GÉANT has successfully completed the deployment of its ultra-high-capacity IP backbone network, further strengthening its 30,000 km pan-European infrastructure and establishing a highly resilient and secure foundation for data-intensive scientific collaboration for many years to come.
The migration forms part of GÉANT’s IP/MPLS Routing and Switching Infrastructure Replacement project, awarded via public tender to Nokia and Nomios in 2023 to modernise GÉANT’s IP layer in response to sustained traffic growth driven by global, data-intensive scientific collaboration. The project upgraded the IP/MPLS backbone to Nokia’s high-performance IP networking technology, which supports 800G connectivity across the GÉANT network, including to the edges of Europe. This upgrade enables significantly higher capacity, improved resilience and enhanced security for the European Research and Education (R&E) community.
“Completing the IP migration is a significant milestone for the GÉANT network. Moving to this leading-edge platform across our Europe-wide network infrastructure ensures that the IP network remains at the technical forefront, and that we are ready to efficiently support current and future demands. I’m particularly pleased that we managed the transition based on automation, strengthening both network and operational capabilities. This success is a reflection of close collaboration between the Network and the Software teams and provides a strong foundation for continued development and future upgrades.” – Bram Peeters, GÉANT Chief Network Officer
Lars Fischer, Chief Relations Officer at NORDUnet and a member of the GÉANT Association Board of Directors, said: “On behalf of NORDUnet and the GÉANT Association Board of Directors, I would like to congratulate all teams involved in this important milestone with all the professionalism, reliability and care we have come to expect of the GÉANT network teams. Impressively, replacing the existing IP backbone has been done without most of us who use the network daily – and the researchers and students who rely on us – even noticing. Everyone who works in ICT operations know what an impressive feat this is. Completing this IP migration strengthens the shared foundation that enables the European Research and Education community to collaborate securely, reliably, and at scale.”
Achieving complete IP migration without service disruption
Delivered in multiple phases between June 2024 and January 2026, the rollout progressed from core backbone integration through to edge service migration. During this period, the team successfully migrated 1,240 services across 32 sites while keeping the live network fully operational.
Automation played a central role in the success of the migration. Deployment was carried out using the GÉANT Automation Platform (GAP), built on the open-source Workflow Orchestrator (WFO). GAP provided a framework for modelling network intent, tracking state and orchestrating changes, enabling the migration to the new platform to be delivered in a controlled, repeatable and fully automated manner.
Throughout the process, maintaining service continuity was essential. GÉANT interconnects more than 40 NRENs across Europe and together they serve around 50 million users and 10,000 institutions across the continent. The paradigm shift in automation combined with the phased rollout approach ensured that upgrades could be introduced without service disruption for NRENs and their connected users, while preserving the ultra-high performance required by Europe’s R&E communities.
“The migration was closely coordinated with our NOC team, with the GÉANT and Arnes teams working in full alignment to ensure uninterrupted services for our research and education users. The GÉANT team was highly responsive and provided excellent technical support throughout the process. The migration was also used to upgrade our uplinks to the GÉANT network, with 400 Gb/s temporary ports enabling continued transport of CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC)–related traffic while maintaining our existing firewall infrastructure.” – Mihael Dimec, GÉANT Access Port Manager, Arnes
Unprecedented capacity to support the future of European science
Beyond the operational transformation, the upgraded infrastructure also delivers tangible benefits in support of European Research and Education. The state-of-the-art IP/MPLS platform from Nokia introduces substantially higher capacity through support for 800G interfaces, alongside stronger security capabilities and improved resilience, while greater efficiency reduces overall energy consumption.
“Advanced connectivity is essential to support the critical infrastructure that GÉANT relies on. Leaders like GÉANT trust Nokia’s connectivity expertise to deliver the performance and security they need to win. This successful IP network migration demonstrates our combined commitment to innovation and solving complex connectivity challenges.” – Matthieu Bourguignon, Senior Vice-President for Network Infrastructure Europe at Nokia
Marcel Puts, Segment Lead Public & Education at Nomios, commented: “With the successful migration of the IP backbone network, we — together with GÉANT and Nokia — are setting a new benchmark for research connectivity across Europe. We have worked closely with the GÉANT and Nokia teams to ensure a seamless migration without any service interruptions. This network is built for tomorrow’s data growth: faster, more scalable, and above all, reliable and secure — enabling researchers to focus on innovation without limitations in their digital infrastructure. At Nomios, we are proud to contribute to GÉANT and to the European research and education community that relies on this critical backbone every day.”
The completion of GÉANT’s IP Migration represents a major milestone in futureproofing its pan-European research and education backbone network. As scientific communities exchange ever larger volumes of data, GÉANT has delivered an IP backbone that scales in capacity, reliability and efficiency, while remaining sustainable to operate and ready to support the needs of global R&E collaboration.
To hear from Nomios about the Nokia equipment chosen for this large-scale project, how Nokia and Nomios supported GÉANT’s migration, and the project’s next steps, register to the upcoming webinar on 24 February, at 14:00 CET: https://events.geant.org/event/2074/
For a detailed look at the design, automation and operational processes behind this achievement, stay tuned for Part 2 of this series, which explores how the migration was planned and delivered in practice.
