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Technical Overview
Core network
The Kentish MAN is based on BT Openreach 10Gpbs circuits for the main core links connecting three PoPs at Chatham, Maidstone and Canterbury. Subsidiary core circuits at 1Gbps connect from the main core to secondary PoPs at Avery Hill, Tunbridge Wells and Broadstairs.
Core PoPs and RNEPs
The main core points of presence (CPoPs) have Cisco 6509 switch/routers with both copper and fibre multiport gigabit modules, and redundant Supervisor Engine 720 which provides 720 Gbps of switch fabric capability. Two of the CPoPs are also the SuperJANET5 Regional Network Entry Points (RNEPs), where the Kentish MAN routers are connected via fibre to the Ciena optical modules which connect back to SuperJANET5 at London and Reading. The bandwidth for these links is 10Gbps. At all times these links will be able to individually handle the entire traffic load of Kentish MAN, thus always providing a true resilient connection to the substantial SuperJANET5 backbone.
Minor PoPs
The smaller PoPs at Salomon's (Tunbridge Wells) and Broadstairs use Juniper M10i routers. The PoP at Avery Hill has a Cisco 6509 switch/router. Connecting sites co-located with PoPs connect directly via fibre or copper patch cords into Kent MAN routers, remote connected sites are predominantly connected by BT circuits with bandwidths from 10Mbps to 1Gbps.
Protocols
The network, being part of SuperJANET5, delivers leading edge functionality. The base routing is IPv4. IPv4 multicast is also available throughout. The connection to SuperJANET5 is BGP based and BGP is used between Kentish MAN and dual connected customers such as KPSN. The interior routing uses IS-IS which allows IPv6 to be run natively on all Kentish MAN routers (native IPv6 is available on SuperJANET5). The staff (based in Canterbury Christ Church University) who operate the Kentish MAN participate in UK Higher Education development activities and keep the Kentish MAN at the forefront of available network facilities.