National Network
Our network's national service (sometimes referred to as KAREN) provides high capacity, high-speed broadband connectivity between research, education and innovation organisations in New Zealand.
Our national service
Our national service provides flat, unconstrained network capacity optimised for the needs of the research, education and innovation communities.
The core service is made up of 10 Gigabit per second services between our points of presence (PoPs). This is augmented with 1 Gigabit per second services linking Tier 3 points of presence (PoPs) to the core network. All network connectivity services are implemented as Ethernet and incorporate jumbo frames. Core and distribution routers ensure that IPv4, IPv6 and IPv4 multicast services can be used across the network.
Our core national backbone runs from the Northshore in Auckland to Invermay south of Dunedin. Spurs and extensions then take you to Warkworth and Invercargill.
The core network is currently provided by FX Networks Ltd. The connectivity for the Tier 3 PoPs is provided by FX Networks Ltd and Gen-I.
Service capabilities
Our national service offers:
- Connection options of up to 10 Gb/s
- Options to connect to the Core or the Distribution Layer
- 10 Gb/s national backbone capacity
- 23 connection points (PoPs) nationwide
- Jumbo (9000 byte) Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU)
- IPv4 and IPv6
- IPv4 Multicast, which utilises Protocol Independent Multicast Sparse Mode (PIM-SM), Multicast Source Discovery Protocol (MSDP) and Multicast Border Gateway Protocol (MBGP)
- IPv6 Multicast will be offered as an experimental service by early 2012
- Private VLAN option
Not all service capabilities are available at every PoP or to all categories of membership. Visit our membership section for full details on membership benefits.
Service features
The key principles of our network are:
- Unconstrained, high performance connectivity between the research, education and innovation communities in New Zealand and internationally
- Open and accessible Points of Presence (PoPs)
- Peerings, where appropriate, with local and regional networks to extend its reach and to minimise duplication of infrastructure
- Very low latency and jitter
- Simple and open design
- High reliability
- Continual evolvution, for flexibility of functionality, supply, scalability and reach
Services and connection options
You can check out the list of member services and connection options for each member type.
Network topology
Our network runs between 23 Points of Presence (PoPs) across the country. Members need to get to and connect at these PoPs to join the network. Service offerings vary between PoPs. Connectivity to the the network core is available at 15 PoPs, and connectivity to the distribution layer available at 12 PoPs.
Our network map shows the location and service offerings of our PoPs, and our weathermap show live traffic flows across these points on the network.
The ring-shaped core 10 Gb/s national network is resilient, meaning network traffic has an alternative path if one side of the ring breaks. This ensures your data will always get through.
Policies
Access to and use of the network is governed by the following policies.
Network Access and Acceptable Use policies (pdf, 370KB)
Resource Allocation Policy (pdf, 30KB)
Eligibility for our national service
Membership is open to New Zealand education, research and innovation organisations. See our membership categories for full details on eligibility.