TERENA COMPENDIUM - Géant

TERENA Compendium of National Research and Education Networks In Europe /Network3A.7 Dark FibreSome NRENs own dark fibre or have IRUs 2 or lease dark fibre and can decidethemselves what technology and what capacity to use on their fibre. NRENs wereasked if they currently have IRUs or own dark fibre, or if they plan to get it duringthe coming two years. NRENs were also asked approximately what percentage oftheir backbone is dark fibre, in km, in point-to-point distances.The maps below 3 illustrate the rapid developments in this area in recentyears. Many (although not all) NRENs predict a further increase in thepercentage of their network that is dark fibre by 2010.Legend: dark blue is 100% dark fibre; yellow is either no dark fibre or noinformation from that country for that year. Note that for 2008, 2007 data hasbeen used for some countries that did not answer this year.Map 3A.7.1 Dark Fibre on NREN backbones, 2005Map 3A.7.2 Dark Fibre on NREN backbones, 2008442IRU stands for ‘Indefeasible Right of Use’. This is the effective long-term lease (temporary ownership)of a portion of the capacity of a cable. See, for example, http://whatis.techtarget.com for moreinformation. The distinction between an IRU and a lease is becoming less clear; therefore, these twocategories have been combined.3Idea developed by RedIRIS, Spain.