Overview of the LeNSE Network

The LeNSE network is a regional IP network providing access to the global internet and UK based JANET services for academic and related organisations across the South of England.  The network consists of an IP router network supported by an underlying transmission infrastructure served from a number of regional Points of Presence (PoPs) which are co-located in Neos Networks facilities.  The IP network is designed as a dual-homed star topology for resilience and consists of two Juniper M120 ‘core’ routers located at our Aldershot and Southampton core PoPs, connected to these M120s via Gigabit Ethernet circuits are Juniper M10i ‘access’ routers  located at our nine HEI member sites.  There are a further five main aggregation PoPs at Aldershot, Bournemouth, Brighton, Portsmouth and Southampton for distributing 10/100Mbps access circuits to FEI/other customer sites.  Additional regional coverage is provided by BT WES Gigabit Ethernet circuits which connect three additional BT co-location facilities at Bere Regis, Hampden Park and Newport.

Resilient connectivity to the national JANET network is provided via 10Gbps SDH circuits from our Aldershot and Southampton C-PoPs to the SuperJANET5 PoPs at Bristol and London.  These C-PoPs are also known as JANET Regional Entry Points (RNEPs).  The IP network is actively monitored on a 24x7 basis by Alcatel-Lucent under contract to LeNSE Limited.

The core transmission infrastructure uses Zhone WDM equipment managed by Neos Networks under contract to LeNSE Limited, and is based on a figure of eight optical fibre infrastructure across the region which is dedicated to LeNSE, and this provides multiple point-to-point Gigabit Ethernet circuits.  Redundancy in the core transmission network is achieved by using east and west facing WDM components running around the fibre paths and presenting Gigabit Ethernet circuits between the LeNSE core and access routers.

The access transmission infrastructure for lower bandwidth circuits to our FEI/Other customers uses non resilient BT WES Ethernet and/or Neos Ethernet point-to-point circuits.  Thus, LeNSE member HEI institutions are provided with resilient connections to the LeNSE core by the Neos optical fibre plant, while non-LeNSE member institutions are connected via non resilient BT or Neos point-to-point circuits.