Appendix 12. DFN in Germany
Submiited by Volker Guelzow(Volker.Guelzow@desy.de)
January 2008
DFN as an organization is an association under German law. Its main task is to provide
networking services for the research and education community in Germany, using the most
modern technologies available. DFN operates the X-WiN network, which provides a couple of
network services for the German research community. Technology wise it is a multi layer, multi
service network. The multi layer structure can also be labeled as hybrid network as X-WiN
provides a link service (optical links) for virtual private network provisioning as well as a
"normal" Internet service at high-access speed. X-WiN is the fifth generation of networks, which
are all called "Wissenschaftsnetz" (WiN).
The basic layer (normally not offered as a service to user organizations) is the dark fiber
infrastructure, procured by public tendering and provided on long term lease basis. Presently
roughly 5 fiber providers are under DFN's contract. The dark fiber footprint is depicted in Figure
38 ; note that the endpoint of the dark fiber links are in almost all cases in research labs (like FZK
or DESY) or universities. Most of the German LHC-T2 centers reside in organizations where a
DFN-PoP exists. This is a huge economic advantage as local loop provisioning is only internal in
the organization. The present dark fiber infrastructure has a length of roughly 7.000 km and it is
still to be extended.
DKR
ROS
AW I
DES
HAM
PSN C / PL
FFO
SLU
BRE
TU B
POT
EN S
ZEU
HAN
Surfnet /N L
HUB
B IE
M UE
ZIB
BRA
MAG
ADH
PAD
GOE
DUI
MAA
DOR
KAS
DRE
LEI
FZJ
W UP
MAR
JEN
B IR
AAC
CH E
G IE
ILM
FR A
BON
G EANT2
BAY
GSI
ES F
KAI
SA A
ER L
H EI
REG
FZ K
STB
R enater /FR
KEH
STU
GAR
BAS
SW IT C H /C H
Figure 38: Dark fiber footprint X-WiN including cross border fiber (cbf) and access to
Geant2 fiber
74
Page1
Page73
Page75
Page177