The Italian academic network GARR: evolution in the Gigabit era

The two major tasks of a network dedicated to a Research and Academic community are to deliver an efficient, fast, reliable connectivity. Between its own and the other similar networks, but also to provide the top technologies contributing in development, experimentation and deployment of new services and protocols. GARR, the Italian Academic and Research Networks is thus preparing its own next generation service while providing a reliable production service to its users. In this paper we will present the network current status, but the main focus is however on the network evolution: GARR-B Phase 3, with a large increase of access bandwidth, new application like Computational GRID, a large dedicated mesh of VPNs for users' groups, more connectivity in south and Mediterranean regions and the GARR-Gigabit (GARR-G) network pilot project, where SDH and WDM technologies will be experimented, and where also multi-carrier and multi-operators will be a reality. We will also present how GARR-G expands GEANT service to Italy and possibly beyond Italy, towards the Mediterranean area.