AARNet upgrades backbone to 100 Gigabit Ethernet

Australia's massive academic research network will be given a massive 30-fold capacity boost to serve a million users.

The network, now up to its fourth-generation, is to be known as AARNet4 and will have its backbone boosted from single 10GbE links to multiple 100GbE links.

AARNet Pty Ltd, which operates the network on behalf of its shareholders – Australia's 38 universities and the CSIRO – said that traffic on the network had been doubling every two years since 2005.

Juniper Networks has picked up the contract to supply the routing and switching gear required to upgrade the network.

A spokeswoman for the company said the contract value was not being disclosed.

The upgrade is required to accommodate exponential traffic growth expected from new cloud services and unified communications to be delivered over the network.

"This is about navigating the future of networking in Australia and globally. It will also allow AARNet to drive more sophisticated value-added services, leveraging the advanced capabilities of the Juniper Networks platform," AARNet chief Chris Hancock said.