History of the Czech NREN

Start of academic networking in Czech Republic dates back to year 1991. Thanks to academic initiative of IBM connection to the EARN Network (European part of BITNET) was established. First connection to the Internet was set to operation in January 1992.

There was a strong demand for Internet conectivity in the academic community. As a result of this situation a project of academic network named CESNET (Czech Education and Scientific NETwork) was prepared. Ministry of Education provided the necessary funds and in the beginning of 1993 the network started operation. The network was operated by Computer center of Czech Technical University.

In 1996, the organizational background was changed. CESNET association was established by all Czech universities together with the Czech Academy of Sciences. This association now operates the network and is responsible for its future develoment.

In the middle of 90's project TEN-34 was born. Its goal was to create high-speed European backbone infrastructure connecting European countries. This backbone operated at speed 34 Mbps comparable to connection capacities in USA. The TEN-34 network had limited acceptable usage policy and was available only for educational and research organizations.

Czech Republic was one of TEN-34 participants. There was a project TEN-34 CZ focused on creation of Czech national research network with parameters and usage policy compatible with European TEN-34 network. Orgainzation responsible for this task was CESNET association. After birth of the Czech National Research Network TEN-34 CZ, the original CESNET network was transformed to an open (commercial) network.

The initial topology of TEN-34 CZ connected major academic institutions in the Czech Republic. Whole infractructure operated on speed 34 Mbps and was fully operational since March 1997. During following months and years, the network evolved. Another cities were reached and bandwidth enhanced. First 155 Mbps line was deployed on June 1998 between Praha and Brno.

TEN-34 CZ network was in operation since 1996 till 1998. Then another project Quantum was prepared on the European level. Its goal is to create TEN-155 network with higher connection speed (155 Mbps instead of 34 Mbps) and with pure ATM infrastructure.

European TEN-155 network started at the end of 1998. Later on (beginning of 1999) was the Czech TEN-34 CZ network renamed to TEN-155 CZ and connected to European backbone. One year later - in January 200-  we deployed a 2.5 Gbps line between Praha and Brno (see the press release). The TEN-155 CZ network was the first one in the Czech Republic utilizing a gigabit technology.

In the summer of 2000 we started to plan deploying a full gigabit backbone as a preparation for the forthcoming European projet GEANT Network. We leaved the ATM technology and switched to POS. After long arrangements the new backbone was put into operation in the first half of 2001. 2.5 Gbps lines reached all the major nodes of the Czech NREN.

In the same time we decided to return back to the original name of our network. We added number 2 to indicate the new generation of the technology. The name CESNET2 replaced the former TEN-155 CZ in the middle of 2001.

In 2002 we decided to change the backbone topology to improve the reliability. We deployed a system of inteconnected rings containing up to four core routers. It provides back-up lines for all the core nodes preserving short paths through the network. Conversion to this topology has been finished in 2003.

Year 2004 was quite important for Czech NREN development for two reasons: First, we deployed our first DWDM line (connecting two most important nodes – Praha and Brno) providing multiple 10 Gbps channels. And second, we completed the transition of the gigabit network core to the CEF approach. It means that leased dark fibres are used for all core lines, CESNET providing the equipment and operation.