Issue 29

23 July - 27 August 1996

London MAN

The London MAN (metropolitan area network) is a data network that has been designed to serve higher education institutes located within the M25 area.

The core network, installed in March, has improved data communications for Imperial by providing faster access to the international links with Europe and the USA. Institutes running collaborative ventures within London can also benefit from the network's services.

The London MAN provides transport for familiar Internet services, such as remote login, e-mail, WWW and file transfer. However, the ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) basis of the London MAN enables real time services like quality video conferencing and video serving to run in parallel, providing a full multi service network.

The network, serving over 200,000 users and providing Internet connection for over 50,000 end systems, is probably the biggest educational MAN in Europe. There are six core sites on the ring: Imperial College, University College London, South Bank University, Greenwich University, University of London Computer Centre and Telehouse. Additional sites, known as leaf sites, can connect at 34 Mbps to the nearest core site.

Harry Gluck is the director of networking, Centre for Computing Services.