Out and About (#1)

As I'm sat on the 16:40 from Bristol Parkway to Leeds, it strikes me that I have 3 and a half hours spare so could make a start on my next blog update. This week I've been let out of the office so there's lots to talk about...

Yesterday (Monday) I went to the University of Leicester to meet with representatives from EMMAN. The Janet6 project sees the creation of a new RNEP at Leicester and we went along to check progress of the Computer Centre comms room refit. This is the room that will ultimately house the Janet6 node, its coming along well and is on track for completion in March next year ready for installation of Janet6 fibre and equipment. The top 2 photos show the outside of the building and the interior of the comms room. 

Today (Tuesday) a collection of people from the wider project team piled into a minibus and headed across the Severn Bridge into Wales, Caldicot to be precise. This is where Ciena is staging the Janet6 equipment. This process involves receiving delivery of the equipment from the USA (via The Netherlands), installing it into racks, cabling it up, testing it, and configuring it, all prior to it being shipped to site. It's a complicated process but vital to the smooth rollout of the network. The second row of photos shows the outside of the staging centre (Indigo is the organisation Ciena is partnering with during the rollout of the network), and some of our kit in racks part way through the staging process. These particular racks are destined for Bracewell and Leeds.

There's more exciting goings on tomorrow and Thursday so this week may well see an unprecedented second blog update. Watch this space!