The GÉANT Plus service is offered on the GÉANT network to all GÉANT National Research and Education Networks (NRENs). The service allows NRENs to request point-to-point Ethernet circuits between end points at GÉANT European points-of-presence (PoPs), and to North America and other destinations, on request. The NRENs then provide onward connectivity within their regional network to the required destinations.
Many performance-critical services require network performance levels that cannot be easily met by shared IP services. For example, data-centre backup and replication, real-time mission-critical services and broadcast-quality video need the guaranteed bandwidth and low latency that dedicated circuits offer. It is also very useful for projects with participants in multiple locations, who wish to co-operate as if they were working on the same local network.
Multi-national circuits are typically expensive, have long lead times for delivery and tie the user into lengthy service contracts. The GÉANT Plus service enables user access to point-to-point circuits of between 100Mbps and 10Gbps across an existing, pre-provisioned network that is quick to configure.
Although built on common infrastructure, GÉANT Plus looks like a dedicated service to users. This combines the privacy and availability advantages of a private circuit with the efficiency gains of a shared network.