Source : Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing

SuperJanet
     
        An initiative started in 1989, under the Computer Board, with
        the aim of developing of a national {broadband} network to
        support UK higher education and research.  The preparatory
        work culminated in 1992 with the award of a contract worth 18M
        pounds to British Telecom to provide networking services over
        a four year period that extends to March 1997.
     
        The BT contract will provide a national network with two
        components: a high speed, configurable bandwidth network
        serving up to 16 sites, initially using {PDH} to be replaced
        with {SDH}, and a high speed switched data service ({SMDS})
        serving 50 or more sites.  The primary role of the PDH/SDH
        component will be to support the development and deployment of
        an {ATM} network.  These components will be complemented by
        several high performance {Metropolitan Area Network}s each
        serving several closely located sites.  The aim is to provide,
        within the first year of the project, a pervasive network
        capable of supporting a large and diverse user community.
     
        The network has two parts, an {IP} data network and an ATM
        network, both operating at 34Mbit/s.  Early in August 1993 the
        pilot IP network was transferred to full service and was
        configured to provide a trunk network for JIPS, the {JANET IP
        Service}.
     
        In November 1993 work was well advanced on the next phase
        which aims to extend SuperJANET to a large number of sites.
        The pilot four site ATM network will be extended to serve
        twelve sites and will expand the scope of the video network.
        The principal vehicle used for the expansion of the data
        network will be the {SMDS} service provided by {BT}.  Most of
        the work associated with the development of this phase is
        expected to be completed by the end of March 1994.
     
        [Joint Network Team, Network News 40, ISSN 0954 - 0636].
     
       
     {(ftp://osiris.jnt.ac.uk/pub/newsfiles/documents/netwnews/news40+/news40.para)}.
     
        [Current status?]
     
        (1994-12-15)