Why ORIENTplus?

ORIENTplus connects the scientific and research communities of Europe and China. It links the Chinese National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) CERNET (China Education and Research Network) and CSTNET (China Science and Technology Network) with the 50 million users of the pan-European GÉANT network via high-capacity internet connectivity between Beijing and London.

Benefits for researchers

  • Continuous: direct R&E connectivity between Europe and China since 2007 via predecessor ORIENT and ORIENTplus project.
  • Fast: link capacity quadrupled to 10GB since 2013 to meet traffic growth – the highest capacity available for direct EU-China R&E collaborations.
  • Hybrid: provides high-capacity IP and point-to-point internet services.
  • Resilient: round the world back-up path established to ensure IP service availability and avoid downtime.
  • Coordinated: joint operational management by GÉANT and CNGI-6iX network operating centres in Cambridge and Beijing.
  • Accessible: open to all European researchers via the GÉANT network and to the Chinese research community via the CERNET and CSTNET networks.

Benefits for the regions

  • Fosters European and Chinese participation in Big Science projects and other bandwidth-intensive research programmes to tackle global challenges, such as food security and climate change.
  • Facilitates collaboration between higher-education institutions and transnational education (with China being among the top host countries), thus tackling the current student mobility imbalance between China and Europe.
  • Fuels critical technological innovations and accelerates research outcomes from academia to industry by allowing knowledge to be shared between European and Chinese academic institutions and research centres.
  • Helps retain highly qualified personnel and researchers able to collaborate without the need to relocate.
  • Provides cost-effective connectivity and economies of scale for European and Chinese academic institutions and research centres with an intra-regional link rather than multiple links for individual projects and collaborations.