regularly on the technical aspects of the Janet6 design and rollout, but in the meantime here are a few figures.