Generations of the European backbone
IXI and EMPB were the first two generations of the backbone network interconnecting the national research networks in Europe, known today as GÉANT. The consecutive generations can be characterised as follows.
IXI (International X.25 Infrastructure Backbone Service) 1990-1992. IXI was funded by a large number of national governments and the European Commission through the EUREKA project COSINE. IXI started as an X.25-based network with access capacities of 64 kbit/s in 14 countries. However, the switches were already equipped with 2 Mbit/s access ports and the first of these was brought into service before the end of 1992. In the first months of 1993, a new IP pilot service supported the carriage of IP packets by X.25. The first native IP port was installed in the second quarter of 1993. By this time, the name IXI had clearly become inappropriate and the network was renamed EMPB.
EMPB (European Multi-Protocol Backbone) 1992-1995. During the 37 months of operation several upgrades were made to the initial configuration. Four Central European countries joined the network. Research networks upgraded their access capacity to 2 Mbit/s, trunk circuits on the busiest routes were upgraded to 8 Mbit/s, and 4 Mbit/s access ports were made available and became operational.
EuropaNet 1995-1997. This was the first network managed by DANTE, using British Telecom's International Backbone Data Network Service (IBDNS) as the carrier. Access ports were available in capacities from 64 kbit/s to 8 Mbit/s for the IP service and 64 or 128 kbit/s for X.25. In July 1996 the EuropaNet IP service was moved from IBDNS to the new Integrated Network Connection Service (INCS) and remained there until March 1998 when the last NRENs moved their traffic to the new TEN-34 backbone.
TEN-34 1997-1998. The backbone network was co-funded by the European Union through a project in the EU's Fourth Framework Programme (February 1996 - December 1998). TEN-34 offered speeds of 34 Mbit/s using both IP and ATM.
TEN-155 1998-2001. TEN-155 was co-funded by the European Union through a project in the EU's Fourth Framework Programme called QUANTUM (October 1998 - May 2000). At the start, the network had access capacities of 155 Mbit/s in eight European countries. Many upgrades followed, and by December 2000 TEN-155 had trunk lines of 34/45, 155, 2×155, 3×155 and 622 Mbit/s.
GÉANT 2001-2005. The GÉANT network was co-funded by the European Union through a project in the Fifth Framework Programme called GN1 (November 2000 - October 2004). GÉANT consisted of a core network at 10 Gbit/s, complemented by 2.5 Gbit/s connections, with smaller outlying countries connected at 34, 155 or 622 Mbit/s.
GÉANT2 2006-2009. The GÉANT2 network was co-funded by the European Union through a project in the Sixth Framework Programme called GN2 (September 2004 - August 2008). GÉANT2 was the first generation set up as a dark fibre network, offering switched point-to-point connections in addition to normal IP traffic.
GÉANT 2009-2013. It was decided to use the name GÉANT for the next-generation backbone, rather than GÉANT3. The new GÉANT network was co-funded by the European Union through a project in the Seventh Framework Programme called GN3 (April 2009 - March 2013).
GÉANT 2013-2015. Funding of the GÉANT network was continued through a successor project in the Seventh Framework Programme called GN3PLUS (April 2013 - March 2015).
